Freiburg in Germany is much admired for its public transport systems and radical new developments such as Vauban. Dr Nicholas Falk reports back from a recent study tour..

Edinburgh is a good example of using a development trust to promote the conservation and adaptive reuse of the historic city centre.

Cardiff City Centre serves a relatively small population, and like many British towns has found it difficult to keep the centre alive at night.

German cities are particularly lively and have been protected from out of town developments through positive planning and the containment of urban sprawl.

Over the last ten years over 2 600 flats have been developed along the Whitworth Street corridor in Manchester.

Large shops are a fact of life and they can be difficult to accommodate in urban areas.

Rotterdam has promoted its distinctive strengths, such as its port and technological universities to make it a significant European location for international businesses.

The demise of the Greater London Council led to the formation of Coin Street Community Builders.

Today the city is attempting to create places where people with choice want to live.

During the mid 1990s, Bristol City Council recognised that the prosperity of its centre was vital to the well-being of Bristol as a whole.

Doubts about the quality of the city centre led to the organisation of what was later called the Highbury Initiative.

One of the most significant prefabricated housing schemes in the UK is likely to be the Millennium Village in Greenwich.

In Hulme, the development of Homes for Change, a block of 50 flats around a courtyard, has provided considerable inspiration for new forms of urban housing .

In Winchester, the old barracks in the city centre, which were going to be largely demolished as they were no longer required, have now been converted into around 140 housing units ... .

Like most seaside resorts, Brighton lost its traditional holiday trade to the Continent and began to go downhill..

Like a number of Scottish cities, the city centre has benefited from a considerable investment programme .

A Conservation Area Town Scheme has been established and grants were used encouraging projects to develop living and working areas in the heart of the town .

Scottish initiatives are regarded as successful because there is a willingness to experiment and learn from innovative projects.

Reading was one of the first local authorities to adopt the concept of Town Centre Management.

Community action is helping to revive the town’s fortunes as a place to live and visit.

Milton Keynes has been one of the main sources of new housing in the South East.

In Sandwich a derelict tannery has been redeveloped as 50 terraced homes by a local developer.

Investment in conservation and high quality urban design is paying off through housing expansion.

Southampton has involved the local community in developing a vision for new housing.

Reigate is one of a number of towns to take advantage of the growth in the ‘evening economy’.

A survey on crime undertaken by the Forum of Private Businesses in Norwich City Centre highlighted many of the concerns felt by those running businesses in a busy centre.

A major problem for most industrial towns Is keeping the centre alive at night, and also tackling the problem of vacant property on the edges.

The local authority recognised that the centre faced a series of challenges, including traffic, servicing, lack of parking and modern retail units, as the well as threats from out of town.

The city has successfully promoted the Cultural Industries Quarter, in an area that had lost most of its industry.

At first sight, Hertford is a compact town in which all the urban capacity had been used up. .