Chapter 3: Design Principles for New Development

Objectives:

• To ensure that new development is of the highest design quality and respects, safeguards and enhances the special character of the city
• To ensure that the city develops in an integrated and sustainable manner
• To create new and distinctive places which enhance the special character of the city and meet the needs of residents and other users

Background

3.1 This chapter sets out the key issues which must be addressed by anyone proposing to build in Edinburgh or redesign any part of its environment. The Government has stated that design considerations must be at the forefront of the planning process, and the Council will encourage innovation and well designed developments that relate sensitively to the existing quality and character of the local and wider environment, generate distinctiveness and a sense of place, and help build stronger communities.

3.2 In recent years the city centre has benefited from a wide range of high quality investment and high profile and often prestigious developments. These have had a major impact on its appearance and functioning. Modern buildings and innovative architecture have been inserted into historic settings without upsetting the basic harmony of the environment. There have been substantial regeneration benefits in the Old Town, for example, after many decades of little developer interest. Throughout the city centre prominent gaps in the urban fabric have been filled, and the less successful buildings of the early post-war decades are being replaced. This balanced approach to the modernisation of an historic city centre and its central housing areas will continue. There will be a focus on Princes Street, the regeneration of which needs to be speeded up, and on the public realm: a high quality public realm is of the utmost importance in reinforcing the city centre’s roles and assets, and in making attractive places.

3.3 Beyond the city centre, Edinburgh can expect to see large scale development, in the Waterfront regeneration areas, and in some peripheral housing areas undergoing wholesale clearance and redevelopment. In these, the opportunities must be grasped, to create high quality new environments which contribute to the Council’s aims of achieving sustainable development through good design. The design of new development must provide for the needs it generates – physical infrastructure and amenities such as open space – and for a cross-section of community needs, to achieve balanced, well planned communities and successful places that will hold their value over time.

3.4 Government guidance strongly stresses the importance of good design in making successful places. Scottish Planning Policy states that the quality of development on the ground is an important outcome of the planning process. It affirms that proposals may be refused solely on design grounds. Through Designing Places, published in 2001, Scottish Ministers have signalled the importance they attach to achieving improvements in the design and quality of new development. Planning authorities are encouraged to adopt an approach that does not focus solely on new buildings but also on the way that all buildings, old and new, work with each other to create the spaces and sense of place that influence the quality of life for communities. Designing Places also identifies six qualities which create successful places: they have a distinct identity; their spaces are safe and pleasant; they are easy to move around, especially on foot; visitors feel a sense of welcome; they adapt easily to changing circumstances; and they make good use of scarce resources – they are sustainable.

Design Policies

Design Quality and Context

3.5 The Council expects new development to be of a high standard of design and will encourage innovation in the design and layout of new buildings, streets and spaces, provided that the existing quality and character of the immediate and wider environment are respected and enhanced and local distinctiveness is generated. A key consideration is the World Heritage Site and the effect development would have on its essential attributes.

3.6 Proposals should emerge from a design process that includes an appraisal of the local context and of public views and aspirations. Design statements will be required with most types of application. These should explain the design thinking behind an application. They should demonstrate the account taken of relevant supporting guidance prepared by the Council and, if part of an ongoing development of a wider area, of any approved master plans or brief. They should also show how local groups or individuals have been involved in discussing the scheme at an early stage: the Council is strongly committed to using collaborative design workshops for schemes likely to generate significant interest, or have a significant impact on existing communities. Proposals for sensitive sites will come under close scrutiny and may be referred to Architecture+Design Scotland, the government’s advisory body on design matters. Consultation will be assisted by a clear explanation of the underlying design principles and the design process followed.

Co-ordinated Development

3.7 The Council encourages a comprehensive approach to redevelopment and regeneration whenever possible, and the preparation of development frameworks or master plans, to identify the full design potential for creating the kind of successful places which embody the desirable characteristics described in ‘Designing Places’ (para. 3.4 above). Where it is apparent that this will not be achieved by allowing what would in effect be piecemeal development, then proposals will be refused. Piecemeal development is less likely to lead to the creation of well-defined and cohesive networks of streets and spaces. In exceptional cases it may be necessary for the Council to use its powers of compulsory purchase, to assemble a site for development and enable a satisfactory outcome to be achieved.

