Annual Review 2008 Creating Places for People for Places Creating open spaces open local places, local cities, suburbs, cities,
Cities, Suburbs, Local Places and Open Spaces Creating Places for People cities, suburbs, local places, open spaces
Creating Places for People
Annual Review 2008
Cities, Suburbs, Local Places, Open Spaces Tony McGuirk, Peter Drummond and Shyam Khandekar discuss the subject with Lee Mallett
Lee Mallett (LM) New Town skills? A lot of the things that get better economies architecture and urban There’s been a shift from a debate about were set in place then are so pertinent to design can be used as a commodity. The architecture in the 1980s to more of a focus today’s society. professions, despite their mistakes, retain the on regeneration and urban design. drive of the wider issues. Energy, sustainability, PD global warming, they’ve become our wider Peter Drummond (PD) We’ve spent the last 30 years repairing some issues. They stimulate people, they stimulate Over the last 25 years the role of the urban of the damage which was the opportunity professionals. We started to gather the issues designer, the masterplanner has started to for some of the big schemes in the 1980s. after the recession of the early/mid 90s, flourish. Suburban development was left largely There was a dramatic change in attitude in the but then as we pulled out of recession we Tony McGuirk, Chairman to housebuilders. There is the sense now that early 1990s. We started to reappraise what also started to see architecture become a places are more important and part of the we needed to do in our towns and cities. We commodity once more. I think this pause we’re designer’s life. started to think that creating places of value is going to have now will help to rectify that shift. not the same as creating a million sq ft of mall When architecture is used as a commodity Shyam Khandekhar (SK) shopping. The 90s recession provided time for there will always be a reaction. Our founder Architecture in most societies includes urban reflection. But it has taken 15 years for those George Grenfell Baines and movements like design. In societies which necessitated people reflections to manifest themselves. Team 10 believed that the 60s commodification working together, like the Netherlands, urban of housing was not the way to go, creating design evolved as a much stronger discipline. LM mass-industrialised products. It is about how Do you think there’s been a line of reaction you make architecture based on relationships Peter Drummond, CEO Tony McGuirk (TM) against the developments that took place in and well-being. You can compare that to American society the 60s and 70s? It took us a long time to get where urban development sprawled in an places working again. SK individualistic way. As we look for ways to deal The pressure we have is globalisation. If with global issues perhaps we should look to TM something has been successful somewhere the Dutch model. In the 60s cities were left It is adversity that gets the professions who then it is transferred all over the world, and not helped to recover from the second are involved as well as the public thinking particularly with building and building design world war so you had lots of brownfield land. about the wider issues. Adversity created types. That is something as designers we have Instead we had new towns which were a very the New Towns movement. Modernism to fight. The real role of the urban designer is organised development of suburbs. Now we was about getting people out of insanitary to create a place that is specific to context. Shyam Khandekar have eco-towns, but what’s happened to our conditions. But what happens is when we Developers are also realising that this is something which creates value. Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
LM LM SK “If you want authenticity Sir Michael Lyons’ report drew the conclusion In the 80s the community architecture We carried out a similar project in an historic that the central role of local government movement was seen as the way to re-engage town in the Netherlands – Coevorden was a of place you have to should be that of placemaking. with localism. But it was seen as stripping out little remote, medieval place, and its economy a wider intellectual content. wasn’t doing very well. We engaged with lots think regionally”. TM of local participants. We suggested around 20 We tend to bypass the regions because TM interventions which were unanimously agreed of globalisation. If you want authenticity It did get denigrated. A lot of people in by all groups. We took some of the different of place you have to think regionally. architecture at the time wanted to do high- layers of history of the town and reinterpreted technology buildings. There was a big divorce them, so some of the old lines have come SK – because the Prince of Wales got in the back, and we’ve recreated three harbour Regionality is also the dynamo of a rich society. middle of it. He allied more with the community bastions in a modern design – so people can We went to look at the Peak District – a great architects. He did many of them a disservice sit there and watch the boats and the water. landscape. The same stone was used for the by doing that because the fight then became Because the ideas were agreed by all the bridges, the buildings and the landscape had against many of the things he represented. interest groups, the politicians also agreed the same colour. It looked so good because the ideas unanimously. none of it was made from stone from China LM or metal from America. It was a shame it got so polarised because LM “The future can also be you can feel