Comment

Four Design Principles for beautiful infrastructure

Last week witnessed the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) publish a series of Design Principles for national infrastructure, delivering upon recommendations set out in the first National Infrastructure Assessment.

The Design Principles, derived from a Design Group comprising architects, landscape architects, engineers and urban designers, seek to embed four key considerations into the conception, planning and delivery of nationally significant infrastructure:

1. Climate – Infrastructure must help set the trajectory for the UK to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner and be capable of adapting to climate change.
2. People – Projects should be human scale, instinctive to use and seek opportunities to improve the quality of life for people who live and work nearby.
3. Places – Schemes should provide a sense of identity for communities, supporting the natural and built environment and enriching ecosystems.
4. Value – Value should be added beyond the main purpose of the infrastructure, solving problems well and achieving multiple benefits.

The Design Principles for national infrastructure are the first of their kind and can be applied to all economic infrastructure: digital communications, energy, transport, flood management, water and waste.

NIC would like the Government to endorse these principles and embed them within the National Infrastructure Strategy which is expected to be launched alongside the forthcoming Budget. Other recommendations by the Design Group include embedded internal design champions within infrastructure projects and/or establishing design panels (internal or external) to ensure schemes are tested against the principles all the way through their development cycle.

It could be argued that the design principles are obvious but the Design Group, in reviewing previous and existing projects and engagement with stakeholders, have found that design is sometimes overlooked, treated as an afterthought and not fully integrated into the development process.   

A shared vision for national infrastructure has therefore been devised. Cutting across all infrastructure, the Design Principles are deliberately simple. They are also more holistic, capturing broader considerations such as climate/zero carbon and social value -  matters that are very much at the forefront of professional debate and illustrate that good design is not just about building (beauty) and place. National infrastructure has a hugely significant role in transitioning to a low carbon economy and benefits society for generations.

The Design Principles are certainly timely, as many expect we are about to enter a new ambitious era of national infrastructure investment.  We eagerly await further details in the forthcoming Budget of how and where the Government intends to spend the £3bn it has set aside for infrastructure spending.

The Design Principles on national infrastructure can be found here.

For more information on the Design Principles, or our infrastructure work, please contact David Diggle.

10 February 2020