Rob Cowan (urbanist)

Rob Cowan (urbanist) (born 20 November 1950) is a British urbanist, writer, editor and cartoonist.

Career

After working in housing research at the Planning Exchange in Glasgow and planning aid at the Town and Country Planning Association in London, Rob Cowan turned to journalism as editor of Town and Country Planning (1982),[1] editor of Roof (the magazine of the housing charity Shelter, (1983) and at the Architects’ Journal (various roles, including acting editor, 1990).

From 2000-07 Cowan was the first director of the Urban Design Group.[2] Since 2007 he has been a director of the urban consultancy UDS. He has originated three influential urban design methods: the Placecheck method of urban design audit;[3] the skills appraisal method Capacitycheck; and the design appraisal method Qualityreviewer.[4][5] He is a Design Council CABE Built Environment Expert.[6] He presents training programmes for local authorities and masterclasses on urban design for the Royal Town Planning Institute.[7]

He has been a senior research fellow in the Department of Architecture, De Montfort University (1995–2003); an external examiner in town planning at the Bartlett School, UCL (2001-3); an external examiner in town planning at the University of Manchester (2002-5); and a teaching fellow (urban design) at the Bartlett School, UCL (2004-6).

Cowan began working on urban lexicography in 2000. The first edition of his acclaimed The Dictionary of Urbanism was published in 2005, and he has been updating and expanding it ever since. The second edition is due to be published in 2017.

Activities

In 1973 Cowan founded the Wyndham Lewis Society, devoted to the modernist writer and painter. The society publishes the Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies and the Lewisletter. Cowan was chairman (1990–92) and a trustee (1992-99) of Vision for London. He has been editor of Context, the journal of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, since 2000.[8] He was an assessor for the Scottish student urban design awards (2002-5) and a special advisor to the House of Commons ODPM Committee (2004). He was a board member of the Nordic Urban Design Association from 2006–14, and he chaired its first four annual conferences in Norway. Cowan has been a trustee and secretary of the Lady Margaret Patterson Osborn Trust (set up by the family of the town planning pioneer Sir Frederic Osborn) since 2006. He was The Planner’s cartoonist for 20 years, and his cartoons have been published in Context and the Architects’ Journal. He presents the Plandemonium series of online cartoon videos. He has been editor of the Massive Small Compendium since 2014.[9] He has been a member of the judging panel for the Civic Voice Design Awards in 2015 and 2016.[10]

Publications

Cowan, R. and Delaney, A. (1993) London After Dark, Phaidon Press, London.
Cowan, R. (1995) Planning Aid in Practice, Royal Town Planning Institute.
Cowan, R. (1995) The Cities Design Forgot, Urban Initiatives, London.
Cowan, R., Henderson, G., and Strelitz, Z. (1996) Making Cities Better: visions and implementation, Vision for Cities, London.
Cowan, R. (1996) A Matter of Life and Death: mixed-use development, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham.
Cowan, R. (1997) The Connected City, Urban Initiatives, London, 1997.
Cowan, R. (1999) The Role of Planning in Local Government, Royal Town Planning Institute, London.
Cowan, R. (2000, and second edition 2001) Placechecks: a users’ guide, Urban Design Alliance, London.
Campbell, K. and Cowan, R. (2000) By Design: urban design in the planning system, Thomas Telford, London.
Cowan, R. (2001) Designing Places (Policy Statement), Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
Campbell, K. and Cowan, R. (2002) Re:urbanism, Urban Exchange, London.
Cowan, R. (2002) Urban Design Guidance: urban design frameworks, development briefs and master plans, Thomas Telford, London.
Cowan, R. (2003) Housing Quality (Planning Advice Note 67), Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
Cowan, R. with Urban Initiatives (2004) A Councillor’s Guide to Urban Design, CABE, London.
Cowan, R. (2005) The Dictionary of Urbanism, Streetwise Press, Tilbury.
Cowan, R. (2008) Capacitycheck, Urban Design Alliance, London.
Cowan, R. (2008) Masterplanning (Planning Advice Note 93), Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
Cowan, R. (2008) Design and Access Statements Explained, Thomas Telford, London.
Cowan, R. (2010) Plandemonium: the best of Cowan’s cartoons on planning and urban design, Streetwise Press, Tilbury.
Cowan, R., Chapman, D. and Adams, S. (2010) Qualityreviewer, Thomas Telford Publications, London.
Campbell, K. and Cowan, R. (editor) (2016) The Radical Incrementalist, Massive Small, London.
Cowan, R. (editor) (2016, forthcoming) The Design Primer, Urban Design London with RIBA Publishing, London.

References

  1. ↑ "Town & Country Planning - The Journal of the Town and Country Planning Association". Retrieved April 2016.
  2. ↑ "UDG UPDATE" (PDF). Retrieved April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Why do a Placecheck?". Retrieved April 2016.
  4. ↑ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20131205102214/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ https://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/qualityreviewer-0. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "A guide to our Built Environment Experts" (PDF). Retrieved April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Design in the planning system". Retrieved April 2016.
  8. ↑ http://www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/context/index.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ http://www.massivesmall.com. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/civicvoiceawards/civic-voice-award/designawards/_. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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