Review of Architecture and the Built Environment Policy 

March 2025

The Architecture and the Built Environment Policy for Northern Ireland was published in June 2006 and was endorsed by all Departments in the NI Executive. The policy recognises the positive contribution that good design in the built environment makes to Government aims such as regeneration, economic and community development, sustainability, improved health and well-being as well as built and natural heritage. As it is now 19 years old, the policy needs to be updated to take account of planning reform, priorities such as climate change, and the restructure of Government Departments on 9 May 2016.

The Department for Communities is seeking to evaluate the performance of the current policy and identify themes and priorities for a renewed policy. 

How we design, build and use our buildings and places has a profound effect on the environment. The built environment has a significant role to play in tackling the climate crisis. 

Q1. What themes do you think a new Architecture and the Built Environment Policy should prioritise over the next 5-10 years, in terms of raising performance and design quality of SUSTAINABILITY?

1. Health and well-being and environmental quality
2. Defining and realising initial and long-term green energy
3. Climate mitigation strategies
4. Net-zero and carbon budgets
5. Retention/ Repurpose/ Retrofit/ Re-use

Well-designed and well-performing places and buildings inspire, welcome and promote social, economic, health and well-being benefits. 

Q2. What do you think a new Architecture and the Built Environment Policy should address over the next 5-10 years to raise PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY?

1. Inclusive: Defining and realising design for everyone
2. Infrastructure first
3. Performance and resilience
4. Peer/ Design Review process
5. Assessing design in development control/ planning
6. Investment in early-stage brief, performance and associated design processes
7. Quality in construction
8. Systems that define initial and update project scope, budget and appropriate procurement methods

The built environment is complex and requires expertise, leadership and collaboration from the ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ to deliver good design. 

Q3. What do you think a new Architecture and the Built Environment Policy should prioritise over the next 5-10 years in terms of LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION?

1. Championing good design and showing leadership in decision-making
2. Government department collaboration
3. Local government collaboration
4. Community collaboration – engagement, co-design
5. Inter-discipline collaboration
6. Business cases - Government as an exemplar client

We have a duty to this and future generations to protect a valuable and irreplaceable heritage which enriches the character of the places in which we live. To live sustainably, we need to value the past and plan for a sustainable future. 

Q4. What themes do you think a new Architecture and the Built Environment Policy should prioritise over the next 5-10 years to address issues in relation to HERITAGE, CULTURE AND IDENTITY?

1. Planning policies: development need and control
2. Built heritage
3. Natural heritage
4. Cultural heritage
5. Traditional & heritage skills

A better-informed society will be more discerning and demanding and is likely to be more responsive to initiatives, to demand good design and to accept greater responsibility for living sustainably. 

Q5. What themes do you think a new Architecture and the Built Environment Policy should prioritise over the next 5-10 years, in terms of raising KNOWLEDGE, AWARENESS AND OUTREACH of good design?

1. Raising the awareness of the impact of good design
2. Knowledge sharing: Investing in and access to research & data
3. Competency and training to raise design standards
4. Social mobility – attracting talent to design professions
5. Promotion of place and building design as a cultural expression

Q6. Are there any other themes for any of the actions areas noted above which you consider relevant to a renewed Architecture and the Built Environment Policy for Northern Ireland?

Yes. The RTPI published a report in June 2020 entitled 'Plan the World We Need'. Many of the findings and recommendations in that report are wide-ranging as they came from the Committee on Climate Change, Institute for Public Policy Research, Environmental Justice Commission, and National Infrastructure Commission, amongst others. The report focused on three aspects: sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity, with recommendations for planning policy under each one:

Priority themes under Sustainability: Accelerating progress towards zero carbon by retrofitting existing buildings and advancing standards for new development; decarbonising heat through the deployment of district heat networks and heat pumps; decarbonising transport through a shift to active, public and shared transport modes and rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure; investing in smart energy grids and low-cost solar energy; and supporting skills, training and job growth in the above while avoiding investments and bailouts which are incompatible with a net-zero carbon economy, or which increase exposure to risks.

Priority themes under Resilience: Future-proofing buildings and infrastructure to the risks of flooding, overheating, drought and fire; increasing tree planting, permeable surfacing and multifunctional urban green spaces; providing a choice of affordable and safe transport options; and moving towards a circular economy that operates within ecological limits and places greater value on health, wellbeing and resilience.

