Three charrettes were sponsored in March by the Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative

Three charrettes were sponsored in March by the Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative to create models for environmentally sound development. The lead planner was Andres Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. The final presentation, in Edinburgh, was attended by high-level ministers and James Mackinnon, the chief planner for Scotland. The charrette teams focused on three sites. One was an urban expansion of Dumfries, a city of 31,000 near the English border that was once home to poet Robert Burns. The proposed mixed use neighborhood would accommodate about 400 houses and businesses with an emphasis on providing affordable housing that is close to employment. A second charrette created a plan for greenfield development near Aberdeen, a city on the North Sea that is growing due to the oil industry. The proposal calls for 6,000-7,000 units, with residential units within walking distance to neighborhood centers. A third charrette focused on revitalizing an economically moribund former mining town, Lochgelly, north of Edinburgh, with the addition of about 1,400 houses. The teams taught Scottish officials charrette techniques in public participation and urban design, says Galina Tahchieva, a DPZ principal and leader of one of the teams. According to the government website, the charrette series was “structured both as a comprehensive exercise relevant to Scotland as a whole, and as a series of individual events tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of each of the three sites. It is anticipated that the project sites will provide exemplars of good practice for the future delivery of sustainable development in Scotland.”