Design intervention in architecture and planning: practical explorations and applied outcomes

Abstract

ABSTRACTWithin architecture and planning, the elements and outcomes of design can be difficult to conceptualize and manage. The problem lies not simply in the range of stakeholders differentially interpreting the functionality and aesthetics of a building, but also in the effect of structures’ scaling up from the site, through precinct to the metropolitan level. Incremental assembly of the built environment can promote dislocation of form and dissociation of function without any necessary legibility, integration, or harmony. This article explores the concept of visual appropriateness within frameworks of design intervention constructed by public planning authorities. Having scoped the problem, it searches over 2000 architecture, urban design, and planning references for ‘theoretical’ intervention measures, extended to include ‘empirical’ ones derived from selected planning schemes. Sorted into 3 thematic groups and 47 individual themes, they are then arranged into two evaluation dimensions within a multi-criteria analysis directed to the case of residential development in seven local government areas in Sydney, Australia. Results confirm that stronger design intervention will characterize areas with denser and more aggressive development activity and potential. The project demonstrates what is involved in contextualizing and translating just one of the several constituents of urban design.