Education from primary through to professional education; engaging with the public and skilling up decision makers

Changing the culture of planning and improving the everyday environment by making the ordinary better

Our built environment past, present and future

Global exchange and the value of good design

Leadership and place-based policies inside and outside of government

1. EDUCATION, OUTREACH & SKILLS

Why should children learn about PLACE in school?

The way in which we shape our physical environment must be taught as early as possible in schools if we are to get across how critical the role of the built environment is to our health and wellbeing – socially, economically, environmentally and culturally. It includes everything from aesthetics and sustainability to “your home, your street, your neighbourhood, your town” where the smallest part, your home and your street, collectively make an enormous contribution to the future of our planet. Architecture, the built environment and an understanding of “place” should be taught through many different subjects including art and design, geography, history and STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) rather than as a subject in its own right. The aim is for young people to develop the widest creativity and problem-solving skills, which are essential for the creative industries, and to develop an understanding of what the built environment professions do.

How do teachers need supporting?

The best way to include architecture and the built environment in the education system at primary and secondary school level is through teacher training and introducing new content across the curriculum. Online resources should be developed for teachers and also for built environment professionals and students to reach out to schools, as the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) did for the Olympics and the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) does with its Future Planners initiative. Professionals and students could contribute significantly if there were more volunteering to pass on their passion and beliefs to the younger generation at the earliest age and with the greatest intensity. This kind of engagement is incentivised and rewarded through formal accreditation by the RIBA, but there is little take-up and a culture change is needed to encourage more people to get involved. Opportunities for volunteering could be clearly signposted on built environment agencies’ websites.

Recommendations:

#01
PLACE institutions and agencies should develop online resources for teachers and professionals to teach architecture and the built environment across a whole range of subjects. These should reflect the 2014 curricula, potentially through the Engaging Places portal, and include a series of e-seminars on school lesson plans and excellent schemes
of work. They can be introduced by the Department for Education at different points in a teacher’s career including in-service training (INSET) days as well as training offered by external agencies.
#02
These institutions and agencies could create a task force within the framework of the government’s Cultural Education Plan which would be eligible for Lottery funding and could link to the Construction Strategy 2025 implementation plan. This task force should co-ordinate the activities of all those involved to ensure the online resources are broad, balanced and integrated.
#03
Built environment professionals could facilitate and enable young citizens (including Young Mayors, local youth councils and the UK Youth Parliament) to hold PLACE Reviews of their local environment or school building as outlined in the “Design Quality” section of this document (chapter 2).
#04
PLACE institutions could establish a National Schools Architecture Competition for secondary-school students, in collaboration with the Department for Education, to showcase their creative and problem-solving skills, with awards presented by leading architects. This could be built into or connected to the Eco Schools Programme.
#05
PLACE institutions should make incentives like accreditation and Continuing Professional Development credits (CPD) available for professionals volunteering and mentoring in schools. The RIBA should encourage architects and students to work on education programmes by promoting the fact that CPD credits are already available.

Where can you engage with your PLACE?

Every town and city without an architecture and built environment centre should have an “urban room” where the past, present and future of that place can be inspected. Virtually every city in China has one, in Japan they are a mix of display and meeting places, and there are successful examples closer to home like the Cork Vision Centre. These “Place Spaces” should have a physical or virtual model, produced in collaboration with local technical colleges or universities, and they should be funded jointly by the public and private sector, not owned exclusively by one or the other. Urban rooms should be connected to and supported by the regional branches of the PLACE institutions and agencies and could be branded with the name of that place (“Place Space: Sheffield” or “Place Space: Reading”, for example).

Who should champion design quality in the built environment?

By entering into partnerships with local authorities, built environment practices in the private sector could become much more involved in helping to shape villages, towns and cities through education and outreach. This should be about “championing the civic” through volunteering, collaboration and enabling, and not centred primarily on redesigning these places. There needs to be an increased focus on the civic value of well-designed public spaces, streets and amenities and the character and needs of existing communities.

Why should key decision makers be able to read plans?

Places would be greatly improved if the people who make decisions about our built environment, such as planning committee members and highway engineers, were empowered by training in design literacy. Newly elected councillors who already receive mandatory training on financial and legal duties should receive placemaking and design training at the same time. In order to achieve this, there needs to be a momentous sea change led by professionals to better inform and educate those who make the all-important decisions. After all, it is in all our interests to ensure that every person responsible for making decisions about the built environment is able to read plans at the very least. Information and communications technology should be used to make the most of people’s time when volunteering to skill up decision makers, and CPD points should be offered by PLACE institutions to incentivise this.