the need for a much more There is an interesting relationship between TM constructive relationship. urban design and local politics isn’t there? Is about recreating some The thing which shaped the use of those local interest an unexploited force for change materials is the local climate. If architecture SK in Britain? of the good things from is going to relate more to how people live The trick is that things have to evolve in a the past”. then we need to start with the fundamentals, certain way so that it is understandable to SK understanding the people, and how they see everyone else who’s living there. Cities have a In the Netherlands people have an enormous themselves living in that place. character which is always related to something suspicion of the local authority. As an which created the settlement in the first place. external consultant it is often easier for us LM to operate because people have no value But developers often feel they can’t afford TM judgement about us. In Coevorden, there politically to engage too much with local You can rediscover those things. In Aarhus in was a tremendous mistrust of new buildings. people. You have to assume the local north Denmark they’ve opened up a river in the 70s, 80s and 90s buildings had destroyed authority is doing that through the centre of the city that was culverted 50 years the feel of place. To get a new town hall built democratic planning process. ago and created a new area that is as it was a process of education. We invited three was many years ago, around the river with architects, one traditional, one more modern, TM shopping, a promenade. The future can also one a little different from the others. They There is a bureaucratisation of that essential be about recreating some of the good things attracted a really big audience and people part of the process. If designers and people from the past. realised you can build new architecture do relate they will tend to get a sense of place which enriches an historic place. out of it. Our schools of architecture don’t push that – designing for people. They push high- end architecture. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces
LM playthings for the children. Over here we don’t TM If you do engage people properly then it is approach housing like that – asking what does People like Jan Gehl have brought this to the “Housing has always been possible to “de-risk” the planning process. the family need to live? fore again. He’s always taught “go and look But do you think we’re still in a period of what people do”. We have to be careful we’ve about how people live in resistance to new architecture and planning? LM not neutralised our minds to that sensibility of A lack of engagement is obscuring what we what makes place. We need to rekindle that their homes”. PD should be producing both in terms of places observation. We need it in design education. I think that has changed, especially where and buildings. It was interesting to go back to Hampden people were involved in the process. On Gurney school after seven years and find out Liverpool One we held meetings every month TM what was working and what wasn’t working on site. Anyone could go. The other architects What goes into them? By comparison to so well. When we first designed it they had on the scheme were involved. There was research in education buildings, research classes 50% undersubscribed. They now have a real sense of participation – even with a in living buildings or places is minimal. The 350 applications for every 30 place class. It’s £400m development that was going to go amount of work that was put into housing also changed the demographics because most at a crashing pace, hurdles of mistrust were during the post-war Parker Morris period of the kids used to come from poorer areas. overcome. The great thing about listening to is significantly greater than anything we’ve Now you get the media mums and dads from people and connecting that to the design, is done since. There are no forces drawing the Marylebone bringing their kids. that it is a really creative process. The fear is whole thing together. I felt that community of course that if you listen too much to people architecture tended not to bring something LM you’re going to get a “dumbed-down” scheme. really exciting out of the engagement. There are The holy grail of regeneration – a social mix. Absolutely not. But there is a fear that as soon a number of people who did bring something as you engage somebody’s going to say “no” exciting – Ralph Erksine, Aldo van Eyck and TM or “make it smaller”. Giancarlo de Carlo, who produced something Successful schools are a great vehicle for that people hadn’t imagined would come out of that. The verticality, which was seen as a great TM the discussion. The starting point was to talk to problem by the education authorities, a six- It is a tricky process, and it’s always been a people and they were able to transfer that storey primary school, has also worked well. question of “who are the users?”. Many inner into iconic solutions that have a communality It has given the age groups a certain territory, “Go and look what cities have only a tenth of the population they about them. and the school is also easy to identify. We had years ago. It becomes even more difficult need schools that are within walking distance people do”. with eco-towns. I don’t think we’ve done PD of their communities. enough work on how people can be brought The critical thing is how do we use place? together to represent their community. Housing The burghers of a city and developers have PD has always been about how people live in their an obligation to observe and promote how It’s going to be interesting to see how homes and how they live with their neighbours people will use that space, how it is managed, Liverpool One is perceived. The masterplan and nobody’s doing any real research work, so celebrated, enjoyed. There is this sense that is far more important than the iconography we get a commercialised product. In our Den if you do a major scheme, go through the of the buildings. Bosch scheme everybody has their own big processes, then the job’s finished. But that’s storage space in the basement, where they can where it really starts. put their bicycles, their kit for summer holidays, Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
