SUNN’s regular day-long field meetings and guided walks continued in 2011 with meetings in Manchester (Ancoats and New Islington) 28 June 2011, London (Grand Union Village) 27 September 2011 and Netherlands Study Tour (Vathorst, Houten and Almere Poort) 6-7 October 2011.
Some of the lessons learnt from each meeting were as follows:
The masterplan has now been submitted to Birmingham City Ceouncil Planning department for outline planning. The masterplan is decibled in the Design and Access Statement, available to download. This illustrative masterplan includes land use, massing, access, public realm and the waterspace strategy. The entirety of this document is illustrative meaning it shows how the scheme could be developed in line with a planning application. It is however an outline application and the content of this statement goes beyond the scope and detailed to be fixed at the outline stage.
Over the past few weeks we have been undertaking a public consultation of the masterplan for Icknield Port Loop. The proposed scheme was drawn up and illustrated with exemplar images to engage people in discussion about the kinds of developments that could take place, the types of housing they prefer and canal-side activities they thought the area could sustain. Many people asked questions which were answered by members of the client and design team.
Getting the BCB into the production hall was not the end of this project. The vision for Stoke Town was all about grow your own urbanism - a gradual process of change, but making sure the past is there to calibrate that change. With this in mind another phase is to get the Spode Museum Trust into a temporary home so that a smll part of their huge collection can be seen. The original museum space (pictured) will hopefully one day retrieve its role but for now we are looking at accommdating the Trust in the fomer stable block.
Igloo have recently been awarded funding from the Technology Strategy Board's 'Building Performance Evaluation' programme for the Bermondsey Square Development in London. URBED have been working with Igloo on a post-completion assessment of the scheme against Igloo's 'Footprint' sustainable investment policy. Working with Dr Fin O'Faherty from Sheffield Hallam University, this funding will help us to investigate the environmental performance of the building in greater depth.
This report sets out a vision for Stoke Town as it might be in 20 years time. However, more important it sets out a step by step strategy to achieve this vision starting in a time of weak markets and public sector spending cuts. The overall aim is to grow the regeneration of the area, using its assets and allowing Stoke Town to seize future opportunities. This report is available to download here.
Urbanism
