Today's entry is about the extent to which good design should be a feature of nationally significant infrastructure projects.
Everyone agrees that the built environment should be designed to a high standard, but what does the Planning Act regime have to say about this and to what extent does it require it? How much might an independent review of a project's design cost? Read on.
On 31 May I attended a discussion convened by the Design Council CABE, and there was an interesting discussion about incorporating design into nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). CABE stands for the Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment, and it recently merged with the Design Council as a result of the government's quango-cutting. They are now a charity promoting design in the public interest.
In fact there are some provisions about design in the Planning Act, but they only apply to projects indirectly. The provisions require National Policy Statements (NPSs) to address the achievement of good design, and since decisions on applications should conform to the relevant NPS, this in turn puts a requirement for good design on projects, depending on the wording of the relevant NPS.
I tabled a paper on behalf of the National Infrastructure Planning Association (NIPA) on the legal position on design and how the NPSs that exist deal with it. They are all very similar but subtly different. Let me know if you would like to see the paper - I expect it will appear on the NIPA website in due course.
Although design is mainly concerned with what things look like, and that will be the principal concern of those who will have to put up with looking at a project once it has been built, there is of course much more to it than that. The materials used, how efficient operation will be, and so on. Perhaps the ultimate goal is to design infrastructure so that people actually want to live near it - not impossible, take the Millau Viaduct in France, for example.
The Design Council CABE is mentioned in each NPS (except the Ports one, for some reason - one of those 'subtle differences') as a recommended consultant on design issues for project promoters. I can put some more flesh on that recommendation, since the costs they would charge for a design review were set out at the seminar.
These have a caveat that they will always be under review, and will vary for particular projects but should give you a reasonable idea. For a first design review, attended by members of a panel of experts togther with Design Council CABE staff, plus a site visit, they will charge in the region of £11,000-£18,000. For a subsequent design review for the same project, to be held at their London office (in Covent Garden but moving to Angel on 22 June) they will charge around £5,000-£8,000. More details are going to be provided in a forthcoming document of theirs 'Design Guidance for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects' due later this year.
I hope that makes the idea of reviewing the design of an infrastructure project more concrete so that it might be incorporated into the project programme (although the result may mean less concrete).
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