Key Qualities

KGUV Masterplan (http://www.housing.qld.gov.au/partnerships/kelvingrove/masterplan.htm)

Image: the masterplan for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village transposed the proposal over the aerial photo. The colours depict future uses. The image confirms that street activity, through buildings built to the boundary, is important.

A potential structure for a comprehensive master plan report is provided below.

Executive Summary
Introduction: the purpose of the Master Plan and the approach taken.
Project Background: context and history of the project.
The Client and the Project Objectives: identifying the key client characteristics and establishing the core directives for their ongoing participation. It also establishes the overarching objectives for the project which have been formulated jointly by the participants.
The Vision: presenting the aspirational vision for the project to deliver on client objectives and uniquely position the precinct.
The Strategic Framework: confirming the current and future hard and soft infrastructure (projects, institutions etc) and identifying the opportunities and barriers.
The Context: establishing the site in its economic, environment and social context, identifying its challenges and strengths, the current project status.
The Development Brief: successful places meet the needs and expectations of their users, existing and future.
Design Evolution: presenting the platform from which the preferred concept was selected (could be in the appendix).
The Spatial Master Plan: a three dimensional proposal for development or redevelopment affecting physical, economic and social factors. It includes plans and written documents describing the proposed design approach and development.
The Strategies: establishing measurable desired outcomes that are required by the development brief and support the masterplan and vision.
Commercial Appraisal: understanding the financial and economic implications.
The Delivery Framework: indicating a model for decision making and for implementation together with a master program and staging strategy.

Back to Place Tools

Scale

"Design at every scale should correspond to the logic of transition from the natural edge to the man-made centre.” Duany et al, 2010

Scale and form

It refers to the outcome of place creation as well as the process and implies an emphasis on the user rather than the designer. It also removes stigmas associated with ‘urban’ and ‘design’ – which many people shy away from as they don’t consider themselves designers or they are trying to improve a suburban or rural centre.

Website Guide

Placefocus was established in 2009 and serves individuals, organisations, practitioners and travellers worldwide.

The Top Navigation bar

This bartakes you to sections that are guided by the 196 page manual and is built into sections that are broken down into:

Fast Track!

Fast track your course by reading just the essential information to get you started.

Website guide

This is the guide to the website

WhatWhyHow?

The What, the Why and How of Urban Design and Placemaking.

Place Gallery

This will contain photographs of Urban Design and Placemaking.

Place Links

External website links to guide your way through the internet sea of information.

Favourite Places

This contains favourite places around the world.

Place Interviews

Video interviews of Professionals talking about issues and design relating to Urban Design & Placemaking.

Below this are different areas that represent the process of Urban Design & Placemaking.

alt Placemaking101

Introduces placemaking and urban design, its scope and role in the creation and management of the built environment.

alt Place Principles

Outlines the fundamental principles for cities and towns which underpin placemaking and urban design.

alt Place Qualities

Identifies the key qualities associated with highly regarded urban places.

alt Place Typology

Explains urban design and placemaking from the region down to the street and the building.

alt Place Process

Place creation from aspiration to context, design, delivery and management.

alt Place Roles

Key roles in making quality urban places.

alt Place Tools

Discusses the various processes, strategies, techniques and tools available to planners to participate in the creation of good urban places.

alt Place Links

Sources of additional information.

alt Place Outcomes

What we get from good urban design and placemaking.

We call these tools and techniques "place skills". We believe that anyone can learn these tools and techniques and apply them successfully, helping them to make the very most of the places they are creating.

+ - The Top bar Click to collapse

alt

Within the menu, you have Training: The Two day introductory course, the 8 week online course, feedback from people that have done the course and our current courses.

Under News you have current Urban Design and Placmaking news.

Corporate features the corporate pack of the course that is delivered to government levels.

Shop features an overview of products that we have as well as a breakdown of solutions available.

About is about placefocus and it's philosophy.

Networking has your profile information, the forums as well as the Affiliates directory. The place blog as well as the expert interviews that feature prominant professionals talking about placemaking and urban design.

Contact has contact information where you can email, skype and call us.

Placefocus is based in Australia and is planning to develop in other countries, so if you’re interested in an affiliate partnership, please contact us.

What system requirements are needed to watch videos on Placefocus?

