News on 05 October 2000
Sometimes, old ideas are the best ones:
A hundred years ago public buildings were often the pride of Britain's
towns and cities. The best embodied a strong sense of civic pride. More
recently, however, the public sector has too often been associated with
poor design and bad management.
Those are the words of the Prime Minister, writing in the introduction
to a new Government report which is to shape public policy from today.
All Government departments that commission new buildings will now have
a designated member of their ministerial team responsible for implementing
the principles of good design. Additional guidance will be provided by
the new Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. CABE is
chaired by the man who brought good design to commercial property development,
Stuart Lipton.
The Government’s report, Better Public Buildings, sets out the social
and economic
advantages of good design and includes a checklist of 'do's and don'ts'
for commissioning better buildings. CABE is currently putting its principles
into practice at new projects for the Courts Service in Bristol, Exeter
and Cambridge.
