Higher education, professionalism and skills in the built environment: the impact of the new urban agenda on teaching and learning

In the mid-to-late 1990s, the New Urban Agenda initiated a rethinking of urban development strategies placing a greater focus on regeneration of central urban spaces. The skills and competencies required by urban planners and built environment professionals to successfully implement regeneration schemes tend to differ from those required for greenfield development. The working paper summarises skills and competencies required by urban regeneration practitioners and how they are delivered through public and/or private sector providers at present. The role of the newly established regional Centres of Excellence and the professional bodies of the Built Environment professions in defining skills and educational requirements and providing training are explored. An analysis of supply and demand of skills training reveals that there is a mismatch rather than a lack of provision. The report draws on a conference where research findings were presented and discussed. It concludes with suggestions for improving the skills provision at the local government as well as community level. Skills audits were found useful tools in defining training needs. A set of sample workshop programmes outline flexible, tailor-made approaches guaranteed to address specific and identified needs.

Professionalism and skills enhancement in the built environment: the role of higher education in a changing policy context in England

Since the election of the Labour Government in 1997 there have been a series of policy initiatives emphasising the importance of co-ordinated and integrated approaches to the delivery of urban regeneration and in particular Sustainable Communities. This changing policy context has given rise to a shortage of practitioners with both the technical skills to deliver specific programmes, and more especially the generic skills to work in multi-disciplinary teams in conjunction with partnership-based management boards. This paper discusses the origins of the debate about skills shortages and deficiencies and reviews the main government reports which have advocated a new approach to the provision of skills for community regeneration. It focuses particularly on the work of the Planning Network which was funded by the Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) to examine the contribution of higher education to the wider skills debate. It concludes by arguing that higher education has an important part to play in the provision of a more appropriate skills set for professional practice within a broader and more inclusive strategy involving all key stakeholders. However, employers also have a major responsibility in ensuring that key skills are maintained and enhanced within their own organisations.

Curating architecture and the city

Addressing the collection, representation and exhibition of architecture and the built environment, this book explores current practices, historical precedents, theoretical issues and future possibilities arising from the meeting of a curatorial ‘subject’ and an architectural ‘object’. Striking a balance between theoretical investigations and case studies, the chapters cover a broad methodological as well as thematic range. Examining the influential role of architectural exhibitions, the contributors also look at curatorship as an emerging attitude towards the investigation and interpretation of the city. International in scope, this collection investigates curation, architecture and the city across the world, opening up new possibilities for exploring the urban fabric.

Twentieth Century Modern Architecture and the Countryside: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's design for a country gold clubhouse for the Krefeld Golf Club Association

This paper investigates relationships between modernity and monumentality in the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In his Modern Architecture, the critic and historian Kenneth Frampton separated Mies’ work into two historical periods, 1921-1933 and 1933-1967; the first he entitled ‘Mies van der Rohe and the significance of fact,’ the second ‘Mies van der Rohe and the monumentalisation of technique.’ The two historical periods correspond to two different geopolitical phases of Mies’ career, the first in Weimar Germany the second in the United States. By looking at a number of designs and texts made by Mies in the 1930’s and 1940’s, this essay questions the validity of separating Mies’ architecture into such clear-cut categories, where each one can enjoy a seeming independence from the other. The fulcrum for the discussion is Mies’ design of 1930 for a country golf clubhouse for the industrial town of Krefeld in north-western Germany. Our attention to the golf clubhouse design was prompted by the recent installation (2013), in which a 1-1 model of the design, made primarily from plywood, was erected in a field close the the site of Mies' original proposal.

Construction and the built environment. Level 3. BTEC National.

El programa BTEC es un programa de estudios que permite obtener una cualificación profesional o laboral. Este recurso está preparado para ayudar al alumno en el curso BTEC National, nivel 3, sector profesional de construcción y hábitat construido y su contenido se divide en 12 unidades. Incluye actividades de evaluación en cada unidad que cubren todos los criterios de ésta para ofrecer a los estudiantes la oportunidad de practicar sus tareas y profundizar en el conocimiento y la comprensión de la materia.

Environmental assessment and the built environment : a highway engineer's perspective

This paper is an engineer's appreciation of environmental assessment with particular reference to highway development. While scheme-related Environmental Assessment for individual development may identify particular potential impacts, and may avoid or minimise some of the problems, in many cases it may be too late to take such actions. Ideally, Environmental Assessment should commence at the Strategic Level to cover policies, plan and programmes, and the scheme-related Environmental Assessments for individual projects should supplement those in the framework of Strategic Level. The utimate target is to assess the policy for their contribution to effecting sustainable development. Whole Life Environmental Impacts should be considered. These are the full impact consideration from planning, design and choice of materials, construction, operation and finally decommission. Most of the Environmental Assessments have not included the Whole Life Environmental Impacts. There is only limited monitoring in the operation stage after the construction of the scheme is complete, therefore, subsequent Environmental Assessments cannot benefit from the feedback of the scheme. No development should cost the Earth, hence Environmental Assessments have to be carried out thoroughly to serve as one of the instruments to meet the need of sustainable development.

Zoning and the built environment: A public health analysis of zoning in Austin, Texas

The built environment is part of the physical environment made by people and for people. Because the built environment is such a ubiquitous component of the environment, it acts as an important pathway in determining health outcomes. Zoning, a type of urban planning policy, is one of the most important mechanisms connecting the built environment to public health. This policy analysis research paper explores how zoning regulations in Austin, Texas promote or prohibit the development of a healthy built environment. A systematic literature review was obtained from Active Living Research, which contained literature published about the relationships between the built environment, physical activity, and health. The results of these studies identified the following four components of the built environment that were associated to health: access to recreational facilities, sprawl and residential density, land use mix, and sidewalks and their walkability. A hierarchy analysis was then performed to demonstrate the association between these aspects of the built environment and health outcomes such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and general health. Once these associations had been established, the components of the built environment were adapted into the evaluation criteria used to conduct a public health analysis of Austin's zoning ordinance. A total of eighty-eight regulations were identified to be related to these components and their varying associations to human health. Eight regulations were projected to have a negative association to health, three would have both a positive and negative association simultaneously, and nine were indeterminable with the information obtained through the literature review. The remaining sixty-eight regulations were projected to be associated in a beneficial manner to human health. Therefore, it was concluded that Austin's zoning ordinance would have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the public's health based on identified associations between the built environment and health outcomes.^