The 2008 summer school

2008 - learning from Tyneside

Tyneside was a natural choice as a location for the summer school. Its post-industrial renaissance has given rise to exemplary streetscapes, regenerated waterfronts and iconic spaces and places – rich pickings for students of urban design.

The summer school certainly lived up to its promise to be intensive and fast-paced, with delegates out-and-about on day one exploring the city and gathering their thoughts about what make a place good or bad. On day two delegates began design work proper, with visits to three diverse and challenging development sites in Newcastle and Gateshead. Teams then began to work through the design process with the support of expert sessions and best practice speakers, including Tilman Latz, Carsten Sperling, Chris Brown and Wayne Hemingway who explored the role of design at different stages in the development process.

On the final day, delegates explored the development process in depth. Using Wayne Hemingway’s Staiths scheme, students discussed with key stakeholders the pros and cons of the scheme and the real-life processes and pitfalls in achieving design innovation and excellence.

Finally, the Strictly Urban Design event saw top project designs judged by an expert panel. Well done the winners. You can see their scheme here.

This very brief précis cannot convey the pace and vibrancy of the summer school which is best experienced personally. Leave your details here if you’d like to join the waiting list for the 2009 summer school.   

Finally, a big hats-off to the delivery team whose (literally) tireless work and creativity made the school so stimulating, engaging and fun.


Find out more

The 2008 programme contains links to speaker presentations, where available.

Go to the Alumni network for photos, videos and more (former delegates only), or view and download photos from Flickr.
 

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The CABE urban design summer school programme is more than a four-day event in June. It is an engaging series of activities and learning opportunities, with the summer school event at its heart.

The 2008 programme - an overview

Day 1 - Sunday, 22 June: Exploring the city

On the first day of the event delegates were intreoduced to each other and the host location, NewcastleGateshead. Beginners tackled the fundamentals of urban design. The more experienced were challenged to think about how the planners and developers of Tyneside could have done better.

In the evening we heard from inspiring speakers and, after dinner, played a game of 'Urbanology'.

Day 2 - Monday, 23 June: Design - the bigger picture

The big design project looked at challenging sites in the Tyneside area. Working in mixed groups at a big scale, we looked at urban structures and at designing layouts. We also attended short, targeted skills workshops on urban structure, sustainable design and masterplanning and hear from a leading authority on placemaking.

In the evening there was an optional trip to see key developments in the NewcastleGateshead area and beyond.

Day 3 - Tuesday, 24 June: Design in detail

Tuesday saw two top speakers tell us how to achieve high quality in public space. The big design project focused on a smaller area of each site and on designing in detail. Our skills workshops provided the techniques needed to create great streets and public spaces.

Our optional evening event was a trip to The Staith's with Wayne Hemingway and then a (rather wet) picnic at Saltwell Park.

Day 4 - Wednesday, 25 June: Design into action

Our final morning focuses on delivery, picking apart 'the anatomy of a development' to find out what makes for good and bad design outcomes. We met with people in similar occupations to our own to explore how to be more effective in promoting high quality design.

Finally, the best Big Design projects fought it out in "Strictly Urban Design" with the Character team winning with this exciting Stephenson's Quarter scheme.