Urban Design and the British Urban Renaissance

摘要

When this book was first conceived, it could not be predicted that it would become a historical record of what may be a short-lived golden age of British urbanism. The recent abolition of regional development agencies and reduction or elimination of CABE marks a change of direction that risks aborting the urban renaissance described in this collection of papers, before it could be completed. Soon after the election of the Labour government in 1998, the Urban Task Force was set up under the leadership of Richard Rogers. Its report Towards an Urban Renaissance marked an important change of direction in planning in Britain, giving design a prominent role, for the first time in decades. The establishment of CABE and the publication of a number of reports, prominently By Design, reinforced this new approach.