In order to watch videos on our site, make sure you have the following minimum system requirements:

+ - General System Requirements: Click to collapse

    Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22+ plug-in
    Firefox 1.1+, Internet Explorer 9.0+, Safari 1.0+, Google Chrome, or Opera
    Broadband connection with 500+ Kbps

PC Specific Requirements:

    Platform: Windows 2000 or higher with latest updates installed
    Processor: 500MHz or faster
    RAM: 128MB or more
    Video Card: at least 64MB of video memory
    Sound Card: at least 16-bit

Mac Specific Requirements:

    Platform: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher with latest updates installed
    Processor: 1.83MHz Intel Core Duo or faster
    RAM: 128MB or more
    Video Card: at least 64MB of video memory
    Sound Card: at least 16-bit

Optimal System Requirements (recommended for Interviews and Live Streaming Content):

    Flash Player: Adobe Flash Player 10.1+
    Browser: Firefox 8.0+, Internet Explorer 8.0+, Safari 5.0+, or Google Chrome 15.0+
    Operating System: Windows Vista+ or Mac OS X 10.6+
    Internet Connection: 1 Mbps or higher

Ensuring optimal streaming speeds is especially important for Placefocus and Live Streaming. Make sure to close as many other tabs, browsers, and programs as possible while streaming your content. It may also help to hardwire your Internet connection, rather than using a wireless network connection.

This site also uses Adobe Acrobat 9 as standard for reading pdf documents.

+ - The minimum requirements for this are: Click to collapse

    1.3-GHz processor or higher
    Mac OSX Snowleopard, Microsoft Windows XP Home, Professional, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 or 3 (32 bit and 64 bit);
    Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2 for 64 bit); or Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or
    Enterprise with or without Service Pack 1 (32 bit and 64 bit)
    Internet Explorer 9.0
    512 MB of RAM
    985 MB of available hard-disk space.
    1,024 x 768 screen resolution
    DVD drive Video hardware acceleration optional

Online Course minimum requirements

Before logging into Moodle, confirm that your computer hardware, software and settings are correct and compatible with Moodle requirements to take a online course and be able to run moodle.

+ - Computer Requirements. Click to collapse

Computer Requirements
For PC computers:
• Pentium II (Pentium III recommended)
• Windows 2000 Operating System (or better)
For Apple computers:
• Power PC or better
• OS X
For all computers:
• 256 MB of RAM (or more)
• 1 G of free disk space
• 56 K or greater modem (DSL or cable recommended)
• Internet access either via modem and phone line or a direct network connection (high speed BROADBAND access is highly recommended, dial-up and satellite access may be problematic)
• Web browser (Firefox 6 is recommended, http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html)
• CD-ROM drive
• Sound card and speakers
• Printer
• Cookies must be enabled
• Pop-up blocker is turned off
Browser Requirements
• Firefox is highly recommended, however, for PC users, please also have Internet Explorer (version 8, or 9) available from your desktop. Other browsers such as Safari, Chrome, and Opera may be used, but they may not support all functionalities in Moodle, such as the HTML editor.
• All browsers should have Cookies, Java, and Pop-ups enabled (i.e., do not block Pop-ups).

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Place Making

KGUV Masterplan (http://www.housing.qld.gov.au/partnerships/kelvingrove/masterplan.htm)

A potential structure for a comprehensive master plan report is provided below.

Executive Summary
Introduction: the purpose of the Master Plan and the approach taken.
Project Background: context and history of the project.
The Client and the Project Objectives: identifying the key client characteristics and establishing the core directives for their ongoing participation. It also establishes the overarching objectives for the project which have been formulated jointly by the participants.
The Vision: presenting the aspirational vision for the project to deliver on client objectives and uniquely position the precinct.
The Strategic Framework: confirming the current and future hard and soft infrastructure (projects, institutions etc) and identifying the opportunities and barriers.
The Context: establishing the site in its economic, environment and social context, identifying its challenges and strengths, the current project status.
The Development Brief: successful places meet the needs and expectations of their users, existing and future.
Design Evolution: presenting the platform from which the preferred concept was selected (could be in the appendix).
The Spatial Master Plan: a three dimensional proposal for development or redevelopment affecting physical, economic and social factors. It includes plans and written documents describing the proposed design approach and development.
The Strategies: establishing measurable desired outcomes that are required by the development brief and support the masterplan and vision.
Commercial Appraisal: understanding the financial and economic implications.
The Delivery Framework: indicating a model for decision making and for implementation together with a master program and staging strategy.