Cities are places of exchange, meeting and social gathering which rely on proximity and connectivity to fulfil these functions. Road junctions are where the physical intersection of streets enables the intersection and intensification of these social functions. In this respect, they are essential to the function of the city and should be considered as key nodes in the urban fabric. However, in the 20th Century as cities grew and cars became more prevalent, major interventions were made on road junctions to improve the flow of traffic, often destroying parts of the city to achieve it. While this helped increase mobility overall in doing so it damaged the very fabric and functionality of the city. They are designed to segregate and accelerate traffic flows, thereby removing the opportunity for interaction and exchange, in this respect it is argued that these interventions were anti-urbanAs cities start to turn away from the dominance of private vehicles, and towards more sustainable modes of travel such as cycling and walking, many of these road junctions are being re-configured to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists. It is argued that many of these new improvements repeat a similar mistake; they are primarily highway infrastructure schemes. Is there a missed opportunity to undertake better interventions that repair and strengthen the fabric of the city? Can major road interventions ever create successful places? Can we learn from the historical street layouts in order to undo these anti-urban interventions?The purpose of this project is to learn from best practices and historic precedents and provide practitioners with a toolkit to deliver holistic urban design on these sites
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