Smart Parcelization and Place Diversity: Reconciling Real Estate and Urban Design Priorities

Abstract

This paper examines the meaning and significance of place diversity and explores how its achievement may well depend on specific institutional relations between different actors in the real estate development process. It calls for master developers to engage in the ‘smart parcelization’ of large development sites through design-sensitive subdivision, reflected in conditions attached to plot sales or leases. By looking at practical examples, it explores how this concept could refashion speculative housebuilding in the UK. The paper highlights the potential and limitations of ‘smart parcelization’, while emphasizing the need to link development and design considerations in future policy and research agendas.