Priority themes under Inclusivity: Creating healthy and equitable places by targeting support to the most vulnerable in society; addressing regional inequalities; and improving capacities and processes for democratic community participation in decisions about the future.

RTPI Northern Ireland also published its own 'Plan the World We Need', which focused on the role of planning in a sustainable and resilient Northern Ireland. This response was centred on desired outcomes under three main themes: place, connections and governance. Outcome-focused planning is essential to ensure efficiency and sustainability and, in so doing, prove planning’s worth. 

Q7. Thinking about your job role, what do you think are the barriers and issues which stifle the development of high-quality buildings and places in Northern Ireland?

RTPI NI represents the Royal Town Planning Institute in Northern Ireland, with around 700 members. The Institute seeks to advance the science and art of planning, working for the long-term common good. The RTPI develops and shapes policy affecting the built environment, works to raise professional standards and supports members through continuous education, training and development. Many of the barriers to the development of high quality buildings and place-making are those we have been reporting on and highlighting as a professional body for the last few years, namely: the under-resourcing of planners, the need for greater cross-departmental working, support of validation checklists to improve planning application submissions at the outset, appropriate training for decision makers on planning committees, and vital inclusion of climate action at all levels from permitted development rights to the Local Development Plan process.

Many of the issues which stifle the development of high-quality buildings and places in NI can be unlocked through the role of planners and the planning system. A well-resourced, plan-led, positive and transparent planning service, which is proactive in engaging local communities, can bring together objectives across services and achieve good design. The planning system and planners have an important proactive role as a driver of change. However, there are many issues hampering the success of planners and the planning system in NI. In 2023 we asked our Members what were the main issues and barriers, in our Big Conversation survey. The main issues raised were: large percentages of planners being overstretched, particularly those working in the public sector and Development Management teams; problems with the introduction of the Planning Portal which actually made departments less efficient for a number of months; a lack of understanding by Planning Committees, and individual Councillors, of their role and of the value of advice from professional planning officers; availability of other specialist officers including ecologists and highways officers to input to and respond to planning applications; and social media misinformation about regeneration and planning proposals. These issues need to be addressed in order to support the development of quality buildings and places in NI.

Q8. What can our Government Departments do better to deliver high-quality buildings and places in Northern Ireland?

In the Department for Infrastructure’s Review of the Implementation of the Planning Act (NI) 2011 in 2021, RTPI NI noted that the changes introduced in Northern Ireland in 2015 as a result of the Planning Act represented a significant step forward in the design of the planning service to deliver sustainable and high quality development for and with communities. The consultation focused on the legislation and, whilst there are changes which could usefully be implemented, other improvements which would improve the quality of the built environment do not require legislative or regulatory changes. Some of these have begun to be explored by Government Departments through the work of the planning improvement programme and other initiatives such as the planning portal. However, more can be done to support planners and the planning system to deliver high quality buildings and places. Like any good public service, the planning system requires resources and capacity to deliver outcomes efficiently, effectively, and equitably.

Financial support to increase the number of public sector planners employed (in local authorities as well as the DfI and statutory consultees), funding for specialist knowledge (particularly for energy infrastructure projects), training for councillors on planning committees, investing in efficiency-saving digital technologies and the training to use them, better public engagement, as well as changes to the planning system itself have all been potential solutions raised by our Members to support the profession in Northern Ireland.

Q9. Thinking about your job role, how do you think good design is achieved?

Many of our Members (chartered planners) use design tools to assess design quality, such as the Place Standard tool (Scotland), or the Healthy Streets toolkit (used primarily in London). These tools can help planners assess design quality, providing clear, objective criteria against which the quality of design can be assessed.

Design quality should focus on problem-solving. It should have regard to inclusivity, consider wider needs and impacts, and secure accessible, safe and useable development. It should result in contextual, deliverable buildings and spaces that draw on the qualities of a place, and that create new layers of history through contemporary solutions. Training in what makes good design, and the issues that are important to weigh up, is vital.

On the other hand, good design can also be achieved through grass roots movements and community engagement, with tactical urbanism (making temporary changes that become permanent once tested out) or incremental change with small improvements made slowly.

The RTPI hosts Awards for Planning Excellence each year. This is a great way of showing what 'good design' can look like and providing examples and inspiration for others.