Recommendations:

#06
Each local authority could nominate a built environment professional from the private sector and an elected member to champion local design quality. “Civic Champions” actively engaging with neighbourhood forums could help shape neighbourhood plans and improve design quality. Professionals volunteering time for public outreach and skilling up of decision makers should take advantage of formal accreditation offered by their professional institutions.
#07
The Local Government Association (LGA) and the Design Network could create a template for partnership agreements between built environment practices and neighbourhoods, villages and towns of an appropriate size and location to champion the civic through education and outreach. Practices could offer support through local schools, urban rooms and architecture and built environment centres.
#08
All Core Cities and Key Cities could introduce Open House Weekends to engage with the public about their built environment and make as many otherwise inaccessible buildings as possible open to the public.
#09
Arts Council England and the Crafts Council could research and reinforce the role of artists and the arts in contributing to the planning, design and animation of our public realm and architecture. The arts and artists are well placed to creatively engage individuals and communities and give voice to their sense of place, their concerns, and their aspirations for the areas they live, work and play in.
#10
Architecture and built environment centres could explore PLACE Review franchises as social enterprises to act as the profit-making arm of a charitable body. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) could help to identify and secure seed funding to help them create sustainable business plans without the need to commit to funding in the medium or long term.
#11
PLACE institutions and built environment agencies, the Design Network and the LGA could research the feasibility and viability of urban rooms (or “Place Spaces”) and establish pilots in different-sized towns and cities where there are no architecture and built environment centres. They would need a facilitator, supported by volunteers, and some costs might be offset against planning receipts like Section 106 or Community Infrastructure Levies.
#12
All individuals involved in making decisions about the built environment should receive basic training in placemaking and design literacy and it should be given the same status as legal and financial training for elected Councillors. Local planning authorities throughout the country should formalise the role of architecture and built environment centres and PLACE Review Panels in skilling up decision makers, including planning committee members and traffic engineers.
This would follow the successful model of Urban Design London in skilling up planning committee members from London Councils. Local schools of architecture could act as co-ordinating agencies, working with local authorities, and regional events supported by PLACE institutions would spread the training more widely.

How does the architectural training model need revising?

Professional education for architects is based on a model that is fifty years old and must be radically rethought to adapt and prepare much better for the future. Education has to reflect the major shift towards two opposing tendencies – greater specialisation and diversified career paths on the one hand, and a greater need for integrating and joining things up on the other. This should be mirrored in education by a common foundation year, learning about all the built environment professions, followed by alternative pathways. All related courses should prepare for broader decision making, cross-disciplinary understanding and genuine leadership.

How can we ensure architectural training is accessible to all?

The equation between cost of education and subsequent earnings for a career in architecture does not stack up unless the student has independent financial means. This lack of accessibility is unacceptable, and we need architects and design professionals who are able to relate to broader society. Everyone’s house, street and school are designed by somebody, and we need designers and planners to understand the needs of all the diverse communities they are designing for and to be engaging with them more whilst studying. At the same time, we risk becoming primarily an exporter of educational services and losing the next generation of British architects and our world-ranking status which is so valuable to UK plc. To widen accessibility, we need a diverse range of different courses and training routes to be made available including apprenticeships and sandwich courses. The seven-year, three-part, “one size fits all” training is no longer appropriate and risks institutionalising students at a time when we need them to interact better with a rapidly changing world.

Recommendations:

#13
The RIBA should endorse the vision of the UK Architectural Education Review Group (Pathways and Gateways report). By introducing alternative routes to registration like apprenticeships, becoming an architect would be less expensive and more achievable for the majority of students.
#14
Architecture schools should be better integrated with construction industry education and training to make stronger connections between architects as service providers and the manufacturing and construction industries. This could be achieved by agreed periods of exchange between students on architecture and construction courses.
#15
Schools of architecture should establish the undergraduate degree as one that opens up many career paths. Project-based learning and the ability to make both artistic and scientific decisions will be well received by employers at all levels and in all industries.
#16
Built environment courses should be linked with a common “foundation” course, and classes across disciplines should be introduced.
#17
The upcoming DCLG review of the Architects Registration Board is to be welcomed. The review should consider the implications of removing protection of title and the value of statutory protection for architects and consumers, and we would encourage as many people as possible to feed into this process. The review will be launched shortly as part of the Cabinet Office process for continued review of all remaining “arm’s length bodies”.
#18
For as long as protection of title is retained, the Architects Act should be amended to make the RIBA the Registration Body with appropriate supervisory powers to ensure protection of the interests of consumers and non-member architects and to act as the Competent Authority under EU rules.