Staff Profiles

Supervision

Director of Studies for Resaerch Degrees in Urban Design

Main research interests are in the field of urban design and historic conservation. In particular:

• regeneration and the historic environment
• assessing place affect and atmosphere
• town and city centre management and its interface with built form
• urban theory
• research techniques for the built environment

Research grants and awards

• Transport for London - evaluation of the impacts of the JLE
• Heritage Lottery Fund - longitudinal evaluation of the Townscape Heritage Initiative

Journal articles

• Choi, H, Reeve A, 'Understanding the impact of economic migrants and landless farmers on mass produced housing and community space in China, using the case of Zhangjing, Suzhou'
  International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 10 (1) (2018) pp.60-78
  ISSN: 1946-3138 eISSN: 1946-3146
  Abstract As a consequence of the rapid, government-led and globally fuelled urban development that is occurring within China, an unplanned form of urbanization is emerging, whereby landless farmers and economic migrants are resettling and occupying both public space and housing in ways that deviate from the community development plan. The paper will use both historical and contemporary urban theory, together with a case study of Zhangjiing in Suzhou Industrial Park, China as means of critiquing and learning from these consequences and the planning and policy instruments in place. The case of Zhangjing can be critically reviewed in the context of Christopher Alexander’s argument that when a new urban development is created which is modelled or predicated on a  tree structure to replace the semi-lattice that was there before, the city takes a step towards dissociating itself from its geographical and cultural context.
  Website 
• Portella A, Reeve A, 'City centre in an era of consumer culture'
  Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning 169 (6) (2015) pp.291-300
  ISSN: 1755-0793
  Abstract This paper analyses the importance of commercial signs in contemporary cities, and explores the theoretical concepts that might be helpful in understanding the operation of commercial signage controls in historic places. The focus is on issues that cluster around theories of consumer culture, as well as on the practices of city centre management, city marketing and urban tourism. The discussion is predominantly concerned with commercial city centres because these are places where different functions and meanings coexist. They are often places where different commercial and non-commercial interests have to be managed or reconciled. City centres are also public areas where human experience is given meaning and valorised through signs, symbols and patterns of behaviour, which result from a combination of physical and symbolic factors of the built environment. In many cases, the commercial city centre coincides with the historic core of a city, and the challenge of the local authority is to combine all functions with the preservation of historic buildings and places. At the end, this paper discusses how forms of aesthetic control over commercial signage can be applied to preserve local identity and stimulate commercial and touristic activities simultaneously.Website 
• Choi HS, Reeve A, 'Local identity in the form production process, using as a case study the multifunctional administrative city project (Sejong) in South Korea'
  URBAN DESIGN International 20 (1) (2015) pp.66-78
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract This article argues that many of those changes to the built environment brought about through economic and cultural globalization have resulted in a blurring of national identities expressed through city form, worldwide, including South East and Far East Asian countries. As a reaction to this, local identity has emerged as a central concern among both academics and many built environment professionals for setting the twenty-first century urban development agenda. The focus of this article is to explore place-making in relation to the role of different actors within the form-production process, and the implications of globalization for local identity using as a case the new multifunctional administrative city of Sejong in South Korea. Evidence was collected using a testing survey that aimed at gaining a clear insight into the role of local identity from the perspectives of different key actors involved in the Sejong project; the survey focused on building up a comprehensive narrative of their knowledge, experience, and sense of identity and sustainability in relation to place identity in new place construction. This survey and the findings from it illustrate the importance of user participation in the decision-making process, in achieving social sustainability and the incorporation of local cultural resources. The findings summarized in this article reveal the current poor level of understanding and the limitations in delivering inclusive local identity within the urban design policies of Sejong, and how local identity and the needs of local culture could be incorporated, sustained and developed in contemporary new town development in the South East/Far East Asian context.Website 
• Pugalis L, Liddle J, Deas I, Bailey N, Pill M, Green C, Pearson C, Reeve A, Shipley R, Manns J, Dickinson S, Joyce P, Marlow D, Havers I, Rowe M, Southern A, Headlam N, Janssen-Jansen L, Lloyd G, Doyle J, Cummings C, McGuinness D, Broughton K, Berkeley N, Jarvis D, 'Regeneration beyond austerity: a collective viewpoint'
  Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal 7 (2) (2014) pp.188-197
  ISSN: 1752-9638
  Abstract This collective viewpoint concludes the special issue investigating austerity era regeneration by weaving different threads from each published article together with further insights. It is a collaborative effort — a synthesis of some diverse views and opinions — that seeks to extract some key themes, trends and possibilities relating to regeneration beyond austerity. Despite some significant concerns, the broader ‘regeneration project’ continues in distinct ways and at different paces. Through this paper, the authors attempt to stimulate debate concerning the evolution and recasting of regeneration over future years. It is hoped that this may lay some of the foundations for a new, more positive and progressive regeneration narrative, grounded in micro-practices and the particularities of place.Website 
• Reeve A, Shipley R, 'The impact of heritage investment on public attitudes to place: evidence from the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI)'
  Urban, Planning and Transport Research 2 (1) (2014) pp.289-311
  ISSN: 2165-0020 eISSN: 2165-0020
  Abstract