TM LM LM LM Shyam worked on the masterplan for the We seem to be in thrall to a systemised Giving people access to design is something After accepting the need for sustainability in housing scheme in Den Bosch. What approach to the built environment. you think should be stronger? its wider sense, it does seem that only good impressed me about that city was the station urban design can really deliver it long term. was a generator of people and on the other PD TM side of the main space you had all the schools, But we don’t revisit that and see whether In Den Bosch, when we showed our designs TM colleges, university buildings. So you’ve got regulations do or don’t work for us. We look for to the public, they got TV people to present Urban design manages the wider resource. this constant weaving of people. Where we put the next big thing to improve things, but it may the ideas. They had a thousand people there. activities is so key to the whole thing. 30–40 already be sitting there in front of us waiting There is that phrase by Giancarlo de Carlo PD years ago developers used to try and neutralise to be revisited. It’s the old thing but it has which said something about “designing for the It’s not eco-towns we should be looking at but that mixing by capturing everybody inside been regulated so it doesn’t work very well. I messy vitality of life” and the process in many eco-suburbs. And maybe we should reconsider their development (like Manchester’s Arndale think you can be optimistic about what we’re ways tries to neutralise that and we’ve made it aspects of the Green Belt. We do need a lot Centre). Cities are all about people flowing. learning. Now we can see what was broadly difficult to harness it. more houses. good, or bad. The next generation of mixed- PD SK use places will be better. The next few years are going to be very TM But we are getting too protective. We’re trying different, more incremental. The regeneration We’ve not really built up our inner suburbs to prevent something going wrong rather than TM process is going to work in a wholly different – like Kensington & Chelsea for example, making interesting liveable places. You have But nobody is really fostering an idea of what way. You’re not going to get the major compared to much of east London. There are all these regulations dictating urban design. should a really good suburb be like. developers and housebuilders coming some wonderful examples of beautiful suburbs, You have this paradox of accessibility – maybe forward with £400 million schemes. We in Oslo for example. We’re not doing it. The there’s a motorway, a railway line, a river – but LM could aim at smaller interventions of high merger of the Housing Corporation and English environmental laws prevent you from taking Isn’t it a lack of resource to be able to do quality or relevance. Partnership should make things a lot more advantage of that. the thinking? flexible. Public transport itself will become a TM major opportunity. Crossrail for example. In the TM TM Also making cities and places more lifetime meantime in Spain it is estimated that every It is hard to fight against a regulatory It is. I’m not sure there is the motivation either. orientated. So people stay in places rather person will be within 30 minutes of a high- environment intent on eroding a sense of place. If you look at the things that happen in the than move away. If there is demand for new speed train station. We’re not anywhere near We need a flexible approach. You couldn’t Netherlands, a lot more thinking goes into it. suburbs are they going to be the “Brookside” that. The opportunities to make society more design Perugia again. Most buildings sit at the We don’t really have those exemplars yet. It or the Malmo version? In Scandinavia a lot of sustainable, being able to stay where you want side of regulations these days. They are not is such an important culture that we need to good developments are by housebuilders. But to stay, and commute environmentally, will precisely compliant and we act as advocates generate in our society. You only get that by if you don’t put the agenda in place you can’t change the nature of our places. The suburb to negotiate a solution. This isn’t the case with seeing places. The Sorrell Foundation is very develop the culture. And obviously the need doesn’t need to be a non-ecological animal, place regulations and it should be. interesting. They promote designers working for sustainability is a big opportunity. especially if you are close to a station. If we with school pupils. If young people grow up revitalise our suburbs they could play a much knowing how designers work, they will grow more important role in Britain’s future. into adults who know how designers work. 7 cities 8 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Perspectives on Cities Hackney Martin Davies By people in BDP
Hackney has done a lot over the last few years to rid itself of its council failing, crime-ridden reputation.
