Introduction and Overview of Masterplanning Approach

The issues facing our urban areas such as housing growth and urban repair are complex and sophisticated and therefore require innovative responsive solutions by all those involved within the regeneration and development process. Masterplans can play an important role in helping to shape our urban environment and adopting a masterplanning approach for new major development offers a strategy to deal with many of the complex issues often associated with larger applications. In its simplest form, a masterplanning approach assists the council by outlining a comprehensive plan of action for development across larger and more complex sites and with agreed parameters influencing building design. The parameters as set out in the masterplan can influence the overall form, scale, massing, height, plot and material of a development. It should be a positive and engaging process that is both responsive and proactive and seeks to establish principles of placemaking from the outset outlining how a place will change physically, economically and socially and who will manage and deliver this process of change.