ABSTRACT
There is a sense in which all the debates about design control have focused upon issues of architecture, elevations and external appearance, and have thus placed architectural policies at the heart of design control. The history and theoretical development of design thought and policy in England demonstrate this quite clearly. This research has sought to shift the emphasis in design control to concepts of urban and environmental design as the more appropriate focus for policy and intervention, as the areas where planning can make a more profound contribution, and to defuse the long-standing antagonism between the architecture and planning professions on matters of ‘aesthetic control’. Nonetheless, it is clear that the quality of architecture and the external appearance of development are important to perceptions of environmental quality and a sense of place, and that the controversial issue of architecture has to be faced by policy.