Development Design

3.8 Development must be designed to fulfil its function effectively, and meet the needs of users and occupiers, but consideration must also be given to how it impacts on neighbouring properties and the surrounding townscape. Where the built environment is of high quality and has a settled townscape character, new development proposals will be expected to have similar characteristics of scale, height, layout and massing to the surrounding buildings. This will be important for example in the city’s tenement areas and its villa areas. The Council has published strict design requirements in supplementary guidance for the historic villa areas relating to site coverage issues and acceptable forms of development. Where the surrounding development is fragmented or of poor quality, development proposals will be expected to repair the urban fabric, establish model forms of development and generate coherence and distinctiveness – a sense of place. Buildings should address the street in a positive manner, helping to create or reinforce urban vitality and community safety. In most circumstances, buildings should interact closely with the street, providing continuity of urban frontage and enclosure, allowing natural surveillance.

3.9 A clear distinction should be made between public and private spaces. If semi-private front gardens or terraces are to be provided in higher density housing developments, these should be separated from the street or public spaces by walls or railings. Designing for a mix of uses can help foster urban vitality. Buildings should be designed to be flexible in use and adaptable. The environment around buildings should be designed to provide an attractive immediate outlook for residents and occupiers. Biodiversity is also a crucial sustainability issue. The Plan has identified the sites of greater importance for biodiversity in Edinburgh, but this is a necessary consideration for all development, and does not necessarily require the provision of green space, for example, swift boxes mounted on buildings.

Layout Design

3.10 The layout of development should enhance community safety and urban vitality. A comprehensive approach should be taken to the design of a site, which does not leave any difficult-to-manage left-over spaces with no clear purpose, and which minimises the visual impact of car parking provision (see also Policy Tra 6). The movement needs and the security of pedestrians and cyclists must be fully considered. Direct routes with multiple points of access, and streets connected at both ends rather than culs-de-sac arrangements or single access residential enclaves, can help the integration of housing and mixed use developments into the wider neighbourhood. Overlooking reduces the opportunity for anti-social behaviour and enhances personal security.

3.11 Housing layouts should not be dictated by the technical and engineering requirements of road design, as they have been in the past, particularly in low density housing areas. Instead, the ‘home zones’ principles should be used. The home zone concept encourages streets to be treated as, or turned into public spaces rather than simply movement corridors and requires traffic speeds to be restricted by built-in design and landscape features. Government advice encourages a more flexible and innovative approach to the design of new residential streets in support of a higher quality design in new development overall.

Design of External Spaces

3.12 High quality, well designed public spaces are crucial elements of the urban environment and in making successful places. The Council expects to see close attention paid to the detailed design of streets and all other spaces in proposals for new development. This consideration must be given at an early stage in the design process. The Council has also prepared supplementary guidance, the Edinburgh Standards for Streets and other guidance (for example, on landscaping in developments) to which developers should refer.

3.13 Landscaping proposals should retain existing trees and other features of value and incorporate these into the scheme design. Species which are locally appropriate and enhance biodiversity will be sought. The design of all hard surfaces, including areas to be adopted by the Council as highway, must be of high quality befitting the character of the surrounding area and the intended use. The extensive use of granite setts is a characteristic feature of Edinburgh’s streetscape, which should be emulated where appropriate.

3.14 The Council will encourage the preparation of public realm strategies to coordinate design and provide information on future maintenance in other major development schemes. A key objective of the Waterfront proposals is to open up areas to public access and extend the public realm in ways which provide new leisure opportunities and amenities for residents and visitors. There is also the potential to enhance the public realm through the imaginative re-use of setts, quay walls etc. The development will extend over many years and will require a coordinated approach that should be set out in a formal public realm strategy.

Sustainable Building Design

3.15 Buildings account for a substantial proportion of total carbon emissions through the energy they consume, and they have other significant environmental impacts and costs. These costs arise at various stages in a building’s life. They include the material and energy costs involved in construction, the energy costs of heating, lighting and running homes, workplaces etc. and the costs to the environment in dealing with waste - household and commercial waste throughout a building’s lifetime, construction waste and, at the end of a building’s life, demolition waste. Other ‘lifetime’ environmental costs relate to water consumption and surface (rain) water discharge, which is contributing to greater flood risks in many parts of the country. Growing attention is now being given to how these energy and other environmental effects can be reduced. There may be limits to which existing buildings can be adapted to reduce their environmental costs, notably where there are listed building considerations, and much depends on the willingness of occupiers to make the adaptations necessary. However, it is imperative that new buildings are designed and constructed to reduce their energy demands and minimise their adverse effects. The aim which is gaining wide acceptance is that of zero carbon growth. Zero carbon development is one that achieves zero net carbon emissions from energy use on site, on an annual basis, because it has been built to very high insulation and other efficiency standards and has incorporated a measure of on-site sustainable energy technologies. The government has stated that zero carbon will be the standard for all new homes built from 2016 as part of its long term commitment to climate stability by 2050.