Collaboration between partners is vital to promote and achieve good design. For example, the Placemaking Wales Charter has been developed by Welsh Government and the Design Commission for Wales in collaboration with the Placemaking Wales Partnership – a multi-disciplinary group representing professions and organisations working within the built and natural environment, of which RTPI Cymru is a member. The Charter outlines six placemaking principles that cover the range of considerations that contribute to establishing and maintaining good design of places: 1. People and community 2. Location 3. Movement 4. Mix of uses 5. Public realm 6. Identity. Partners sign up to the Charter and commit to undertaking their own work to promote good design and placemaking in their activities and to share good practice.

Q10. How do you think an Architecture and the Built Environment Policy can help deliver high-quality developments and places in terms of architectural quality, good urban and rural design, appropriateness to locality, sustainability and climate change considerations?

Planning policy (including a renewed Architecture and Built Environment Policy) provides a strong mechanism and guide to managing development if it has a place-based approach which ensures that the local context is considered, including in policy approaches to climate change and sustainability. Research published by the RTPI in March 2021 on 'Place-Based Approaches to Climate Change' showed that a place-based approach is essential to climate action, adaptation and mitigation policies, in order to avoid sectoral thinking and acting in silos, which can have a disproportionately negative impact on some communities. 

In addition, a renewed Architecture and the Built Environment Policy can help deliver high-quality developments and places in terms of urban and rural design (and appropriateness to locality) if it focuses on a ‘Just Transition’. Research published by the RTPI in 2022 on 'Rural Planning in the 2020s', found that planning needs to balance a myriad of competing claims in rural space, from housing to habitat protection, flood management, biodiversity protection, and tree planting, as well as the effective management of landscape designations and the promotion of economic diversity. The report asserted that many rural areas need to urgently transition from where they are now – from locked-in carbon dependency and unsustainable patterns of development and energy use – to where they need to be very soon – places of economic diversity and adaptation.

The idea of ‘just transitions’ seems to offer a way forward, as it argues that local people’s livelihoods, and their future prospects and prosperity, cannot be overlooked. Ideas on how local populations share in the benefits of ‘just transitions’ emerged from a number of case studies in the RTPI research report. The 'Talking about our Place' toolkit (developed by NatureScot in 2012), for example, illustrates the central role of communities in identifying the values and benefits arising from key assets. The Toolkit was developed to empower rural communities, in particular to represent their needs and preferences in planning. The toolkit has been followed by a wider move towards place-based approaches in Scotland in recent years, such as the 'Climate Ready Places' initiative (2016) and the 'Place Standard Tool' with a climate lens (2022), both of which were developed by Adaptation Scotland. In order to ensure a just transition, an integrated approach towards mitigation and adaptation planning should take place, to ensure decisions on net zero support, rather than work against, efforts to protect vulnerable communities from the consequences of climate change.

A framework is needed in which to make sense of competing needs and land uses, and the plan-led system which is in place in Northern Ireland is an opportunity to deliver a balanced approach to development that can set out a pathway for resilience in urban and rural areas that reduces dependency on fossil fuels and supports innovation and economic resilience. However, local authorities require the skills, expertise and resources to deliver Local Development Plans in a timely manner that can support this transition, and the Planning Appeals Commission needs the resources it requires to help the approval process.

Q11. How do you think our public procurement system can better support the delivery of high-quality buildings and places?

No comment

Q12. How do you think an Architecture and the Built Environment Policy can support the construction industry to deliver high-quality buildings and places in Northern Ireland?

No comment

Q13. How can our Government further embed and implement a renewed Architecture and the Built Environment Policy?

There needs to be a clear understanding of who the audience is - who is it aimed at? Then there needs to be a clear strategy on communications and promotion, ensuring stakeholders understand the Policy's purpose and value. Clarity on what weight the document holds is also vital - does it need to be a consideration in planning decisions?

Q14. Are you familiar with the Architecture and the Built Environment Policy for NI, an NI Executive policy endorsed by all Government Departments in 2006?

Yes

Q15. Do you use the Architecture and the Built Environment Policy in your current job role?

No

Q16. Is there a reason you don’t use the current Architecture and the Built Environment Policy?

It is very out of date and there is other planning policy which seems more relevant. I'm also not clear on who the intended audience is and what its purpose and status is in the planning process.