  This paper is concerned with public perceptions and attitudes to heritage townscapes, and how these might be influenced by investment in such places, focused on their public realm, and building restoration and improvement as a catalyst for urban regeneration. It draws on a ten-year study of the impact of the Townscape Heritage Initiative, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, on a sample of 16 cases across the UK. By comparing an analysis of changes in townscape quality over this period, with changes in public perceptions (captured through the use of a household survey in all 16 cases at three points in the ten-year period), it draws empirically grounded conclusions about the influence of heritage investment on attitudes and perceptions to the quality of the local environment. The findings from the research suggests that public attitudes are positively influenced by programmes of investment in the built heritage, but that this influence is complex and is not as robust as the physical regeneration itself. The paper also reflects on the relative influence of the post-2008 economic recession on public attitudes to place compared with the influence of heritage investment.

  Website 
• Reeve A, 'Assessing the effectiveness of the Townscape Heritage Initiative in regeneration'
  Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal 6 (2) (2013) pp.189-210
  ISSN: 1752-9638
  Abstract The impact on land use of area-wide regeneration spending related to historic conservation is largely under-researched. This paper is intended to make a contribution to this subject within the context of conservation studies. It arises out of the findings from a longitudinal investigation into the more general impact of the Heritage Lottery Fund's Townscape Heritage Initiative across the UK. This research has examined 16 cases where significant investment has been made in the built fabric in order to improve the townscape and other aspects of the heritage. Through an analysis of changes in land use mapped at three points over a ten-year period, the paper presents findings from a selection of seven of these cases, and highlights patterns of change in terms of land use, and the relationship between newly prioritised uses and their ‘fit' with the historic identity of place. The value of the research lies both in these generalisable findings and in the methods described to arrive at them.
• Reeve A, Shipley R, 'Heritage-based regeneration in an age of austerity: Lessons from the Townscape Heritage initiative'
  Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal 7 (2) (2013)
  ISSN: 1752-9638
  Abstract

  This paper draws on extensive longitudinal empirical research into the effectiveness of heritage-based urban investment in the regeneration of socially deprived communities. The Townscape Heritage Initiative research project, has examined 16 cases across the UK over a 12-year period, monitoring and evaluating the impacts of investment in the built fabric across a range of themes, including quality of life, economic activity, confidence and appearance. The 16 cases were surveyed in 2000, 2006 and 2011, which is to say, prior to any investment activity, at the point of most positive change and three or four years into the current recession. The research has produced some robust findings in relation to the effects of the recession and the resilience of regeneration benefits accruing from the programme. In presenting and discussing these findings, the paper draws some grounded conclusions regarding the capacity of heritage-led regeneration initiatives to withstand the impacts of the economic downturn, and proposes a number of criteria for assessing the likely resilience of regeneration initiatives in deprived communities.

