This article was written for the Kinharvie Facilitation Network, in my role as a member of the Network's steering group. Although written for facilitators, it is just as relevant for planners. Kinh...

I've just come across this paragraph in Charles Landry's excellent book The Art of City Making. Published in 2006, it is as fresh and relevant today as it was then:“"Planning is about to be differ...

Last week, I was in Northern Ireland, way out west of the Bann in western County Tyrone; a beautiful land of rolling hills, rich farmland and intriguing history. I was there to consider the futur...

This article was published in the Winter 2009 edition of Urban Realm magazine. If you're interested in a succinct summary of the main elements of current Scottish planning reform, read on. For muc...

For years, I've struggled with the concept of visioning. It's always seemed to me like a bunch of well-meaning folk agree a motherhood-and-apple-pie vision for whatever it is they're discussing -...

Engaging with communities is a big focus in contemporary urban planning - and a focus for a great deal of uncertainty about how to get it right. Most discussion tends to focus on how to involve "th...

Masterplanning has seen a resurgence in the last decade. Check out any planning or architectural journal or website, and the chances are there will be mention of someone's latest masterplan for s...

Willie Miller's timely Small Practices and Procurement blog on the Urban Realm website draws attention to the increasingly difficult issue of the impact of procurement rules. To quote Willie:“"Fr...

Planning Aid for Scotland organised a seminar on 16 October to explore the increasing interest in using mediation in planning. As one of the co-facilitators at the seminar, in my capacity as a Dir...

Prospect magazine scours Scotland for its Carbuncles Awards. The infamous Plook on the Plinth is awarded to the place deemed worst for planning and architecture. Glenrothes was the winner this ye...

The Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisers – who are advising the government on how to support sustainable economic growth in the face of recession – has recently emphasised that bett...

With ever more sources of information swilling around - printed journals, e-bulletins, blogs - it's all too easy to get swamped trying to keep abreast of what's happening in your own field, let alo...

Poundbury, the Prince of Wales' model urban development on the edge of Dorchester, is as stimulating as it is controversial. Go there with a group, and everybody will comment differently about the ...

It's only a weeks since the Scottish Government announced its investment proposals for how to improve the connections between our towns and cities (the Strategic Transport Projects Review, see my...

The Scottish Government has recently published two ground-breaking documents – the first Strategic Transport Projects Review and the second National Planning Framework (NPF2). Their publication in ...

Richard Wilson and Alice Casey of the participation thinktank Involve have hit the nail on the head in their article in The Guardian about government outsourcing of consultation and community eng...

Throughout 2008 I've been doing work in Paisley town centre for Renfrewshire Council, with colleagues Ewan Imrie of Collective Architecture, Willie Miller of Willie Miller Urban Design and Alan E...

Anna Minton's new book Ground Control: fear and happiness in the 21st century city makes a convincing case that planning and housing policies have, perhaps inadvertently, made British cities incr...

A 19 hectare brownfield site in the heart of West London, and a client with ambitious aspirations for an exemplar development: this kind of opportunity doesn't come up very often. This study for...

Historic aerial photographs give a fascinating perspective on how places change over time - now all the more fascinating when compared with aerial photography from free mapping websites such as L...