Since I have lived here the Hackney Empire has had a successful resurgence, a new BSF school has started a few doors down, the local park’s disused lido has been brought back into use and the local elite can now queue for their £15 free-range chickens at Broadway Market on Saturday mornings.
Hackney is one of the most vibrant multi- cultural boroughs in the land and this is evident through the variety of food stores, restaurants and churches along its main streets. However, Hackney’s real problem is failing to attract the retailers that matter. New units that have been provided often lie empty until let to another betting shop or take-away pizza.
I moved here to take advantage of the relatively cheap property and good location and while it has shown signs of improvement and regeneration over the years, largely under the protocol ‘knock down a pub and build a block of affordable housing’, the area still struggles to meet the expectations of many of those who live there. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces
This City, That City The City of London 7 kilometres 20 minutes Murray Kerr Wayne Head Ninian Adair
My greatest pleasure has become a couple of Walk around the Barbican in your comfortable Some people described it as a great Living and working in a city includes the regular soft boiled eggs on a Sunday prior to whatever trainers. Once you have got your bearings impersonal dormitory. Many of the residents journey between home and work. When cycling the day holds; a walk around the streets east you will discover a feeling of domain, almost though definitely feel a sense of belonging. or walking, a rich spectrum of urban spaces, to west of the city, a swim outdoors, some independent from the rest of London. There But of course a degree of anonymity is people and activity can be confronted. food cooked by someone else or sometimes is a sense of locality where the axes of the maintained, for such is British reserve! all of the above. layouts shift in form. The polygonal plan form The pace of life can be as gentle or frenetic For me each journey has features of of the towers, with their far-seeing views across as you please. Ask Peggy the “duck lady” permanence: the local park, nothing grand but This enjoyment has come from my position in town and the more localised outlook from who voluntarily takes care of the local in the city nature in small doses gives a big the city, geographically speaking, as I write the terrace blocks closer to the ground. The duck population. hit; the canal like a glass runway disappearing this from Old street or Hoxton or Shoreditch Podium affords a glimpse of all human life, into the distance and the broad tree lined but certainly from a centre of this city. But I from striding pin-striped city gents in the So, what does living in the city mean to me? avenue ruined by traffic calming and bold write this soon to be denizen, someone from morning to staggering curry-laden drunks Everything body and soul requires within white chevrons, blend into the chaotic streets somewhere else, as I was when I arrived. I’m on a Friday night. easy reach? Certainly. A sense of history, that prevail as thousands of individuals make moving to The Hague. continuity and life going on? Definitely. their own way, converging and diverging from Here many people reside within walking Above all, a wondrous place for my young tributary paths. It’s been a trial to find a place or home in distance of their workplaces in small defiance family to grow up in. London but no sooner have I stumbled of the congestion charge. Others merely Then there are the odd disconcerting events: upon it, courtesy of my granny’s failsafe maintain a useful pied a terre. Resident families two men in the chaos carrying a large sheet of method to perfect boiled egg, I’m off. enjoy the private gardens, play areas, public plate glass over a zebra crossing and the fifty theatre, cinema, restaurants and shops. The metre motorbike wheelie performed from a The search to find a similar place within a Barbican playgroup and new local school standing start at the lights. new much smaller land, new work and new provides formal education and the School of language is on. I’m sure it’s possible but it Music nurtures budding virtuosos. The church Suffused with all this is patina of time. Worn may just involve a bike and the whereabouts of St Giles Cripplegate, where Milton is buried steps hollowed by ancient citizens, crumbling of a good chicken! and his crony Cromwell was married, provides walls, cobbled streets and invisible long gone spiritual guidance for those who seek it. The industries give way to an awareness of the clipped lawns of the gated gardens echo the ingenuity of man to be responsible for such squares of Bloomsbury, Kensington a huge contrivance over centuries. and Chelsea. Despite the tensions, the permanence and impermanence, this interaction engenders a feeling of belonging to something vital and your home expands to embrace the city. 10 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Victoria Square Belfast
Integrating the existing city centre with the Laganside waterfront cultural area, Victoria Square has had a major impact on the renaissance of Belfast. The quarter includes retail over two ground levels; cinemas, restaurants, bars and cafes form two further upper levels, with two levels of basement car parking. New city living forms an active edge to one of the main city streets while existing historic buildings have been carefully integrated at two of the main entrances. Its spectacular dome has become an icon on Belfast’s skyline. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 11 12 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008 Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 13
Victoria Square , Belfast 14 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Victoria Square, Belfast Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 15 16 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Birmingham City University
A masterplan for a new city centre campus in Eastside, which is the ideal location to build connections between learners, businesses and the public, shaping the architecture around both functional and social aspirations, in this rapidly developing part of the city.