• Reeve A, Reeve M, 'Punch and Judy at the beach and in the mall'
  Visual Culture in Britain 12 (1) (2011) pp.17-31
  ISSN: 1471-4787 eISSN: 1941-8361
  Abstract This article examines how the traditional English folk form of Punch and Judy is deployed in two very different contemporary public settings in the UK: the beach and the shopping mall. It explores how the nature of public settings alters profoundly the meaning of this highly specific cultural object and how its commodification as part of the spaces of everyday consumption transforms its original value and connection to its audience. Other examples of street performance in British urban contexts are also considered. The article derives from recent ethnographic research into the contemporary significance of Punch and Judy, combined with theoretical accounts of spectacle in urban space. Its authors are from two quite different academic and research fields - puppetry and street performance, and urban design. The research demonstrates how these approaches and styles of conceptualizing public space can be creatively synthesized to yield fresh insights into the nature of spaces of performance - and on the notion of"tradition" as it is experienced in the contemporary public realm. The analysis and examples of Punch and Judy performances derive from an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded PhD ethnographic study in collaboration with Royal Holloway, London.Website 
• Reeve A, Reeve M, 'David Hulks ‘Mickey Mouse is Debonair’: Adrian Stokes' Fugitive Interest in Popular Cinema'
  Visual Culture in Britain 12 (1) (2011)
  ISSN: 1471-4787 eISSN: 1941-8361
  Website 
• Shipley R, Reeve A, 'Evaluating the THI: Measuring the effectiveness of the Townscape Heritage Initiatives in the United Kingdom'
  URBAN DESIGN International 15 (4) (2010) pp.221-237
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract

  The Townscape Heritage Initiatives (THI) was launched in 1998 to assist places where heritage buildings predominated but were also experiencing social and economic distress. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) not only set out to help such places but also to determine whether the aid was achieving the Fund's goals. In 1999, the HLF engaged Oxford Brookes University (OBU) to undertake a multi-year evaluation of the success of the THI programme. To date, the THI has provided over 170 pound million to 175 different locations throughout the United Kingdom. In 2004, an article outlining the methodology being used by the OBU team appeared in the academic literature. Seventeen representative sites had been selected and baseline reports prepared between 1999 and 2001. In 2007, the first series of follow-up studies were completed. This article addresses three questions: was it possible to gather the data that the researchers proposed when the evaluation was planned, was it possible to use that data to evaluate the degree to which the stated HLF goals for the programme were met and, finally, in what way is the research likely to be useful to the funding agency? The article presents findings from the research that relates economic, demographic, townscape and other characteristics of places to their potential to benefit from investment in heritage at the urban scale. URBAN DESIGN International (2010) 15, 221-237. doi:10.1057/udi.2010.14; published online 18 August 2010

