Street design plays an important role in the creation of a strong and coherent identity for the new community of Newhall, Harlow. Designed by Roger Evans Associates.
It is rare to find streets designed from a blank sheet. Most of our street network is already in place, inherited from previous settlement patterns. But across the country, and especially in the key growth areas of the South East of England and settlements around Greater London, large-scale new development presents the challenge and opportunity to fashion a new generation of streets.
For many years street design has been separated from architecture. For the vast majority of recent developments, the road layout has been delegated to engineers who determined the layouts, geometry, materials and detailing regardless of the housing and public realm design. Government guidance in the form of Design bulletin 32 (DB 32) guided and constrained residential street layout. The result has often been streets of bland uniformity across the country, with little reference to local context, traditions or architectural distinctiveness.
The results illustrate the potential for a fresh approach as outlined in the government’s Manual for streets guidance.