⁄ St James Quarter, Edinburgh
The major regeneration of the St James Centre on a World Heritage Site in Edinburgh will create a city quarter incorporating new and existing development and several listed buildings. In addition to high end retail it will include homes, a banking headquarters, catering and major civic and cultural buildings.
‹ Edinburgh Drinking Water Project
Perched on the edge of the Pentland Hills high above the city of Edinburgh, this new facility will provide all of the capital’s needs for fresh drinking water well into the future. Discreetly concealed underneath Scotland’s largest green roof, the project will generate much of its own power needs through gravity hydro-turbines whilst encouraging bio-diversity through surrounding drainage wetlands. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 17 18 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Indigo, O2 Arena, Greenwich
Part of the multi-million pound redevelopment of The O2, this state-of-the-art venue is the first purpose built facility within London to cater specifically for amplified modern music. The acoustics designed by BDP for this more intimate venue have been hailed as its best feature. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 19
Cathedral Quarter, Blackburn
Regeneration plans for this quarter of Blackburn will create a mixture of workplace and business development, new shopping, a new public transport interchange and public realm set around the cathedral. 20 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
City College Norwich
Designed to be a flagship for Norwich and Norfolk this carbon neutral innovative campus for 20,000 students will showcase employability and declares its vision as ‘a learning environment that mirrors the real world and dissolves the boundaries between learning and working’. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 21
‹ National Blood and Transplant Centre, ⁄ Swansea Regeneration Finton, Bristol This masterplan for the city of Swansea The recently completed NHSBT centre in Filton is designed to integrate fully with the has the capability of processing 600,000 units existing retail circuit extending it towards of blood per year and is now the largest and the waterfront to create a vibrant, exciting, most sophisticated blood processing and sustainable European Waterfront City. In research centre in the world. The centre is also addition to retail, residential and conference home to the British Bone Marrow Registry, the facilities the scheme will provide six acres of NHS Cord Blood Bank and the International public space and create a new city square. Blood Group Reference Laboratory. 22 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
BDP Studio, Manchester
A six-storey showcase of fresh thinking. BDP’s own home in Manchester provides an inspirational working environment, with plenty of natural light and stunning views across the Piccadilly canal basin on one side while the other street side displays a confident punctuated stainless-steel façade. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 23 24 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
BDP Studio, Manchester Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 25 26 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
BDP Studio, Manchester Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 27 28 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008 Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 29
Ÿ Badayev Masterplan, St Petersburg ‹ Bubny Mixed Use Masterplan, Prague
A competition entry for the regeneration of Helping to a shape a major mixed use a former industrial site in the centre of St. masterplan for a 27ha brownfield site Petersburg. It creates a special destination close to the historic centre of Prague of exhibition, conference, museum, hotel, and with spectacular views to the old offices and residential space while making town and Prague Castle. reference to St. Petersburg’s themes of water, light, reflection and landscape. 30 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
University College London
Reordering and refurbishment of the university’s two principal libraries on the Bloomsbury Campus – the Main Library and the Science Library – and the development of strategies to respond to the emerging needs of the 19,000 students and 5,000 academic staff. The 1830s Grade I Listed Main Library is an impressively monumental Greek revival composition. 31 suburbs 32 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Perspectives on Suburbs The Suburbs Jasper Sanders By people in BDP
Space is the ultimate luxury – but we live in our houses badly!