  Website 
• Reeve A, Goodey B, Shipley R, 'Townscape Assessment: the Development of a Practical Tool for Monitoring and Assessing Visual Quality in the Built Environment'
  Urban Morphology 11 (1) (2007) pp.25-41
  ISSN: 1027-4278
  Abstract ‘Townscape’ as an approach to understanding one aspect of quality in the built environment has had mixed fortunes over the last few decades. Nonetheless, it remains a useful category within which the question of how places work at an aesthetic level can be considered. The problem has been, however, the absence of a comprehensive and relatively objective system for recording and representing the findings from townscape evaluation in the field. This paper presents the evolution of one such approach, and illustrates how it has been applied as part of a more general impact assessment research project to determine the effectiveness of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) regeneration programme in the UK. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility of the method for future built environment monitoring and evaluation programmes.Website 
• Otsuka N, Reeve A, 'Town Centre Management and Regeneration: The Experience in Four English Cities'
  Journal of Urban Design 12 (3) (2007) pp.435-459
  ISSN: 1357-4809
  Abstract There is a growing recognition of Town Centre Management (TCM) as one of the several mechanisms to regenerate town centres in the UK context. However, in practice the role of TCM is diverse, ranging from day-to-day maintenance of urban centres to strategic contributions to economic regeneration and developing future vision of the town as a whole. TCM's contribution and capacity to regenerate town centres depends both on the nature of the TCM strategy applied on local regeneration problems and challenges and on local socio-economic circumstances. Drawing on research completed in 2005, this paper presents evidence from four contrasting town centres of the distinctive roles played by TCM in town centre regeneration. The paper demonstrates that under certain conditions TCM has the potential to go beyond its typical focus on town centre enhancement and leverage, to a focus much close to the wider social objectives of regeneration in the UK context. The paper also outlines a predictive model for understanding which types of town centre are likely to benefit from TCM as an approach to regeneration.Website 
• Otsuka N, Reeve A, 'The contribution and potential of town centre management for regeneration: Shifting its focus from'management'to'regeneration''
  Town Planning Review 78 (2) (2007) pp.225-250
  ISSN: 0041-0020 eISSN: 1478-341X
  
• Gatersleben B, Clark C, Reeve A, Uzzell D, 'The impact of a new transport link on residential communities'
  Journal of Environmental Psychology 27 (2) (2007) pp.145-153
  ISSN: 0272-4944
  Abstract This paper examines the expected and perceived impacts of a new underground line by local residents in five areas in London. Data were collected both before opening of the new underground line and 2 years after opening. The new line aimed to improve travel opportunities for local residents and regenerate the areas, which were relatively isolated from other areas in London due to the River Thames. As expected the study found that perceptions of the River Thames as a physical barrier (transport connections) improved in the 2-year period after opening of the underground line. The extent to which this improved transport link was perceived to be positive for the area, however, varied between respondents depending on their views of the area in which they lived and their perceptions of the River Thames as a social boundary (‘us’ versus ‘them’ beliefs). Those who were more positive about the character of their area were more positive about the impact of the underground line. However, those who perceived stronger social boundaries were less positive about the impact of the line for their area.Website 
• Shipley R, Reeve A, Walker S, Grover P, Goodey B, 'Townscape Heritage Initiatives Evaluation: Methodology for Assessing the Effectiveness of Heritage Lottery Fund Projects in the United Kingdom'
  Environment and Planning C-government and Policy 22 (4) (2004) pp.523-542
  ISSN: 0263-774X eISSN: 1472-3425
  Abstract As a result of various social and economic factors, many historic townscapes in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have declined over the last half century. There have been many attempts throughout the world to revitalise such urban heritage areas, but the actual effectiveness of few of these schemes has been systematically evaluated. Good public policy choices would greatly benefit from such evaluation. The UK's Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) decided in 1999 that their Townscape Heritage Initiatives would be an exception. A research team from Oxford Brookes University was engaged to undertake a ten-year study of the £52 million being spent in about sixty British towns and cities. A sample of about one third of projects receiving HLF support are being scrutinised. The evaluation methodology is outlined, along with explanations of some challenges faced in such a large programme. The four mechanisms for gathering research data are explained, the origin and rationale for the sixteen indicators being employed are described, and the approach to overall evaluation outlined. Finally there is an overview of the baseline stage of the work, highlighting key issues from a research perspective, and briefly reflecting on findings to date.Website 
• Reeve A, 'Town centre management: developing a research agenda in an emerging field'
  URBAN DESIGN International 9 (3) (2004) pp.133-150
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract This paper arises out of an ongoing research and teaching interest in the emerging field of town centre management (TCM). Based on a review of recent publications and research in the area, it has been prompted by recognition that this is a much unexplored topic for study. The paper is in two parts. The first provides a background account of TCM in the UK, its history, structures and the current issues affecting its likely future development. The second part examines recent research in the topic and draws some conclusions regarding the changing focus of interest in this still relatively new area of practice and study. The paper concludes with a proposed agenda for more research and thinking in a field which has great potential, but that has not as yet received the attention it deserves.Website 
• Otsuka N, Reeve A, 'Town Centre Management as Regeneration'
  URBAN DESIGN QUARTERLY. 91 (Summer 2004) (2004) pp.17-19
  ISSN: 0266-6480
  Website 
• Reeve A, 'Urban Design and the Management of Town Centres'
  Urban Design Quarterly 91 (Summer 2004) (2004) pp.16-16
  ISSN: 0266-6480
  Website 
• Reeve A, Simmonds R, '"Public realm" as theatre: Bicester Village and universal city walk'
  Urban Design International 6 (3) (2001) pp.173-190
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract This is the second of two papers exploring the notion of hyperreality as an aspect of the design and consumption of post modern leisure environments. Using the metaphor of theatre as developed by the social theorist Erving Goffman, it analyses the relationship between user and setting in two contemporary retail spaces, Bicester Village in the UK, and Universal City walk in the United States. It draws a number of conclusions about the changing nature of commercial space as a form of public space, and argues that this represents essentially a third type of space between the public and private spheres. It concludes with a short reflective postscript following the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, speculating on the implications of this event for the future of themed public space.Website 
• Reeve A, Simmonds R, '"Hyperreality" in the shire: Bicester Village and the village of Bicester'
  Urban Design International 5 (2) (2000) pp.141-154
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract Using the concept of hyperreality as articulated by the French theorist Jean Baudrillard, this paper explores the problematic of aesthetic authenticity in urban design practice, particularly as revealed in the form of contemporary and purpose built shopping environments. Beginning with an explanation of this complex term, we go on to illustrate its ramifications for design through a detailed comparison between a traditional high street in an English market town, which has been retro-fitted to compete with a factory retail outlet built on its edge. The paper is the first of a two-part piece, the second of which will revisit the work of Goffman to help explain how the new, themed, leisure environments raise questions about the authenticity of behaviour and engagement in such theatrical settings.Website 
• Reeve A, 'Risk and the new urban space of managed town centres'
  International Journal of Risk Security and Crime Prevention 3 (1998) pp.43-56
  ISSN: 1359-1886
  
