Urban Design Futures for North Staffordshire

In regenerating North Staffordshire we must highlight out best assets - the "gems" that are valued by the community and the wider world. Some are obvious, but some are hidden and not celebrated. We must identify all our gems and the unique character that gives North Staffordshire its sense of place.

At the same time we must look forward. The economic base of North Staffordshire has changed dramatically, almost beyond recognition from the mining and manufacturing economy that took the name and good reputation of the area around the world. Unfortunately our industrialisation devasted large swathes of the local environment and all too often our "gems" sit alongside the legacy of a chaotic and degraded urban form.

There are excellent plans to renew North Staffordshire's housing market, to restructure the economy, to redevelop health and educational facilities, to create a University Quarter and a better city centre, and to improve main roads and the greenspace network. This is city building and it will involve significant sums of public money.

It is therefore absolutely essential that the physical regeneration projects of North Staffordshire have true quality, bring lasting economic benefits, and will not need regenerating again by the next generation. Almost all other cities in the country have a level of quality in their built environment that North Staffordshire has found hard to match. If it is to succeed, regeneration here must build a city of greater quality, and not a city based on the principle of "it will do".

The only way that this will be achieved is by making sure that all major regeneration projects are well designed - anything less would risk squandering public resources. If the area continues to accept second best it would also be limiting the future values that might be achieved by private development, thereby reducing the incentive to invest. North Staffordshire has the potential to become a great city region, but only if we raise our standards in designing the new urban form.

Urban Vision is asking all the major regeneration players to nominate a handful of flagship projects which together could form a ten year programme of major regeneration schemes delivered to a quality standard of international excellence - an International Building Exposition. Urban Vision will encourage and assist all the key regeneration bodies in North Staffordshire to access the best national and international designers to work on their flagship projects.

At the end of a decade of physical delivery North Staffordshire would host an international exhibition of high quality building developments. This would have a major impact on both the physical reality and the image of the area. But the reality must come first, otherwise image will not improve.

Urban Design Futures for North Staffordshire will identify the gems of the area and bind them together in an urban design framework for North Staffordshire. It will show how North Staffordshire can be transformed through excellent architectural and urban design which values the best of the past and can turn strategies for the economy, housing, transport and spatial development into new and enhanced places of distinction. It will identify focal areas for enhancement and renewal, and it will help create designs which will lead to new developments that will inspire the community as a whole.

Urban Design Futures for North Staffordshire has four main parts: