This thesis focuses on identifying inter-relationships between three different types of mega projects, including mega urban transport projects (MUTPs), sustainable urban regeneration schemes and mega events, such as the Olympics. This research attempts to test the hypothesis that ‘MUTPs can be an effective agent for sustainable urban regeneration and mega events’. It further assumes that ‘A well-functioning co-operation within this cluster of mega project can bring about a favourable outcome, i.e. maximum benefits and minimum costs’. The premise of the research discussed is that an appreciation of institutional arrangements and power relationships is vital in understanding the nature of complexity in decision-making regarding MUTP planning and delivery, and their associated developments. The methodology outlined is essentially a two-strand approach applied for purposes of illustration to a case study (the Channel Tunnel Rail Link). Strand one of the methodology is pre-hypothesis led - based on an analysis of the narrative, whilst the other is hypothesis led - based on an analysis of the returns to conventional interview questionnaires. This study concludes that conditions which allow one to coordinate the delivery of these three different types of mega projects include having a proactive partnership between the public and private sectors, a brokerage role played by local authorities, visionary politicians, streamlined planning powers, good stakeholder management, and continuous political commitment. Moreover, the locomotive role played by the MUTP which enables the urban regeneration schemes and mega events to happen could not implement without existing brownfield sites and the injection of significant public investments. In addition, the coalition of interests that forms itself around these projects is a leading dimension of these major developments. This coalition is mostly constituted by elite groups. It is also suggested that the coordination between these major projects remains rhetoric which is achieved by the interdependency between project discourses.

Taking the island of Malta as a case study, this research questions the role of development control in delivering urban design quality. Authors have acknowledged the significance of this relationship. However, few studies have tried to assess both sides of the story, focusing instead on the study of either the planning process or final design outcome in isolation. These studies have also generally tended to rely exclusively on either qualitative or quantitative research methods. The Maltese plan‐led discretionary planning system is experiencing interesting times. Recent documents produced by the Kamra tal­‐Periti, the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers, together with central Government’s National Environment Policy, point to the need for an informed debate on urban design quality in the built environment. Central Government also initiated a planning reform in 2010, which to date has remained focused on the reform of planning procedures within the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, rather than on quality targets. These are also challenging times. The intense residential development that characterised the past decades occurred at the expense of broader qualitative considerations. Its consequences have been compounded by the restrictive spirit of current policy tools, their inadequacy in addressing urban design issues, and the approach of officers and decision‐makers in their regard. It is thus the optimal time to study the Maltese planning system. This research explores the multifarious debates surrounding development control, urban design quality and the Maltese planning context. Using a mixed four-­stage methodology comprising both quantitative and qualitative research tools, it subsequently develops ‘process’-­ and ‘product’-­related analytical frameworks that respectively assess key themes within the planning process and the quality of urban design outcome on the ground. At the concluding stage, the research draws these frameworks together to determine their possible relationship and provide recommendations to stimulate a rethinking of planning practice.

This study adopts Marxian land rent theory as a framework to understand the structure of house prices with explicit attention to labour reproduction in an urban context. It attempts to correct the misunderstandings in Marxian land rent theory and develop it for an urban context. The four categories of land rent of differential rent, differential rent 2, absolute rent, and monopoly rent are critically re-examined. Subsequently, the combination of absolute rent and differential rent is suggested as a general structure for land rents in an urban context. The dynamic mechanism of changes in land rents is explained with the concepts of emulation, differentiation and shift between groups of houses based on the structure of land rents. The process of the formation of housing submarkets has been examined for a practical preparation for empirical analysis and a theoretical basis for the subdivision of the housing market. Spatial submarkets are identified by focusing on the interactive relationship between residential spheres (a unit consisting of a centre of employment and the surrounding residential area). Sectoral submarkets are defined based on social and environmental features as well as the structural features of dwellings. For empirical analysis, three metropolitan cities were chosen: London as monocentric, Seoul as tri-centric and Los Angeles as polycentric. Empirical analysis has used commuting patterns and the contours of house prices as the criteria to identify spatial submarkets with the help of network analysis and GIS. Simple OLS regression analysis of house prices on the accessibility to centre was conducted in each identified submarket. The results were used to explore the structure of and the dynamic changes in land rents. A consistent structure of land rents was observed in each housing submarket across all three cities. The implication on the condition of labour reproduction was drawn out by interpreting the changes in land rents over a period of 10 years in each city. The analysis of London revealed a monocentric housing market structure and the suitability of commuting time over physical distance as an accessibility variable. In Seoul‟s case, the transition from tri-centric to monocentric housing market was observed and a comparative approach with rent and price data enriched the interpretation of the changes in the structure of the housing market. The impact of social and environmental features of the neighbourhood, such as class, ethnic concentration and negative externality, on house prices was highlighted in the analysis of Los Angeles.

