We are acutely aware of the impacts that the design of our urban places can have on travel behaviour, health and wellbeing and as such we want to encourage travel behaviour that will be beneficial to the city and our team. When we choose active travel (walking & cycling) to get to work we are healthier and more productive. Evidence suggests that people who cycle to work are fitter, healthier and happier.

To mark this we are making regular SSM Group Cycles, to help colleagues less experienced or maybe nervous about cycling have a chance to cycle in a safe manner.

Last Friday we all headed down to our regular haunt Seacliff, East Lothian for our annual summer BBQ. The weather was glorious and a great time was had by old and new members of the SSM family. Competitive sports were the highlight of the day with some enjoying the victories more than others. Fingers crossed for the weather next year for a bigger and better event.

Alistair Chaired the afternoon session at the Town Centre Conference held in Ayr Town Hall on 10 April 2019. Building on the Scottish Government’s current policy focus on town centre regeneration, the conference focussed on specific delivery issues of conservation and redevelopment in small towns, such as the restoration of listed buildings, community asset purchase and the use of compulsory purchase orders. Speakers included Philip Prentice of Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Una Richards of The Scottish Historic Buildings Trust.

This year we again welcomed our clients, colleagues and friends to our Leith Studio for our annual jazz night. A wonderful evening was had by all providing light music, great conversation and a chance to network with various arms of architecture, construction and delivery. We are already looking forward to next year’s event and with a keen eye on building on this year’s success.

How can we design our towns to create more caring places for older people which enables them to live independently and well for longer? Working with Architecture & Design Scotland and Open Change we reviewed existing research, identified some great case study examples and sought to answer this question through a public sector client interactive workshop.

We made use of the excellent Scottish Towns Partnership online resource which provides information on every town in Scotland to identify two typical example towns, one with a population of less than 3,000 people and one with a population between 3,000 and 10,000. The nature of these towns was captured through the range of facilities, the quality of connections and its relationship to adjacent towns.

The work was also informed by a series of older person personas that outlined their physical condition, capability to continue working, enthusiasm to do volunteering, and level of support from friends and family. Creating a story which reflects the practicalities and realities for a variety of older people. The lives of these older people were considered in the context of the two typical towns and the physical and service solutions which would create better places for these people.

The World Health Organisation has published excellent guidance on the eight characteristics of an Age Friendly City from transportation to civic participation and this identifies opportunities for excellent design to assist with creating town centre caring places. There are a range of design solutions which can assist such as high quality accessible civic spaces, leisure opportunities and housing near to facilities, many of these we managed to achieve in the design of public realm at Castle Square, Stranraer.

The workshop tested a format and a toolkit which will be developed to assist public sector organisations to assess existing towns and see how design and service delivery can create more caring and supportive towns. There are great opportunities for this to be applied through the Scottish Government Place Standard and we look forward to the next opportunity to apply this to one of our master planning projects. https://www.ads.org.uk/event-a-caring-place-public-sector-client-forum/