VIABILITY CONCEPTFOR ENHANCING HISTORIC TOWN CENTRESIN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Authors

Doosadee THAITAKOO

Publication Date

2006-01-01

Abstract

In the UK, historic town centres have been successfully planned andimplemented to avoid a conflict between conservation and development.Preventive measures were developed to protect the built heritage fromthreatening forms of development. As a result, they can keep on evolvingproperly to supply quality goods/services and a pleasant environment.Rebuilding this balanced mix of conservation and development has been madethrough the use of the viability concept. The term viability is used todetermine whether a town centre has a capacity for living or not. Viabilityincludes the ability of the centre to attract continuing investment to maintainthe environment. This concept was constructed for investigating the towncentres's health in order to maintain their position in a changing environment.The evaluation framework for town centres' health focused on four essentialcharacteristics supporting the viability of town centres: attraction, accessibility,amenity, and action. These four basic qualities of 4 A's refer to what drawscustomers to town centres, how easy it is to reach town centres, how pleasanttown centres should be, and what brings success to the improvement of towncentres.

First Page

91

Last Page

116

Recommended Citation

THAITAKOO, Doosadee (2006) "VIABILITY CONCEPTFOR ENHANCING HISTORIC TOWN CENTRESIN THE UNITED KINGDOM," NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning): Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/nakhara/vol1/iss1/6