We have lots of space – enough space – but all in the wrong places. Our houses, old and new, are often banal, depressing and inescapable. They are meant to be our friends but they are so often dysfunctional.
Spaces are designed down to the absolute limits of their function. Space with fixed design parameters and assigned functions arriving into a dynamic world of changing demographics is hard space. Hard space can never be contemporary. It’s obsolete before it’s begun. Hard space is incapable of growth and change. It is a failure. An architecture imposing architectural control – too complete and too finished.
I want flexible space – this is the most important thing in modern architecture. Soft space is adaptable and changeable over time. It is not perfect or complete but always new. Soft space allows you to be what you want. Probably asks who the designer is but is not over designed. Indeterminate and non judgmental, soft space accommodates the flow of contemporary life.
Space is the ultimate luxury – but as long as it’s soft. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 33
City or Suburb Sunday Morning in the West Suburbia Oliver Plunkett Helen Moorhouse Darrel Wilson
Is our preference for where we live dictated by Outside the sun is shining, the green parrots ‘Forget the Britain that is green and pleasant, our nature or do our preferences respond to are squawking and it’s only a short stroll up the urban and dangerous, historic and scenic. changes in circumstances? road to collect the papers and continue into Welcome to the rest of it.’ the park. The trees are hundreds of years old – As a confirmed ‘urbanite’ with 12 years in oak, horse chestnut and the huge cedar whose Suburbia is where I live. Not in the conventional London, I almost feared that starting a family branches shadow the surface of the lake. The concept of ‘surburbia’, whose residents would result in a desire to ‘suburbanise’. To path skirts the edge of the water which is home conform to a stereotype of regimented seek the picturesque medley of half grasped to swans, ducks, coots, moorhens and the blandness that would make most of us go building styles and over foliaged gardens heron, who is still and watchful on the far side. stir crazy. But the quirky old suburbia where where I could mow a lawn and retreat to shed. I live is endearing with the idiosyncrasies of The house is Adam, warm old brick with suburban life: the smell of backyard barbecues; If I had the appeal of the grand sophistication white painted pineapples topping the turrets gossiping with the old lady two doors down; of Hampstead or Wimbledon in mind, then and elegant, shallow staircases. In the great echoes of kids enjoying life; streets filled with moving to Ireland, where planning has meadow cattle are grazing in a scene that trees; miniature steam trains in the park and allowed ‘suburban’ to mean row upon row of would be pure 18th century if it weren’t for lazy Sundays down the local – a spirit identical houses detached only by a width of a the plane on the approach to Heathrow. of community. wheelbarrow and a car and an olympic sized trampoline are essential commodities, has Emerging by the temple there are a few people Over the last sixty years suburbia has matured corrected that perspective. walking dogs past the orangery in the restored like a fine wine: leafy with depth and structure, Georgian pleasure garden. Time for coffee in exquisitely characterful and satisfying and Now the appeal is to create an urban living the stableblock yard and a glance at the news embodying the varietal characteristics that is environment that through careful and creative before browsing the secondhand books on fuelling the exodus of young families away from use of space is able to provide for the needs the way back through. Down the drive and a the city life. of family as it develops whilst maintaining the quick stop at the farm shop to buy vegetables, liberation of walking or cycling more often all grown in the walled garden on the estate, than driving and enjoying the opportunity for arranged like a harvest festival with eggs and interaction in parks and open spaces. flowers from the farm. The dog bowl is always filled with water and we locals always bring our own carrier bags – suburbia but not what you expect. 34 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Leigh Technology Academy Dartford
Four new colleges are located under one roof each creating a ‘school within a school’ linked along a crescent shaped internal street. The colleges are paired around two triple height wintergarden teaching areas, bringing nature and technology together as an environment, and setting high sustainability standards. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 35 36 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Leigh Technology Academy Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 37 38 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Regional HQ, Poole
This new regional home for a major financial services company is situated on a spectacular gateway location on Poole Harbour. Designed to maximise natural light and to take advantage of stunning views over the harbour it sets a new standard for office space in the south west of England.
Ÿ Circle Health, Location
One of a series of world-class hospitals being developed in the UK by Health Properties Management.