3.16 The Council believes that it is important to set high standards in Edinburgh, to tackle the causes of climate change, reduce resource use and moderate the impact of development on the environment. It has set standards of energy efficiency that it wishes to see achieved in all major new construction as soon as practical. This is important because of the substantial amount of new building in prospect in the immediate future, which must not add to the city’s carbon deficit. In particular, the Waterfront and other large scale projects offer major opportunities for carbon economies, through combined heat and power for example.

3.17 Other environmental effects which the Council will seek to mitigate in new construction relate to surface water run-off and waste. Steps must be taken to ensure that the rate of surface water run-off from a site is not increased by the development proposed. This can be achieved by the use of porous surfaces, safely designed filtration ponds and swales, and is a particularly important requirement for developments in growth areas where there is already a flood risk. It is also important that in new housing developments, facilities are provided, and an environment created, that encourages more sustainable lifestyles, for example, waste disposal facilities that support recycling initiatives. Many other policies in this Plan have a sustainability dimension and will, if met, help developers to achieve high ratings, such as the encouragement to public transport use, walking and cycling, the provision of cycle storage and the maximum provision of private gardens that give the option of outdoor clothes drying.

3.18 The Council will encourage all development to be energy efficient, minimise its carbon emissions and meet other sustainability criteria. The above Policy Des 6 will apply to developments which meet the thresholds set out in Table 3.1. The above policy should also be read with supplementary guidance prepared by the Council, the Edinburgh Standards for Sustainable Building, , which sets out in more detail the energy reduction, carbon emission and other environmental performance targets which new development should meet. In particular, it includes a sustainability statement and checklist which must be submitted with planning applications over the above thresholds. Such development will be required to demonstrate that carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 5% beyond the level required by current Building Regulations. A further 15% carbon reduction will be required through the incorporation of on-site low and zero carbon equipment. These can include renewable energy sources such as solar and micro-wind, combined heat & power, district heating infrastructure, equipment which uses fossil fuels but results in significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions overall and/or a range of other methods, including those set out in PAN 84. Applicants will be exempt from meeting targets on-site only if equivalent carbon savings are to be made elsewhere.

Table 3.1

Thresholds	CO2 reduction through design for energy efficiency (minimum)	Further CO2 reduction through low & zero carbon equipment (minimum)
10 or more houses/flats	5% beyond current building regulations	15%
0.5 or more hectares (non-residential)
1,000 or more sq.m. gross floor area (non-residential)

Creation of New Pedestrian Routes in the City Centre

3.19 The main shopping streets and tourist areas of the city centre have to cope with the highest concentrations of all-day pedestrian activity. These areas need to be given priority in developing pedestrian priority measures, whether full pedestrianisation, footway widening or simply measures to enhance the attractiveness and safety of the pedestrian environment and encourage shoppers and visitors to enjoy the amenities of the city centre. A programme of improvements to the public realm in the city centre has been agreed, which will result in the re-allocation of space to pedestrians. This has begun with Castle Street and will continue with St Andrew Square and Grassmarket, and subsequently other streets not affected by the tram proposals. Redevelopment in the Old Town has led to the restoration of its highly distinctive pattern of narrow pedestrian closes. Further improvement and reinstatement of closes will be sought when redevelopment takes place. In the retail core the development of the St James Centre will provide the opportunity to create a traffic-free environment for pedestrians and strengthen and re-establish links with the surrounding area, especially St Andrews Square.

Development on Urban Edge Sites

3.20 Development on Urban Edge Sites: This policy applies to sites on the urban edge, whether adjoining the Green Belt or released from the Green Belt and allocated for development in this Plan.

3.21 The relationship between the urban edge and the surrounding countryside is an important one. The immediate countryside is within the Edinburgh Green Belt, established amongst other objectives to protect the landscape setting of the city and provide countryside for recreation. A clear demarcation between town and country is important to the defensibility of the Green Belt boundary and its objectives. Changes over the years have sought to ensure that firm boundaries can be maintained, using natural features - topography and planting. Development that takes place on the urban edge should reinforce boundaries, for example through landscaping and planting of up to 50 metres in depth. This need not take the form of dense woodland planting, but should be designed to enhance rural amenity and biodiversity and provide a setting or, if more appropriate, screen new development. Public access to the countryside should be promoted through layout design.

Development Adjoining Watercourses and the Coastal Edge

3.22 This policy applies to sites adjoining the Water of Leith and the city’s several other lesser water courses, as well as the Union Canal and the waterfront itself. The scale and character of development that is likely to be sought for the waterfront, mainly in the context of the approved urban design frameworks and master plans, will usually be radically different from that which will be appropriate for tranquil watercourses in a suburban or semi-rural setting, but the following basic principle holds good for both.

