The project aims to discuss three issues within contemporary urban development with a view to formulating an agenda for the redevelopment of an area in the City of Leicester.

In the first instance, this brief is to address the issue of ‘leftover’ sites on city edges, industrial sites that for one reason or an other have been made redundant and now remain derelict and contaminated. These areas of the city are unattractive to both the city’s inhabitants and prospective developers. It is the intention of the project to discover reasons why this is the case. Information on these issues will be gathered from contemporary urban studies and theories relevant to urban renewal, focusing on the role of urban design in the regeneration of post-industrial brownfield sites. Secondly, the brief will begin to study a city and its systems. The city studied in this report, Leicester, is home to many derelict ‘brownfield sites’ common to all British cities. Using studies prepared by the City Council Development Control Office, Leicester’s Urban Design Group and the English Partnership, an analysis will be undertaken to determine the reasons for the site becoming redundant, and create an agenda for new opportunities within that site. Thirdly, urban housing is to be studied as a building typology. Examples of new and innovative urban housing will be studied with a view to introducing new housing typologies into areas in the regeneration of the city edge.