⁄ Mullingar Central, Co. Westmeath
This new sustainable urban quarter reflects Mullingar’s status as a key commuter town serving Dublin and provides much needed mixed-use accommodation to service the demands of a burgeoning population. The development has been designed as an organic continuation of the existing town centre. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 39 40 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
West Lothian Civic Centre, Livingston
A range of council services, a courts complex, and police station are brought under one roof in a building designed to maximise the potential synergies between previously disparately located services and agencies. An internal “civic square” and atrium street encourage social interaction. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 41
Bray, County Wicklow
A masterplan for a 62 acre retail–led mixed use town centre scheme. Its riverside location, also close to the sea, will make it a popular retail and entertainment destination and contribute enormously to the overall economy of the town. Residential accommodation forms an active and interesting building frontage to the surrounding streets and riverside. 42 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
‹ Navigation Warehouse, Wakefield ⁄ KWIC, Kolkata
A Grade II* listed warehouse dating from This masterplan for a mixed use township 1792. The challenge has been to restore and extending over 300 acres is part of the rapid upgrade it to meet the servicing demands of a expansion of India’s most populous city, modern restaurant and visitor centre facilities Kolkata. Alongside residential, commercial and at ground floor with offices on first, second retail uses it will include schools, hospitals and and third floors, while retaining the character hotels and an IT SEZ (special economic zone). of the existing building. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 43 44 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Kleurenbuurt, Zaandam, Netherlands
Anonymous 1960s housing has been transformed into a lively town centre with open public spaces, clearly defined streets and a recognisable structure. The disused road alongside the river Gouw will be removed to create a waterfront park which links the buildings with green open spaces to the river Gouw.
⁄ Visteon Masterplan, near Belfast
A sustainable, residential-based mixed use design, on a disused car factory site, now set within an environment of high quality internal and external spaces. Energy use is matched to that required for a zero carbon footprint with a combination of a central power plant and natural wind power generation. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 45 46 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Tore Maxima, Paleiskwartier, Den Bosch, Netherlands
A major regeneration masterplan for this regional Dutch city. A rectilinear street grid has been imposed but with contrasting forms, style and atmosphere. As part of an historic city centre the regeneration area has a fine grained texture with limited but well-defined public spaces, mixed use high-density development with cars tucked out of the way underground.
‹ Charnwood House, Bristol
Located in the heart of a conservation area the project includes the refurbishment and extension of an imposing Victorian building to create a new post-16 centre for North Bristol. The impact of the new element is minimised by making optimum use of the sloping site and incorporating a sedum roof which blends into the surroundings when viewed from higher ground. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 47
Milton Keynes Academy
This academy promotes vocational education and its focus on ‘learning by doing’ has underpinned the design process. Practical space is on the ground floor while teaching space is above and arranged into five separate year-based ‘villages’ each a self supporting unit with its own facilities. Throughout there is an important connection between the landscape and teaching spaces. 48 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008 Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 49
Ÿ The Centre for the Physics of Medicine, ‹ Bastion II, Gorinchem, Netherlands Cambridge To the north of the historic inner-city of Gorinchem The building, part of the university’s famous Bastion II is masterplanned to provide a ring of Cavendish Laboratory, creates a suite of open new development rising up to the walls of the accessible research laboratories, teaching dyke. Parking is arranged on the ground floor rooms and offices that bring together and under a newly created landscape roof on which promote interaction between researchers from residential and commercial accommodation a range of scientific disciplines. This is the first is placed. In this way the historic centre of of two phases of planned works. Gorinchem is connected by sloped pedestrian streets to the green dyke and the recreational areas around it. 50 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Freccia Rossa, Brescia
A new retail development regenerates the historic city centre incorporating a former factory and giving it a new lease of life. Prominent graphics gives the centre a unique character celebrating the city’s popular car race, Mille Miglia.
Ÿ Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
An extensive and prestigious commission for six new buildings in the mature landscape of the Garthdee Campus, to include the development of a new school of architecture and the built environment and the refurbishment and development of the Gray’s School of Art.
51 local places 52 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Perspectives on Local Places Living by the Sea Katherine Hanratty By people in BDP
Looking out over the water every day; walking down to the beach every morning and watching my dogs happily swimming – winter or summer.