3.23 The city’s several natural water courses add to the variety of scenery within the urban area and the city’s biodiversity interest, and have considerable potential to enhance adjacent development. Where possible, they should be accessible and used to develop the public footpath network. After many years of careful management of development and initiatives, the Water of Leith in particular is now accessible and its valley walkable from Balerno to Leith. The water courses generally have a secluded and tranquil character. Adjoining development should positively address a water course, by enhancing security on footpaths through natural surveillance and providing links for people on foot, whilst also in most places preserving and enhancing their tranquil and semi-rural character. The requirements of Policy Env 17 on flood protection may also be relevant to proposals bordering water courses.

3.24 The Union Canal has different attributes. The canal network between the east and west coast of Scotland has been restored in a nationally significant project and is now a major recreational asset with considerable potential for recreational use and canal-related development. Proposals also have to take account of its interest as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and its importance for wildlife. British Waterways Scotland have identified locations with potential for development with canal-related activity. This could include the provision of moorings, basins, marinas and other service infrastructure that will promote its greater use. These locations are relatively few in the urban area, and include most importantly sites around the terminal basin at Fountainbridge. A development brief has been approved by the Council, to help identify in more detail and highlight these opportunities amongst other objectives, and is summarised in this Plan as one of its Central Area Proposals (CA 3). Other urban locations with special potential are at Wester Hailes and Harrison Park, but any feasible proposals for these will need to be the subject of consultation with local communities in due course.

3.25 To comply with the above policy, development adjoining the canal throughout its length should focus on the canal, by providing active frontages and a diversity of uses, and by enhancing access for pedestrians and cyclists to the canal. Attention should also be paid to its nature conservation value; this is likely to be the priority objective for the less accessible south bank rather than the tow path side.

3.26 The coastal edge generally has value and potential of a totally different order, to provide the city with a waterfront which in its character and the functions it helps bring into being will bear comparison with the best of such projects throughout the country and in Europe. The special efforts to evolve a vision and develop appropriate strategies are summarised in Chapter 11 Waterfront Regeneration. The above policy is relevant to development in these, and the other areas of the waterfront such as Seafield and Portobello, when development opportunities arise.

Tall Buildings and the Skyline

3.27 The emphasis of policies generally in the Plan is on a satisfactory and harmonious integration of new development with the existing. It establishes a presumption against new buildings that are conspicuously higher than their neighbours. This is necessary to protect some of the city’s most striking visual characteristics, the views available from many vantage points within the city and beyond, of landmark buildings, the city’s historic skyline, undeveloped hillsides within the urban area and the hills, open countryside and the Firth of Forth which create a uniquely visible landscape setting for the city. In addition, the height of new building may need to be held in check or suppressed where necessary so that the city’s topography and valley features such as the Waverley Valley can continue to be reflected in its roofscapes. A study has been undertaken for the Council of high building and skyline issues. This has identified key public viewpoints and proposes a means of assessing the impact that new building proposals would have. This has led to a policy set out in the new supplementary planning guidance prepared by City of Edinburgh Council entitled: Protection of Key Views, which was approved in June 2008.

3.28 Proposals for development that would be conspicuous in wider views of the city will be subject to special scrutiny, to ensure that important views are not impaired. Existing high buildings which are out of keeping with their neighbours and have a detrimental effect on the historic skyline or important views will not set a precedent for the future, and their replacement with more appropriately scaled buildings will be sought if redevelopment is in prospect.

Alterations and Extensions to Existing Buildings

3.29 Alterations and extensions to existing buildings generally raise similar design issues to those of new development. Every change to a building, a street or a space has the potential to enrich or, if poorly designed, impoverish a part of the public realm. The impact of a proposal on the appearance and character of the existing building and street scene generally must be satisfactory and there should be no unreasonable loss of amenity and privacy for immediate neighbours. Particular attention will be paid to ensuring that such works to listed buildings and non-listed buildings in conservation areas do not damage their special character.

Shopfront Design and Advertising

3.30 Shopfront design, shop signs and shopfront advertising play an important role in the visual environment of the city. Shops and businesses need to announce themselves and their offer to customers, but this should be done in ways which enhance the appearance of buildings and the street scene generally. Important traditional or original features on older buildings, such as stall risers, fascias and structural framing of entrances and shop windows, should be retained and incorporated into the design. In conservation areas and on listed buildings, design and materials used will be expected to be of a high standard, and not damaging to existing fabric of buildings or wider character. Proposals for Princes Street and elsewhere in the retail core, and proposals for the Old Town Conservation Area will come under special scrutiny. Further more detailed guidance has been issued by the Council on shopfront design and shop signs, including the limited forms of advertising and illumination acceptable in different parts of the city centre, notably Princes Street and the Old Town.