Drawing For Urban Design Lorraine Farrelly

Lorraine is part of the professional discussion around quality of design in our towns and cities. She is part of Design South East Design Review group, D:SE. Design review involves a group of built environment professionals who advise on design quality for strategic projects, they are invited by a planning authority and project client to provide objective and expert advice to inform the planning process. She is the Chair of the West Sussex design panel which considers strategic schemes along the south coast, but has also contributed to design review in Reading, Hampshire and Surrey.

Lorraine has also been a Building for Life assessor. This is a scheme used by local authorities to ensure that new homes can achieve standards of quality for design, sustainability, surrounding context and infrastructure. This scheme supports the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), responding to the Government's commitment to involve the local community in planning for and building more homes. This scheme is now supported by the Design Council.

She edited an AD issue on the impact of ageing on our design of housing and public space; 'Third Age: Architecture Redefined for a Generation of "Active Agers"'. This highlights how architecture needs to rise to the challenge of a demographic revolution as people sixty-five and older constitute an increasing proportion of the population in industrialized nations. The design of housing and other built provisions needs to be rethought in order to accommodate this expanding age group. It considers how can far-reaching architectural solutions play a key part by creating sustainable cities for the changing profile of the population, reducing models of dependency for care and transport while creating opportunities for recreation, leisure and work. This issue reflects on the population challenges facing Europe, Australia, North America, and Asia, offering innovative responses to these problems on a practical and speculative level.

As Head of the new School of Architecture the idea of an urban room at Reading to engage local organisations and the community with the discussion around the design quality of buildings and public spaces is an active project. We have a physical model of Reading at the centre of our School to encourage this debate and we have a series of public talks and lectures across the year with themes relevant to the development of Reading and the region. She is part of the Reading 2050 visioning group – a collaboration between University of Reading, Barton Wilmore and Reading UK. This group has been actively developing initiatives to inform the debate around the future of Reading and has identified key themes and sites to compliment the Local Plan for the region. As part of this vision three key themes for the future of Reading have been identified. Lorraine is also working with Flora Samuel on a collaboration with the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines, a Newton funded project to map social value as part of a larger institutional collaboration to develop a joint PhD programme.

In November 2019 Lorraine was elected as Chair of SCHOSA- the standing conference of Heads of Schools or Architecture which represents 52 Schools of Architecture in the UK and she leads discussions nationally and internationally on the future of Architecture education.

Lorraine has been part of a successful bid to secure over funding from Historic England, Heritage Action zone funding to initiate four exciting 'Community Story Telling' activities focussed around the Oxford Road in west Reading.

The bid was a joint collaboration with Reading Borough Council's High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) team, who received the funding, and other partners. The initial pilot project relates to a larger bid 'Reimaging the High Street' funded by Historic England to regenerate UK high streets working with local partners . November 2020

http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR850725.aspx

November 2020, the University of Reading launched 'Reading 2050: a smart and sustainable city?'. This collection of articles, based on the 'Reading 2050 lecture series is edited by Lorraine Farrelly and Tim Dixon

https://livingreading.co.uk/public/downloads/AhO8o/Reading%202050%20Lecture%20Series.pdf

In September 2020 Lorraine has been part of the academic team led by Professor Flora Samuel to set up a KTP ( knowledge Transfer partnership) with Stantec which is investigating Social Value .

March 2019 A study for the ACE architects council of Europe was authored by Rosalie Callaway , Flora Samuel and Lorraine Farrelly to demonstrate the value of design and the role of architects across Europe.