Glossary

The external face of a building that fronts onto a street or open space and is characterised by entrances, windows and other openings that create interest and activity, especially at ground floor.

The physical interface that delineates the public street from the private building, crossing this before reaching the building entrance. Often associated with residential buildings, treatments can include planting, low fences or walls.

The proportional relationship between building heights and street width, having a direct bearing on the sense of enclosure.

The visual appreciation of an urban area as observed from long range views, informed by the combination of and relationship between its physical components and attributes e.g. the diversity of the city silhouette from a long range view.

The prevailing building height of an urban block which serves to unify different building typologies and architectural styles through this shared and defining characteristic.

A route that represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination, highly desirable for its convenience.

A landscaped space including engaging play features for young children under 5 that are close to their homes, and places for carers to sit and talk.

A home with openable windows on two or more walls which may be either on opposite sides of a dwelling or on adjacent sides when wrapping around a corner.

An exterior wall of a building, typically facing north, south, east or west.

The extent to which streets and open spaces are visually defined by buildings, walls and trees. A continuous perimeter of these components between public and private space can achieve enclosure.

The design components comprising an elevation e.g. windows, materials, details.

The arrangement and design of entrances, windows, balconies and other openings on a building facade. A well composed fenestration can achieve well balanced proportions and help reduce visual bulk.

Natural features incorporated into the landscape and public realm design to boost access to nature and climate resilience e.g. street trees for urban shading and rain gardens for storm water management.

The proportion of building or public realm space in relation to human dimensions.

The combination of buildings, streets, trees and open spaces that use visual cues to create an intuitive and easily navigable environment.

A cooperative approach between residents, freeholders and management companies on the fire safety of shared corridors, staircases and lobbies that permits selected fire resistant items in circulation spaces e.g. plant pots, door mats, framed pictures. This can encourage a sense of home, personality and responsibility for shared spaces but must be approved in a fire risk assessment and continuously monitored.

The three dimensional volume and structure of a building. Massing is expressed through the size, shape and scale of its different components. Commonly understood as the expression of a building without any finer architectural elements and details.

Short-term use of temporarily empty buildings or public realm, often during redevelopment. Meanwhile uses can take a potential problem and turn it into an opportunity, by testing possible long-term uses.

Concerning the use of types of transport. A modal strategy might include limiting the types of vehicle allowed to enter a street during a time of day.

The placement of physical features, activities and people in such a way as to maximise visibility and foster positive social interaction.

Concerning buildings designed using 90 degree right angles.

Buildings designed to directly imitate architectural styles associated with historical periods.

Buildings arranged along the edge of an urban block, using their physical mass to define the outer (and public) edge of the block, forming a boundary between public and private space. The blocks themselves have limited permeability but are set within a highly permeable street network.

A connected street or pedestrian network with a high frequency of routes that allow easy passage of movement, often associated with a fine urban grain.

Most commonly understood as building height, though scale is relative to another (usually neighbouring) building’s height. It can also relate to the size of a building’s different elements e.g. massing, fenestration, rather than purely its absolute building height.

Shared communal space with plots intended for access and use by residents of the buildings, forming a street, garden or courtyard.

The way a neighbourhood or part of the city is experienced, referring to the unfolding perspectives and sequential views experienced as you move through space. For instance, as a street turns and a view towards a green space or building opens up.

A home with openable windows on only one wall, resulting in only one ‘view’ outside and often issues with air flow owing to lack of cross-ventilation.

A step-like recess in massing of upper storeys, often used where proposed building heights exceed prevailing building height datum of a street. This strategy can preserve the established building height to street width ratio and allow daylight to reach lower storeys.

A system of classifying different streets within a movement network principally based on the type and volume of movements a route supports, as well as its characteristics in terms of neighbouring building scale, use and enclosure.

High quality, wide crossings, providing safe points for pedestrians to cross busy roads on key routes. These are sometimes shared with cyclists.

Components of a building that exceed the established building height datum of the building it belongs to. For example, where the corner of a courtyard block apartment building steps up to 8 storeys and the remainder of the building is at 6 storeys.

The visual appreciation of an urban area as observed from the pedestrian experience, informed by the combination of and relationship between its physical components and attributes e.g. the scale and facade design of buildings along a street.

All-encompassing term capturing the physical characteristics of urban areas, includes the streets, buildings, soft and hard landscaping, signage, lighting, roads and other infrastructure.

The overall three dimensional shape, size and configuration of a building as a result of its layout, scale and massing.

The arrangement and relationship between buildings and streets. A fine urban grain pattern consists of compact buildings arranged in a highly permeable network of streets and pedestrian routes that wrap around or pass through small urban blocks. This pattern is usually associated with historical parts of a city, such as Bristol Old City, that have a focus on pedestrian movements, with their overall structure having remained in-tact overtime.

The practice of complementing existing (usually historical) buildings and streets by creating a purposefully new addition that contributes to its appreciation, rather than attempting to faithfully replicate what has gone before i.e. pastiche.

Provision of signs, lighting and public art that help people navigate around Broadmead.