• Reeve A, 'RUDI: Resource for Urban Design Information Services'
  Ariadne (8) (1997)
  ISSN: 1361-3197
  Website 
• Reeve A, Rouse R, Tranmer C, Worthington B, 'Urban Design on the Internet'
  Brookes’ Virtual Dimension 64 (Autumn 1997) (1997) pp.37-
  ISSN: 0266-6480
  Website 
• Reeve A, Rouse R, Tranmer C, Worthington B, 'Urban Design on the Internet: RUDI, a case study in practice'
  Online Planning Journal (1997)
  ISSN: 1471-3128
  Website 
• Reeve A, 'The private realm of the managed town centre'
  Urban Design International 1 (1) (1996) pp.61-80
  ISSN: 1357-5317 eISSN: 1468-4519
  Abstract This paper examines the contention that town centre management (TCM) represents a coordinated attempt to privatize the public space of the contemporary British town centre. Drawing on recent empirical research conducted by the author it argues that the underlying drive within TCM to attract consumers to the town centre is resulting in a narrow conception on the part of local authorities; in particular what kinds of activity and uses are appropriate in such space and what kinds of activity individuals ought to be discouraged or excluded from. It suggests that the reason for this narrowing of a conception of the public arises out of a false analogy in the thinking of managers and local authorities between the town centre and purpose built shopping centres. It shows that many of the design and management practices associated with privately owned shopping centres have been uncritically adopted in the management and promotion of publicly owned town centres. It concludes that these two sorts of space are fundamentally different, and that to treat the town centre as if it were a shopping mall is to transform it into a similar form of banal and risk free environment with a consequent loss of social richness and authentic vitality.Website 

