All the components of a street contribute to creating a place: building heights, street and paths widths, trees and vegetation, front gardens and boundary treatments, car parking, waste storage, etc. Good design utilises all those tools to create hierarchical street character in neighbourhoods, helping people create a mental map of the place.
A well designed crossing with clear pedestrian priority (by Phil Jones Associates).
2.1 Well defined streets & spaces
Street, landscape and building design should be considered together so that an understandable hierarchy of streets is created. On larger sites a variation in street typologies should be used with different widths and street enclosure, keeping to well proportioned height to width ratios, as well as using elements such as street trees where appropriate. Streets should either be straight or gently winding, defined to suit the position of buildings and with uncomplicated junctions and squares. The limits of adoption of new streets should extend to the edge of the developer’s landholding to avoid ransom strips that make it difficult to achieve well-connected layouts on potential adjacent sites. In some cases, however, it may be appropriate to provide fewer accesses and routes using filtered permeability.
Design Criteria
2.1.1 Accurate adoption plans are produced to show the boundaries of what is to be adopted.
2.1.2 Sections that include the proposed buildings, illustrate the different street types in the development.