Another design code we produced, for Marleigh, also in Cambridge, was commended in the RTPI’s 2023 awards, for Excellence in Planning for Communities (large schemes).

These successes have led to Cambridge City Council’s ‘Inspired Living’ project (in partnership with the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service) to ask PTE to create a design code for the city’s existing northern neighbourhoods including Arbury, Kings Hedges and parts of West Chesterton wards which we’re working on now, drawing upon digital and face-to-face engagement and co-production workshops with local residents.

In truth, even when there’s no ‘official’ design code required, we think providing an early doors quality and place code to guide the project still underpins our best work. From the RIBA-Award winning The Avenue, in Saffron Walden, which policy wonks noticed and put on the cover of the Government’s National Model Design Code document (even though The Avenue used PTE’s in-house kit-of-parts code) to Beechwood Village in Basildon, currently vying for a RIBA award. If it lands the coveted gong, it will surely be the only winner ever to have been co-designed by residents who used an online configurator to select their plot, house type, the number of bedrooms as well as pick external finishes such as brick type and even amend their plan.