Book chapters

• Reeve A, 'Exercising Control at the Urban Scale: Towards a Theory of Spatial Organisation and Surveillance' in Flynn S Mackay A (ed.), Surveillance, architecture and control : Discourses on spatial culture, Palgrave (2019)
  ISBN: 9783030003708 eISBN: 9783030003715
  Abstract

  The purpose of this chapter is to explore how urban spaces are implicated in the control and surveillance of users in a culture saturated by the notion of the self as a consuming body or entity. Using the work of Foucault on disciplinary cultures, Lefebvre in relation to the production of space, and other seminal theorists such as Baudrillard, Bauman, Shields, and Walzer, a model for analysing the three dimensions of social spatialisation is proposed and illustrated by reference to contemporary public spaces, and specifically spaces of mundane leisure such as shopping malls and high streets. The chapter deals with how the public realm as a controlling space has been theorised in terms of opposition to such controlling tendencies—from the flaneur, through the self-constructed narratives of De Certeau’s walker to the digitally ‘enhanced’ individual today, appropriating space via technology and their own projects in tinder and so on, and other potentially subversive media.
  

  Website 
• Reeve A, 'British town center management: setting the stage for the BID model in Europe ' in Business improvement districts: research, theories, and controversies, Auerbach (2008)
  ISBN: 9781420045765 eISBN: 9781420045789
  Website 
• Reeve A, 'The panopticisation of shopping: CCTV and leisure consumption' in Norris C, Moran J, Armstrong G (ed.), The panopticisation of shopping: CCTV and leisure consumption, (1998)
  ISBN: 1840141263
  

Conference papers

• Shipley R, Reeve A, 'Does investment in the built fabric of historic towns drive economic recovery?'
  (2011)
  Abstract In the late 1990s the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) recognized that many historic towns in Britain were experiencing economic distress. A program was designed to support the refurbishing of buildings in these towns in what became known as “conservation-led regeneration.” The Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) has since assisted almost 200 places and expended £175 million. At the outset the HLF decided to set up a comprehensive evaluation program to determine whether and how the THI accomplished its goals of not only economic but also social regeneration. 
   A team of reasearchers is now in a position to be able to indicate what worked and what did not, and to offer an explanation for this with respect to the relationship between heritage investment and a range of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ outcomes.
  Website 

Other publications

• Otsuka N, Reeve A, 'Town Centre Management and social inclusion'
  (2007) Abstract This paper examines the capacity of Town Centre Management (TCM) to contribute towards the social enhancement of local places and communities in the English context. Much recent literature has highlighted the effectiveness of TCM, referring to the same objectives as those of recent regeneration programmes: place marketing, retail and leisure development, surveillance measures and evening and night time economies. However, these aspects of urban regeneration favoured by TCM are mainly concerned with consumption-based economic revitalization and physical upgrading, while little attention has been paid to social dimensions of regeneration issues. The key to the examination of the TCM’s roles in social regeneration may lie in questions of pursuing social equity: how does TCM plays a role in redistributing some of the benefits brought by physical and economic regeneration into the development of local communities? Out of the pilot study and twelve case studies, only three cases (Wigan, Doncaster and Wood Green) have demonstrated positive impact of TCM in pursuing social equity of the regeneration premises, while two (Birmingham and Reading) have provided counter evidence. Utilising the data from these five case studies, this article discusses the roles and potential of TCM in redistributing the regeneration benefits over the communities from different social strata. Website 
• Butina Watson G, Carpenter J, Brownill S, Durning B, Reeve A, 'Thames Gateway Evidence Review'
  (2006) Website 
• Goodey B, Reeve A, Robinson P, Lermon A, Braiden H, 'London Transport Jubilee Line Extension'
  (1999)

Areas of expertise

• urban design and regeneration
• regeneration of the historic environment
• place evaluation

Conferences

Have attended  numerous conference on urban design and environmental design, including AESOP and EDRA

Have acted as Urban Desighn track Chair for AESOP

Further information

Have acted as External Examiner for the DOMUS Academy in Milan on the Masters in Architrula Urbanism programme for five years.