 An RIBA south west award wining building at Exeter University in Devon; The Forum. This building benefited from design review during the design and pre-planning stage |  Design Review Panel training session carried out in Taunton and the Somerset County Cricket Ground in November 2018. The event was extremely well attended by local authority representatives, house builders and design team members |  Photograph of Exeter Quay taken by Architect and Design Review Panel Manager Jonathan Braddick. The Design Review Panel holds regular design review panel sessions at Exeter City Council |  Design Review Panel training event 2018. Jonathan Tricker, Highways Engineer, Urban Designer & Director at Phil Jones Associates, gave a talk entitled: ‘Highway Design in Placemaking’ |  The design review Panel was engaged by Willmott Dixon during the pre-application design stage of the project to help them prepare a design that would be acceptable to the local authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Photograph from a 2018 design review panel site visit carried out in Dorset in 2018. A full sit down design review panel was subsequently held in the Poole Borough Council Offices |  External visualization for a NPPF paragraph 55 (now 79) house that was presented to the design review panel. This project has subsequently gone on to achieve planning permission and is now built on site |  Design Review Panel training session carried out in Exeter, Devon in December 2017. The event was extremely well attended by local authority representatives, house builders and design team members |  A small but sensitive project in Exeter Quay; The Rockfish Restaurant has been designed by Grainge Architects who engaged with The Design Review Panel during the design & pre -application planning stage |  Pegasus Life secured planning permission through public inquiry for a Sarah Wigglesworth Architects scheme for a C2 assisted living community at The Knowle, Sidmouth, Devon. The Design Review Panel (www.designreviewpanel.co.uk) were instructed by East Devon District Council (EDDC) to provide multidisciplinary, expert, independent and impartial guidance and feedback to the local authority, applicant and design team during the pre-application design stage. |
 Photograph of Plymouth Hoe, Devon. The Design Review Panel holds regular design review panel sessions at Plymouth City Council |  Design Review Panel training session carried out in Exeter, Devon. The event was extremely well attended and incorporated a mock design review panel session and design workshop. |
COVID-19 Adjustments ...
As COVID social distancing requirements are easing, we are now offering both 'in-person' and online sessions.
Site visits can be carried out in-person or online using 360 degree virtual photographic tours (click here to see an example).Sessions should be booked using our online booking system.
We offer both 'in-person' and online sessions.
Site visits can be carried out 'in-person' or online using 360 degree virtual photographic tours (click here to see an example).Sessions should be booked using our online booking system.
10 Principles of Design Review
"For design review to succeed it must offer consistently high standards in the quality of the advice it offers. It must also follow a robust and defensible process. The Design Review Panel therefore operates on the following ten principles. Good Design Review is ..."
1.0 Independent -
It is conducted by people who are separate from the scheme promoter and decision maker, and it protects against conflicts of interest.
2.0 Expert -
It is conducted by suitably trained people who are experienced in design and know how to criticise constructively. Review is usually most respected when it is carried out by professional peers of the project designers, as their standing and expertise will be acknowledged.
3.0 Multidisciplinary -
Good design review combines different perspectives of architects, urban designers, planners, landscape architects, engineers, chartered surveyors, ecologists and other specialists.
4.0 Accountable -
The Review Panel should demonstrably be for public benefit, and this is enshrined in its terms of reference.
5.0 Transparent -
The Panel records and explains its advice, and is transparent about potential conflicts of interest. Some reviews will be held in private, especially when a scheme is at an early pre-application stage. However, the panel’s remit, membership, governance processes, and funding should always be public.
6.0 Proportionate -
It is undertaken on projects whose significance warrants investment in providing design review at local or national level as appropriate. Other methods of appraising design quality should be used for less significant projects.
7.0 Timely -
It should take place as early as possible in the life of a design; this saves time, and it costs less to make changes at an early stage. If a planning application has already been made, the design review process should occur during the consideration of the planning application. It is repeated when a further opinion is required.
8.0 Advisory -
It does not make decisions but acts as a source of impartial advice for decision makers.
9.0 Objective -
It appraises schemes in the round according to reasoned, objective criteria, rather than the stylistic tastes of individual Panel members.
10.0 Understandable -
It's findings are clearly expressed in terms that all parties can understand and use.