Laurence Pattacini

My main research interests lie in sustainable environments, urban forms, people’s perception and experience of landscape. I explored these landscape planning and design issues through my MA thesis ‘Better Places to Live in’, which gathered evidence on new innovative residential developments to propose recommendations in order to create high quality living places.

My specialist knowledge of the morphological and typological methodology acquired through my studies and professional experience have informed other projects related to the development of Design Guidance resulting in planning documents to control developments in rural and urban settings.

The findings were published in several articles in refereed journals including: ‘Better Places to Live: Learning from the French Experience’, Urban Design Studies, Vol.8 (2002), pp. 61-72 and jointly with Ivor Samuels, ‘From description to prescription: reflections on the use of a morphological approach in design guidance’, Urban Design International, Vol.2, No 2 (June 1997), pp.81-91 and

I have also been employed at the University of Sheffield as a part-time research associate for different fixed term projects. Until the end of March 2012, I am involved with the Urban River Corridor and Sustainability Agenda project (URSULA) where my responsibility lies in generating urban forms for specific sites and contribute to the evaluation of these urban design proposals using GIS, urban modelling and 3D visualisations.

Several publications are pending but preliminary results of research related to climate and urban form is to be published in Urban Design International.

Other research contracts included work on housing layout and design guidance for new residential developments for the DoE in Northern Ireland and a two-year contract with the University of Sheffield working on a European funded research project entitled: ‘Creating a setting for Investment’ (CSI). This project explored the link between environmental quality and investor/developer preferences and willingness to pay.

As a freelance researcher I have been involved in assisting with smaller punctual research projects including a Knowledge Transfer grant to produce a glossary of landscape terms for Chinese students and a literature review on ‘Children and the Natural Environment: Experiences, Influences and interventions’ prepared for Natural England.

Research Project

Ongoing PhD Research: Urban Riverside Industrial Sites in Northern Europe: towards regeneration strategies that integrate water flows as part of the urban design dynamics.