Places Matter

Places Matter is an independent organisation, hosted by RIBA, which is devoted to generating a strong sense of place in living, working and leisure environments throughout north west England.

We work across the public, private and third sectors to drive up the skills and knowledge of all those involved in new development, promoting good design and encouraging strong client leadership.

We are based at RIBA North in Liverpool. Our expert design review panel provides timely, truly independent and impartial advice that can add value to the development process. We operate under the Design Network’s National Design Review Charter.  

We hold set monthly design review panel meetings, but will arrange additional sessions to meet your client’s needs and development timetable.

Download our brochure, which outlines our approach to design review and hear what our clients have to say about the benefits of an independent critical friend.

These are the current panel members, drawn from across the built environment professions. We seek to ensure that panel members skills are matched to the requirements of the projects under review and each panel will contain a mix of different professions. 

Our co-chairs are: 

Annie Coombs, Landscape architect

Matt Brook, Chartered architect, Founding Director of Matt Brook Architects 

We also have five Supporting Chairs, who can lead a panel:

• Xanthe Quayle (Landscape architect)
• Tony Wyatt (Urban design / Heritage)
• Victoria Turner (Architect)
• Louise Fountain (Urban design)
• Ian Beaumont (Architect / Master planner)

• Single project; single house P84e review; and smaller residential schemes up to 45 dwellings: £3,950 + VAT
• Larger residential schemes over 45 dwellings / sustainable urban expansion / garden village / major regeneration schemes: £4,950 + VAT
• Second Design Review for a returning scheme: charged at 75% of the original fee + VAT
• Desk Review of a previously seen scheme, seeking final comments: charged at 50% of the original fee + VAT
  
   

All fees are payable a minimum of one week in advance of the Design Review. All Design Reviews can be either online or in-person and last for 120 minutes. We arrange Design Reviews on request to allow for greater flexibility and to fit with individual development programmes. Longer, bespoke Design Review sessions can be quoted for on request. 

We are happy to arrange bespoke team training sessions, which will be quoted for on request. We recently trained the whole planning team and councillors for Stockport’s emerging boroughwide Design Code. 

We offer a bespoke service to Local Planning Authorities who sign up for our SLA. This can be tailored to meet your specific requirements, for example, a dedicated Chair and Panel selected from our wider list, set dates for design reviews and policy briefing sessions for the Panel. We already offer this level of bespoke service in Trafford, Bury, Bolton, Stockport, and Liverpool.  

We are the first 'accredited provider' of this service in the north west of England, working for public bodies, social housing providers and developers. All assessments and training on this can be quoted upon request.