Naturally Beautiful

This week I have been working on a nice little design project in Cheltenham.  The Regency character of the town has prompted to look again at proportions and harmonic ratios such as the ‘Golden Section’. It’s been years since I looked at this. In fact probably not since Year One at Architecture School. We were all asked to fill a sheet of paper with drawn rectangles. They weren’t measured they

Master Planning – A step by step guide

We are working through interesting times. What ever we did before, we now need to be quicker, more decisive, while continuing to provide quality for smaller fees. I have been arguing for some time that the process driven, step-by-step master planning process, we inherited from the CABE, The Urban Design Compendium  and most of the urban design profession needs to change. It‘s far too clunky, slow to respond, short of

Westlife

So it seems that the happiest place to live in the UK according to the recent Office of National Statistics are the Western Isles. Given the debate about the validity of measuring happiness why are Eilean Siar, Orkney & Shetland top of the list followed by Rutland and Anglesey happy places to be?  I suppose the answer is shaped by the fact that the bottom three is Swansea, County Durham

Looking & Seeing – No 14

Having an HD digital camera on your IPhone is great but if you really want to ‘see’ something you have to use a sketchbook. Here is a drawing made under extreme conditions, standing on the walls of Dubrovnik in 35 degrees, drawing as we circumnavigated the city defensive walls. What is magical about the city is the way it conveys its ‘DNA’. Originally a Roman city built between the cliffs