Expanding national services sectors and global competition aggravate current and perceived future market pressures on traditional manufacturing industries. These perceptions of change have provoked a growing intensification of geo-political discourses on technological innovation and ‘learning’, and calls for competency in design among other professional skills. However, these political discourses on innovation and learning have paralleled public concerns with the apparent ‘growth pains’ from factory closures and subsequent increases in unemployment, and its debilitating social and economic implications for local and regional development. In this respect the following investigation sets out to conceptualize change through the complementary and differing perceptions of industry and regional actors’ experiences or narratives, linking these perceptions to their structure-determined spheres of agent-environment interactivity. It aims to determine whether agents’ differing perceptions of industry transformation can have a role in the legitimization of their interests in, and in sustaining their organizational influence over the process of industry-regional transformation. It argues that industry and regional agent perceptions are among the cognitive aspects of agent-environment interactivity that permeate agency. It stresses agents’ ability to reason and manipulate their work environments to preserve their self-regulating interests in, and task representative influence over the multi-jurisdictional space of industry-regional transformation. The contributions of this investigation suggest that agents’ varied perceptions of industry and regional change inform or compete for influence over the redirection of regional, industry and business strategies. This claim offers a greater appreciation for the reflexive and complex institutional dimensions of industry planning and development, and the political responsibility to socially just forms of regional development. It positions the outcomes of this investigation at the nexus of intensifying geo-political discourses on the efficiency and equity of territorial development in Europe.

The arrival of high-speed trains (HST) brings an unprecedented time-space shrinkage that could greatly enhance inter-city connectivity. Meanwhile, it offers a major opportunity to reshape uneven spatial-economic development. However, the existing literature has presented a mixed picture. Thus, considerable disagreement on the wider effects of HST remains. This research contributes to the debate with new empirical evidence on two inter-related scales, based on the experience of British InterCity 125/225 and UK/France comparative practice from the West Coast Main Line modernisation and the TGV-Nord. The thesis first demonstrates the quantitative evidence. Then it takes a planning standpoint in examining multi-level government intervention in seizing opportunities presented by HST during the transformation process. The research findings lead to two major conclusions. Firstly, nationally, HST has had demonstrable and varied effects on cities within 1 hour and 2 hours from London, thus helping to generate renewed economies, but this effect has not been automatic or universal. Within 1-hour distance, HST towns located further afield from London could benefit from exploiting both commuting and intrinsic economic strength in knowledge-intensive activities; while 2-hour HST accessibility could benefit mainly from exploiting knowledge-intensive economic functions. Beyond 2 hours, the effect appears weak. Regionally, major regional cities have been reinforced by a HST hub position, but the effects have not necessarily spread out into surrounding sub-regions. HST needs to be well-integrated with urban and regional transport networks, so a spatial-economic relationship between a regional centre and its hinterland could be fostered to produce and magnify the wider effects. Secondly, transport alone is not sufficient to determine the wider effects in reducing regional inequality. Complementary measures are indispensable. Five conditions are found and highlighted to be vital, namely national political economy, constitutional capacity, planning priority and resources, city type and economic trajectory, and leadership and governance.

The global economic shift into the knowledge economy in the 1970s had a profound effect on settlement structure in England and Wales. The physical changes brought on by the dismantling of the rigid manufacturing sector were compounded by an important socio-economic shift. The knowledge worker became a centrepiece of the post-industrial economy. The importance of specialised knowledge within the post-industrial firm brought these highly skilled workers on par with senior management resulting in a transformative effect on their choices of employment and housing. These changes are the centrepiece of contemporary economic, social and geographic research. However studies spanning these three theoretical spheres have been limited. This has deprived us of crucial theoretical links that would allow us to disentangle the complex changes that have occurred. This research is aimed at capturing the effects of this broad socio-economic transformation on the settlement structure of home and work in England and Wales. The analysis focuses on the changes in structural and functional change through the use of commuting data for 1981 through 2001. Changes are investigated by bringing together and expanding current spatial analysis techniques. The selection and composition of these techniques is informed by the major theoretical representations of employment and housing patterns and social structure. I have sought to provide a novel way of approaching and interpreting the effects of socio-economic change by combining these three different perspectives within a multi-variate spatial analysis framework that is relayed with consistent objects and attributes. Thus I have brought together theories in housing and labour economics as well as incorporating knowledge in social stratification. This has allowed me to unravel some of the complex settlement patterns that have been observed. These representations have also demonstrated their effectiveness in linking different strands of socio-economic theory through spatial analysis, providing a bridge between these fields.

