Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment: Safe and Sustainable Neighbourhoods - The Importance of Good Design Symposium 2025
On Wednesday 19 November 2025, the annual MAG Symposium took place at St Comgall’s, Belfast. This year’s theme, “Safe and Sustainable Neighbourhoods: The Importance of Good Design,” brought together speakers from across a range of disciplines to explore the future of housing, placemaking, and community safety in Northern Ireland.
Introduction
Andrew Haley, MAG Chair, set the tone for the ambition, shared by all present, to share knowledge to create better places for our fellow citizens, reminding all that collaborations and relationships are the resource and the basis for learning from each other to get the best outcome for the places we desire.
Paul Price, DfC Deputy Secretary for the Housing and Sustainability Group
Paul Price opened the event by highlighting the Department’s ambitious target to deliver 33,000 new social homes over 15 years from 2024. He acknowledged the challenging landscape currently facing the sector and outlined the Department’s upcoming social housing design standards review, encouraging attendees to engage with the process.
Historical overview of housing layouts in Northern Ireland
Dr David Coyles, Senior Lecturer at Ulster University and MAG member
Dr David Coyles followed with a concise historical overview of housing in Northern Ireland. He illustrated how defensible design approaches since the Second World War have gradually disrupted Belfast’s historic urban grid, and traced the shift from ornate Victorian terraces to prefabricated and high-rise suburban housing in the 1950s. David emphasised the importance of quality and referenced the Essex Design Guide - a 1970s toolkit for shaping buildings and public spaces - highlighting the value of designing inclusive, accessible environments to enhance towns and cities.
Designing Out Crime
Pete Connolly MBE, Tutor and Assessor at the Secured by Design Police Crime Prevention Academy
Pete Connolly presented on the relationship between policing and design. He reiterated that policing is fundamentally about preventing crime and disorder, and that effective design should consider physical security, natural surveillance, controlled movement, management and maintenance, and defensible space. He showcased the new Secured by Design (SbD) awards scheme, stressing that successful integration of SbD principles depends heavily on early engagement within the design process.
Chris Sloan, Service Lead for the PSNI Design Out Crime Unit
Chris Sloan reinforced the importance of a practical, common-sense approach to crime prevention in design. He highlighted that early engagement not only improves outcomes but also saves time and costs while helping avoid complications later in a project. His team regularly undertakes site visits, and he emphasised that the timing of these interventions is critical.
Challenges and Innovation in the Social Housing Sector
Anita Conway, Director of Development at Radius Housing
Anita Conway outlined the organisation’s achievements to date, with over £100 million currently invested in construction projects. She described the significant challenges facing the social housing sector, including budget cuts, NIMBYism, planning pressures, affordability constraints, and competing expectations. Anita presented Radius’ Creevagh Heights scheme in Derry (119 homes), highlighting issues that arose when Secured by Design requirements were introduced late in the process. She also shared updates on St Patrick’s Barracks in Ballymena and the Gasworks, Belfast, noting their innovative approaches to density, tenure mix, and active travel. Key lessons identified included the importance of early collaboration and proactive stakeholder engagement.
Architect’s view from Henry J Lyons
Richard Doorly, Director at Henry J Lyons Architects
Richard Doorly discussed the increasing complexity of regulatory frameworks in the Republic of Ireland, identifying this as a key challenge for architects. He emphasised the central role of design in creating successful environments, illustrating this through a series of projects grounded in strong architectural concepts and coherent masterplans.
The projects demonstrated a mix of uses, particularly at street level, to activate streets, provide active frontages, and add value to residential units. Each scheme established a clear hierarchy of routes and spaces, moving from public to semi-public to private, supporting an overarching placemaking vision.
Henry J Lyons Architects’ recent work includes several large-scale residential developments in Dublin, many exceeding 1,000 units. These projects consistently prioritise street-based layouts, high-quality public realm, and well-defined thresholds. Richard also highlighted the importance of boundaries and identity in clearly distinguishing public, private, and defensible spaces, positioning these as fundamental to the success of residential environments.
Architect’s view from Studiorogers
Sam Dill, Director at Studiorogers
Sam Dill presented a selection of their Northern Ireland projects, each shaped by its specific context. Key themes included material selection, contribution to the streetscape, and thoughtful spatial planning. Sam emphasised the importance of clearly defined public, semi-public, and private boundaries in designing secure environments. He also noted several challenges within current guidance—such as prescriptive storage standards and oversized WC requirements—and suggested that improved dialogue could enhance the usability of social housing schemes.
Throughout the day, attendees participated in roundtable discussions exploring housing on greenfield sites, experiences with Secured by Design, and the integration of green technologies into new developments. These sessions generated constructive debate and highlighted diverse perspectives across the room.
Andrew Haley, Chair of MAG
To conclude Andrew Haley summarised the recurring themes that emerged across the presentations. A clear message was that early engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration are central to delivering high-quality, safe, and sustainable neighbourhoods. Crucially, the creation of secure spaces must not be treated as an optional add-on at the end of a project; rather, it should be embedded from the outset. Designing with security, inclusivity, and longevity in mind will ultimately produce stronger communities and better places for everyone.
Next steps
MAG has collated the responses from the round table discussions and is working towards further influencing this sector to provide better outcomes in terms of design, creation of secure neighbourhoods and ease of delivery.