ABSTRACT

Human beings are naturally collaborative and proactive in creating their own habitats. Most of the world’s population live in urban environments, and the majority of people want to live in the enterprising and sustainable communities that traditional planning seeks to support and deliver. Communities are all too often only ‘consulted’ on proposals that have already been formulated without their input, and see themselves as being excluded from the real decision making, which usually takes place before the ‘consultation’ stage even begins. This can lead to poor decisions that ignore local knowledge and needs. Nicholas Boys Smith, from the London-based urban thinktank Create Streets, highlights research13 that shows a cavernous divide between the professional and the layperson on what is viewed as good and bad architecture. David Halpern’s 1995 publication, Mental Health and the Built Environment, describes architecture and planning as subjective and lacking the empirical tradition that would make it legible to the scientific eye.