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Masterplans
New Village, Allerton Bywater, Yorkshire
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Previously a coal-mining community, Allerton Bywater was an early example of brownfield re-use, its realisation coming with all the problems for implementers that remain today – remediation; communities split between opposition and support; house builders unwilling to think freshly; housing construction sunk in convention; the financing of social infrastructure.
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The main street is a place harbouring a diverse range of housing types and outbuildings behind an ordered façade.
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Two ‘Barns’ located within a residential block act as car parking and, when temporarily emptied, as occasion spaces.
Glasgow Boulevard and Edinburgh Axis
Spinning out from two competitions came questions of city and national identity. With thoroughfares like Champs-Élysées, Fifth Avenue, La Rambla, Unter den Linden, Las Vegas Boulevard in mind, Glasgow would have an eastern boulevard to replace a coincidental mess; Edinburgh an axis of interconnected parts (cue Strøget, Istiklal Caddesi, Rue Mouffetard), bringing venues for the populations of Scotland’s 9 regions and 53 districts right into the core of their capital. Today that would be active representations from the people of 32 unitary authorities – the remaining 30 buildings used for gatherings of immigrant groups. At the time these insertions were to be funded from tariffs on oil revenues; today from renewables.
Regeneration of a District, Norris Green, Liverpool
Won in competition, after demolition due to comprehensive technical failure, a defunct 1920s housing estate (one of Britain's largest, with nearly 8,000 homes), would be restructured with multi-use streets, connected landscapes, place-centred, mixed-tenure residential neighbourhoods and a wide diversity of house choices. Named ‘Norris Green Village’ it has arguably been transformed from what some called “the worst estate in Europe.” Following housebuilder back-sliding (and what was termed architect’s bullheadedness), the relationship between competition-winner and developer severed – a small section of social housing left as token.
One of the competitions marshalled in the Berlin of the 1980s, exploring the notion of ‘critical reconstruction’, the submission concentrated on making the street a place that bustled with life, rather than asleep with residentialitis. Apart
from relatively high density, the main idea was to create a new Platz linked to an Arcade (bristling with intrigue) and other pedestrian routes. A model used intensity of colour to represent the most active places. That challenge to bring life rather than just formal order through urban design still pertains.
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A place of assembly gathering together routes.
Critical Reconstruction of Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin
New District, Osbaldwick, York
In another invited competition, the proposal created a new district, analogously revisiting the idea of a ‘planted town.’ Apart from housing there would be an easily-identifiable mixed-use centre. Rather than allowing traffic to be an imposition on neighbouring areas, using a defunct railway alignment for vehicular access sunk the scheme.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, on a stretch where that inhuman division had cast its shadow, the client sought to generate employment for communities from both east and west. The masterplan re-organises the space to create a Platz. Providing reference, figure-ground diagrams compared its intended scale to well-known Berlin Plätze. The work proposed a mixture of old and new buildings creating vertical urban factories (a Berlin tradition), the 22-metre historical cornice height of the area respected.
Production Campus for Siemens, Berlin
Hall Gardens, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham
From an approach that gave prominence to a north-south ‘ecological garden’ the emphasis changed when the client instructed a balance between carbon emissions and renewable energy. With wind generation treated as alien by the local authority, solar sources swung all roofs onto an east-west orientation – the likeliest way to achieve the goal, at least in part. Despite proof that each street would be an identifiable place, at appeal, the scheme sank on the rocks of perceived ‘overt repetition’. Yet it is just such ‘overt repetition’ that when done well, gives our towns and cities some of their best (and most desired) places.
New Town, Tempsford, Bedfordshire
One of three New Towns to be under construction by the time of the UK’s 2029 general election, independent work suggests an approach that creates a concentrated high-density centre (equivalent to Portsmouth) with 25,000 dwellings, set within limits of two existing settlements (St Neots and Sandy), a motorway and the main East Coast rail route. Currently in the course of construction, a new east-west railway between Oxford and Cambridge will form an interchange, beginning a conversation about centrality and place-making. With the energies of science-and-technology-led employment also prominent in the centre (indigenous to the corridor), an integrated town beckons. To meet government expectations, a further 15,000 dwellings will be built as compact satellites on appropriate neighbouring land.
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The densest component to the centre of Tempsford New Town will surround the rail interchange. From a hub located on the edges of the main square, a series of loops will provide regular electric, driverless buses for all districts (Kerava and Tampere in Finland among precedents). From this hub, the satellites in the surrounding area will also be served. The risk of river flooding will be managed by the creation of two principle parks with both detention and retention basins.
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A more advanced spatial formation for Tempsford New Town focuses the principal functions in a mixed-use centre located between the A428 and the East-West rail line, with a wide 2-kilometre avenue at its centre. Northern and southern districts reference 35 of the most successful residential areas in Britain. Currently a suggestive collage, it indicates that order, orientation, landscape and diversity can be achieved by a Development Corporation working with an intelligent, well-researched and artistically brilliant master plan, assembling a multitude of housing providers open to fresh ideas.
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Senate City, Yorkshire
Expected constitutional change will see the unelected, excessively large House of Lords replaced by an elected, succinct Senate. That’s the scenario for a new compact city outside London, located between Leeds and York.
At the centre of a territory of mixed uses, a public pedestrianised square with a mainline railway station below takes cues from the best.
