Transforming Towns

Designing for Smaller Communities

Matthew Jones

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000245004
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Towns have undergone dramatic and rapid change over the last century. Declining historic cores are surrounded by sprawling low-density housing, industrial and retail estates. The character and sense of place at the heart of rural towns and villages is under threat. By drawing people away from town centres, these developments erode the sense of community and public life.

This book demonstrates how contemporary architecture, community engagement and thoughtful urban design can contribute to the creation of thriving small communities. It addresses a lack of inspiration and ideas for architects and designers working in small communities and promotes a character-based approach to designing and planning 21st century towns.

CHAPTER 1
Understanding Small Settlements

1.1 WHAT DO WE MEAN BY TOWNS AND SMALLER COMMUNITIES?

A fifth of the population of Europe lives in towns of under 50,000 people.¹ In many cases, these towns and small settlements have a high historical and cultural value but their growing desirability as places to live conceals challenges of decreasing distinctiveness and loss of vitality and culture.

The focus of this book is of these towns and smaller communities across the UK. There is no single definition in use but what is usually being referred to is one of the many settlements outside cities acting as a focus for rural life. Population also plays a role; the Centre for Towns identifies small towns, communities and villages as having a population of fewer than 30,000 people.² Their scale and population can leave them in an awkward 'in-between' position; they are places where urban and rural challenges collide but they often fall between policies aimed at the urban or the rural, gaining few of the benefits of either.

While this definition offers a focus, it does not consider the features and characteristics of smaller settlements that make them attractive to visitors and inhabitants and contribute to their sense of distinctiveness. The following section will explore this in more detail by examining the historic growth and contemporary pressures on smaller settlements.

1.2 HISTORY, GROWTH AND EVOLUTION

Prior to the completion of the Domesday Book in 1086 there were less than 50 urban places in England and Wales; by the fourteenth century this number had risen to over 500.³ The majority developed as trading posts whose main reason for existence lay in the trading activities of the local hinterland.⁴ Founded at strategic locations along routeways, fords, crossing points, safe harbours and near natural resources or at defensible positions,⁵ the simple rule of a day's walk to market, a distance of around 10 km, helped establish a network of market towns linked into pan-European trading routes.⁶ The focus for trade and exchange was the market square, the beating heart of town life. Some towns developed specialist markets and trades which grew to dominate their economy. For example, Beccles in Suffolk specialised in fish.. Thaxted in Essex in knives, Ludlow in Shropshire in cloth and gloves, and Bridport in Dorset in robes.⁷ This phase of growth between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries saw the foundation and growth of many of the places that have come to typify historic towns in the public imagination.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought new industries and buildings in the form of assembly rooms, pleasure gardens and covered market halls. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some settlements grew as small-scale manufacturing centres benefitting from connection into the rapidly expanding network of turnpikes, canals and railways. Mill towns, manufacturing towns, mining towns, brewing towns and railway towns proliferated, each with their own architectural language. New building types, such as warehouses, mills, factories, workers' institutes, breweries, stations and libraries, were built in their numbers. While some places prospered, others were bypassed by industrialisation and stagnated. By the late industrial period many smaller settlements were struggling to remain competitive in an increasingly city-centric and global world.

The twentieth century saw further radical alteration to the rural landscape. Changing patterns of agriculture and employment had dramatic consequences for smaller communities. Many livestock markets, previously intrinsic in the life of many towns, moved to the periphery or out of towns altogether. Town centres became dominated by retail and commercial functions rather than multifunctional places in which to reside, trade and socialise. With the boom in car ownership and vast improvements in infrastructure, the tightknit bonds between town and hinterland were disrupted and people could live, work and shop further afield. New roads caused radical change to the form of some towns and encouraged growth of new housing, employment and industry in peripheral locations. Mono-functional estates and retail nodes along distributor and ring roads skirted town cores. The compact nature of historic settlements was largely rejected in favour of low-density, car-centred peripheral development. Many towns have lost their coherence and legibility; the sense of place at the heart of their popularity as places to live, work and play is under threat.

1.3 CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES FACING SMALLER COMMUNITIES

THE CHANGING ROLES OF SMALL SETTLEMENTS

Traditionally, small settlements were the focus of agricultural and manufacturing trading activity of the countryside, existing in a 'symbiotic relationship'⁸ with their surrounding area. Over the past two centuries smaller settlements have faced radical and rapid change and today the picture is complex. The shifting nature of the global economy has dramatically altered the function of rural places and their relationships with city, nation and world. They have a diverse range of roles and functions beyond the traditional service centre role (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 Five functional roles of towns as described by Powe, Hart and Shaw⁹

Service centres	The traditional 'market town' role of a town offering services to the hinterland.
Visitor attractions	Often remote from urban areas or close to areas of natural beauty, national parks or coastlines.
Locations for specialised employment	Settlements dominated by one employer, such as the military or manufacturing, often characterised by young populations.
Commuter towns	Settlements attracting residents seeking a small-town 'lifestyle'. Many have good transport links to allow easy travel to urban centres.
Housing the retired	Attractive market towns are often popular locations for retirement due to their perceived slow way of life, impacting on house prices and demand for services.

