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Building Sustainable Communities - Inspiration

The Urbanism Awards

Led by the Academy of Urbanism, the Urbanism Awards are their primary means of developing a strong evidence base for high quality, innovative and sustainable urbanism. The Awards process seeks to identify and recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments at various levels of scale and to understand better the processes by which they are nurtured, used and enjoyed.

  • The European City of the Year
  • The Great Town - an urban settlement that is smaller than a city(including market towns and villages)
  • The Great Neighbourhood - a recognisable part of a town or city
  • The Great Street - a public road, way or thoroughfare.
  • The Great Place - a public space, e.g. square, park, promenade, etc.

Urbanism Manifesto

'Urban settlements must perform at their fullest potential to advance the quality of human habitation and ensure the survival and recovery of the natural environment, at both a global and local scale. The practice of good urbanism can establish a high quality of living, nurture a healthy and creative way of life, support economic, social, political and cultural activity and deliver robust, distinctive and attractive physical environments.' Source: Academy of Urbanism - Manifesto

The Academy's manifesto asserts eighteen principles of urbanism. Can you identify evidence of the principles in your own community?

It might help to use the Academy of Urbanism's criteria:

  • Governance
  • Local Character and Deliverance
  • User Friendliness
  • Commercial Success and Viability
  • Environmental and Social Sustainability
  • Functionality

How does this emphasis compare with the eight components of sustainable communities?

The current holders of the Urbanism Awards are cited with a response for each from Ian McMillan, Poet-in-residence. These could be used as inspiration for learners to generate a written expression about their own perceptions of this place or an aspect of their own communities.

What does the list of nominated and winning places suggest to you about the places themselves?

Read more >>>

Homes & Communities Agency

This project was run in partnership with the Academy for Sustainable Communities which has since become the Skills and Knowledge team at the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

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