Rules of Thumb - Think About the Whole Place

Rules of Thumb	Key Indicator / Prompt
Design with Respect - Respect the Site and the Setting - Respect the Context and Character	Have a site and surrounding content analysis been undertaken to identify the characteristics of the area? Consider: regional identity, strategic linkages and movement, local buildings and vernacular; traditions; natural features; local transport links and routes to key destinations and the communities facilities, needs and aspirations. Does you design reflect these characteristics? Avoid 'off the peg' standard solutions. Does the building achieve the correct height to width ratio to help it to integrate with context (1:1 for mews, through to 1:3 for streets, to 1:5 for larger squares).
To create real places - Create a real Public Realm - Plan at a 'People' scale - Use Land Efficiently - Design-out crime	Have you created a hierarchy of open spaces? Avoid SLOAP - the 'Space Left Over After Planning'. Have the buildings been positioned to relate to the paces? It's the quality not quantity of space that matters. Prioritise pedestrian and cycle movement - not the car. Have you provided links to existing routes and between key destinations? A grid spacing of 80-100m provides an optimum network for pedestrian and vehicular needs in most circumstances, decreasing to 50-70m in central areas. Design the landscaping and position the buildings to blend into the existing landscape. Are buildings orientated within 15-20 degrees of due south to optimise solar gain? Has provision been made to enable water to be recycled and reused? What wind power facilities can be provided for natural ventilation and energy source? Are convenient recycling facilities provided for paper, glass and metals? Relate the development to transport and community services. At 25-40 houses per hectare local commercial, community and public transport facilities become much more viable. About 100 persons per hectare (pph) are needed to support a good bus service and 240 pph to sustain a tram. Consult with local crime prevention officers and police architectural liaison officers to design-out crime: - Ensure surveillance and human activity. Put 'eyes on the street' - buildings should have windows and doors that front the street. Mixing uses for increased activity. An integrated network of streets. Parking on the street or in secure rear courts. Planting that has function - prickly boundary hedges where you keep people out or in; low less dense species where people need to see and be seen. Visible entrances and exits. - Minimise conflict. Safe convenient routes. Disguise essential security features e.g. wrought iron decorative gates. - Design-in a sense of place and community. Design to foster ownership so people look after the spaces.
Design for Diversity - Mix Activities - Mix Tenures	Most modern activities can co-exist; design-out any problems. Avoid tokenistic mixes - choose uses that can share access/parking facilities. Look at developments in the local area that have successfully mixed uses on the same site and in the same building. Avoid blocks of single tenure types - mix them up - within buildings themselves as well as on the site (pepper-potting). Design the development so that it is not possible to tell the mix of tenure contained within a building / development when looking at the building from the street.

The above 'Rules of Thumb' relate to 'Thinking About the Whole Place' as described within the Sustainability Guide.