This research offers a new approach to architectural design by suggesting that artificial light could be included in the architect’s conceptual toolbox. An exploration of the lighting techniques currently used in interior design shows a direct connection between artificial light and architectural design. This is followed by an investigation of innovative lighting applications that are based on new materials. These materials either emit light themselves or can be connected to light in different ways to radiate light. For this thesis the word lighterials has been coined to distinguish them from opaque, non-light-related materials. After lighterials have been accepted as an architectural group of forms, the architectural space is analysed in terms of its most important elements with reference to artificial lighting and interior architecture. Within this scope a new element, poetics, is introduced, bringing the two design fields even closer together. The question is asked: How can lighterials influence architectural design, including the poetics of a space? The question is tackled by three different studies, a pilot study, a case study and interviews, which employed architecture students, lighting design students and professional architects respectively. The first study provides information about future trends around lighterials and the second about how lighting designers could use lighterials. In the third and main study, using the methodologies of think-aloud protocol, structured interviews and questionnaires, the architects indicate through their use of lighterials in design how lighterials could influence architectural space and its poetics. From analysis of these studies it is apparent that these new lighting applications have the potential to completely change or to enhance an architect’s design. Further, the incorporation of lighterials in design can dramatically change the user’s experience of a space. In its examination of new characteristics of light as architectural form this research offers a unique contribution to the field.

Recent UK planning policy has concentrated on regenerating inner cities. For the past thirty years, the interwar suburbs of North West London have seen a changing population, rising levels of deprivation and a deteriorating built environment. Exploring these changes and the role of local centres as foci for regeneration and revitalisation, twelve centres are investigated and their suitability for development assessed in the context of the draft Spatial Development Strategy for London. A new approach to suburban planning is proposed linking the changing condition of centres and the character of the surrounding neighbourhoods to develop more effective sub-regional planning policies.

Rising land values accompanying the growth of central business districts and popularity of inner city living in resurgent world cities have raised questions about the impact on lower value, small businesses, who struggle to compete for space in the city. In London, planning authorities are developing policies based on the affordable housing model that require developers of mixed-use schemes on land previously in employment use, to include an amount of ‘affordable workspace’. This research examines policy objectives and outcomes of thirteen mixed-use schemes with affordable workspace across London, with a particular focus on the London Borough of Hackney, which has been using planning gain to implement affordable workspace since 2003. The perspectives of the three main stakeholders are considered; the planning authority, the developer and the workspace provider. The research reveals that the motivations for affordable workspace policies are more about promoting economic development – in particular either protecting or promoting creative industry clusters – than promoting social equity or sustainability. To ascertain whether policy is addressing the problem, the case studies explore the factors influencing the success of schemes, the difficulty of defining and delivering ‘affordability’, whether the causes of the problem are being tackled, and who are the winners and losers. The impact of policy on economic development, city vibrancy, social equity and sustainability is analysed. The policy’s contribution to job creation, cluster formation and economic diversity is explored with reference to local and regional objectives. The research shows that, although there are clear benefits of the policy for artists and small, creative industry businesses, there are problems of industrial gentrification, the plight of lower-value businesses, and homogenous developments that contribute little to the economic or social diversity of the area. Recommendations are made for alternative or complementary strategies to address the problems facing small, low-value businesses in cities.

Physical qualities of the residential environment exert demonstrable influences on social interaction, lifestyles and personal well being. However, the importance of the neighbourhood in providing a context for home life, and increasingly a working life, is not necessarily reflected in the level of attention received. Although the car has had an important shaping effect on the qualities of residential space leading to outcomes that have been addressed in different areas of social research, virtually no attempt has been made to draw different strands of research together in a single piece of work, nor study the effects of car reduction in relation to mobility and social interaction at the neighbourhood scale. This thesis attempts to address both shortfalls; the former in the opening chapters, and the latter through empirical evidence drawn from a case study comparison of three neighbourhoods in the second part. At the core is a single question: what are the social implications of residential car reduction? In support of the main question, three sub-questions investigate specific matters of residential selectivity, access and opportunity constraint and whether lessons can be identified for future residential schemes. From analysis of the empirical evidence, four conceptual models of residential car reduction are developed. Critically, however, an argument emerges against adopting a neighbourhood-first approach. Instead the thesis argues that initial consideration should be given to what is termed the urban ‘operating system’ as characterised by the overall transport offer, urban structure and supporting planning policies that influence travel behaviour. This argument is supported both by a logic from historic evidence suggesting that urban form has a tendency to follow the dominant transport function, and by empirical evidence indicating that issues including exclusion and undue residential selectivity on mobility grounds can occur in car-reduced schemes where relation to the urban operating system is weaker.