The continuing success of small settlements is affected by proximity to larger towns and cities, patterns of travel and public transport, local authority and regional boundaries, local employment, availability of public services and attractiveness to tourism.¹⁰ For some settlements, decades of stagnation have led to out-migration, ageing populations, apathy and a limited capacity to affect change.¹¹ Elsewhere, other settlements are thriving as a perceived higher quality of life attracts an ever increasing number of people to live in rural areas.¹²

While positive for local businesses and services, increased demand for rural housing can inflate house prices and exacerbate shortages of affordable housing. Peripheral housing estates, poorly connected to existing settlements and with increasing reliance on the car,¹³ accommodate incomers but contribute little to distinctiveness and community.

ENHANCING CHARACTER AND DISTINCTIVENESS

Recent development and planning policy has often Tailed to engage with the place-specific conditions that make small settlements unique. For many people, historic buildings and townscapes are a vital component of the character of small settlements and one of the key factors in their distinctiveness. No two places are the same. The character of a town or village has been shaped by centuries of history and the specifics of the regional cultural landscape: its climate, topography, local materials, agriculture and industry. This cumulative legacy affects the look and feel of a place and shapes how people perceive and respond to their surroundings.¹⁴ In order to preserve the character of sensitive historic centres, many are protected through conservation areas, while important buildings are protected through listing. However, the additional challenges of working in these sensitive contexts can deter development. The perceived additional cost and difficulty in adapting listed buildings, limited plot sizes, potential for conflict with local people and an additional layer of regulations can limit redevelopment in historic centres. Empty, derelict or dilapidated buildings can create negative perceptions and perpetuate town centre decline.

Gaining an understanding of how a place has been affected by historic factors is vital in considering its future, generating support from the local community and developing the next layer of their evolution. Under the UK government National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), planning policies should aim to connect people and place, integrating new developments into their natural, historic and built environments.¹⁵

The difficult task of achieving this in smaller communities has undergone limited research. In 2002 a study by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and English Heritage highlighted 15 best practice exemplars of new buildings integrated into historic contexts.¹⁶ The report illustrates a range of responses to context from neo-vernacular to a contemporary architectural language. It demonstrates that new buildings can be successfully integrated into historic contexts and recommends collaboration, careful study of context, use of traditional materials in a contemporary way and high environmental standards as a basis for successful design in historic settings. The report further outlines clear indicators of compromise - stepping down as a new building meets a neighbour, application of historic elements out of context, replicating materials (for example, panellised brickwork) and the reuse of motifs from small-scale vernacular buildings on larger buildings, resulting in a pastiche.¹⁷ More recent guidance for designing new architecture to enhance local distinctiveness and generate support from the local community is currently lacking, and recent best practice examples are few and far between.

THE DECLINE OF TOWN CENTRES AND HIGH STREETS

The high street is a vital part of many people's perception of the places in which they live, work and spend their leisure time. Their physical quality, social activity and offer of goods and services are an important part of people's sense of belonging.¹⁸ However, the role of the market and traditional high street as a focus for trade and commerce is diminishing, the result of a long-term shift from production to consumption. The growth of out-of-town retail outlets and supermarkets, combined with the boom in online shopping, are changing patterns of retail This is having a tangible impact on town centres. One in 12 shops has closed over the past five years.¹⁹ Visits to town centres are down 17% over the past decade, impacted by the 4.65 m² of out of town retail built between 2000 and 2009.²⁰ Banks, post offices, health services and schools have faced drastic cuts and sweeping closures. Many public bodies are consolidating assets to larger settlements, reducing the service provision that brings people to town and village centres. While in cities and large towns the closure of smaller branches may be inconvenient, there will often be other options available. In communities with a much smaller population there are often no other alternatives and residents are left without essential services.

The quality and diversity of high streets and town centres has a major impact on the perception of residents and visitors. In a survey of over 160 towns, villages and neighbourhoods carried out by the New Economics Foundation, 41% were identified as 'clone towns', places d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Foreword
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1 Understanding Small Settlements
• CHAPTER 2 Homes: Creating Distinctive Places to Live
• CHAPTER 3 Town Centres: Building the Heart of a Community
• CHAPTER 4 Public Spaces: Encouraging Social Life
• CHAPTER 5 Long-term Strategies: Future Visions for Smaller Settlements
• CHAPTER 6 Conclusion
• References
• Bibliography
• Index
• Image Credits