For both this episode and the next one Sam Stafford hands over the 50 Shades reins to Stephen Gleave. Stephen is an urban designer and town planner and has been based in the north west of England for nearly 30 years. Stephen was invited to guest edit the Summer 2021 edition of the Urban Design Group’s quarterly journal and Sam has lent the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast as a platform for Stephen to share some of the material that he curated. 

Stephen set out to explore urban design in the north, the 'Northern Powerhouse' and what 'levelling up' might mean for placemaking. What are the current active urban designers “up to” across the north? What influence are they having, what are they achieving and what challenges are they facing? 

Stephen sought input from a range of academics, consultants and practitioners in both public and private sectors and some of the contributors have kindly taken the time to read their essays for these two 50 Shades episodes. 

Part 1 features David Roberts at Igloo (@david_igloo) talking about Riverside Sunderland; Vicky Payne at URBED (@Victoria_Payne) talking about an equitable approach to housing design quality; and Jaimie Ferguson at OPEN (@jaimieferg) talking about designing for prosperity (again...).

Information on how to join the Urban Design Group and how to get hold of a copy of the Summer 2021 edition of the journal can be found here.

https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/journal/urban-design-159-summer-2021

Some of this contributors to this episode have come together to form Common Good, a non-profit group of practitioners acting in their own time to encourage discussions around sustainable places and good design in the North. Follow @CommonGood_ on Twitter.

Some accompanying watching.

Our Friends in the North on Britbox

https://www.britbox.co.uk/programme/Our_Friends_in_the_North_46176

Some accompanying listening.

Hit The North by Frank Sidebottom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0elCZT8yN0

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...

'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.

Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html