Long walks along the shore at weekends; glimpses of wildlife – tiny ducklings paddling after their mother, a seal casually popping his head up to survey the scene; gannets diving.
The sense of space and perspective – how small any problems seem; the sound of the waves crashing; the seaside smell and taste, a combination of salt, seaweed, damp, fresh – the sea breeze.
Beachcombing for things the tide brought in; rock pools like miniature lakes; textures of fine sand, round pebbles, rough rocks and slimy seaweed; the changing moods, light, colours, weather and seasons.
‘Traffic’s busy today!’ when a couple of ships pass by; amazing sunsets over the hills, reflected in the sea and amplified; spectacular storms; the lights of Carrickfergus twinkling across the lough at night; the sense of peace and calm on the way down the lane in the evenings; it all makes me smile just thinking about it. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 53
What’s a Local Place? Riverside Little Things Make the Difference Martin Savage Richard Dragun Eugene Sauren
The greasy spoon cafe at the end of my street “In gratitude for the joy of this magnificent This place is not without its disparagers. A I have never been good at remembering names is the local place. Open twelve hours a day, riverside – Alice Peacock (not her real name) short walk along the towpath stands an effigy of streets and places. They simply will not six days a week and sandwiched (no pun lost in the Asian Tsunami…”. This inscription of the Liberator of Chile, Bernardo O’Higgins stick in my head. Navigating around with a intended) between the rail viaduct and a sex on a wooden bench is a poignant reminder (his real name believe it or not). He studied ‘mental map’ based on local characteristics shop, its busy tables and chairs sprawl out that our local places can be profoundly linked and lived here before returning to South therefore was more of a bare necessity than a onto the pavement in a way designers often with places, people and events a long way America and by all accounts hated this place! consciously learned habit. From ‘the street with aspire to, with people enjoying non healthy away or a long time ago. It’s one of many the funny houses’ to ‘the square with the large food and endless cups of tea oblivious to the benches overlooking the river whose similar From my riverbank – I think of it as mine tree’, ‘past the white church’ and following ‘the traffic and petrol station opposite. Fair to say inscriptions testify to the beauty of this – I watch cows eating the meadow opposite row of shops’ to the ‘corner where there is that this is not Monte Carlo but as I pass by place. Indeed, the view from the hill, once against a back-drop of trees that, in winter, always dogpoo on the pavement’ and so on. every day, you get a snapshot of local life: the inspiration for artists and writers (Joshua reveal the tower of St Peter’s in whose the guy with his newspaper and Jack Russell; Reynolds, Turner, Alexander Pope) and now churchyard three centuries of locals lie side Often it is these little characteristics that tend the bus drivers on the tea run; workers the privilege of artistes (Townshend, Jagger, by side with Captain Vancouver, the man who to shape a space, make the difference between breakfasting at 7.30am; the people in their Jerry Hall) is the only view in the UK protected discovered a large island on the west coast of interesting or dull and determine the identity of mid-thirties nursing a hangover. by an Act of Parliament. Canada which now bears his name. As I take a place. In these modern times of globalisation, in the view, it’s easy to forget that I’m only 10 where more and more places around the world When we designed the park around the corner History and the river have shaped this place. miles by road from Trafalgar Square – even display similarities, I think the appreciation for this place became the unofficial Cornmill Alice’s bench stands where once stood Henry less as the crow flies. local characteristics is becoming more evident. Gardens HQ. A meeting point with the client I’s royal palace. Edward III, Henry VII and In our profession we talk about creating a and colleagues or when it became too cold to Elizabeth I all died here. Across the river is the sense of place. However most places actually hold site meetings. Maggie’s was the informal, site of Lightoller’s boatyard. Second Officer already do have their sense of place, we just down to earth place where you could engage Lightoller was the last man rescued when the have to define it and make it visible. Often this with the people we design spaces for whilst Titanic sank. He went on to be decorated as a is based on just little things that stand out and sipping tea and seeing if anyone visits the naval officer in the Great War for his fight with make the difference. shop next door! a Zeppelin and at the age of 66, he steered his ‘little ship’, Sundowner to the beaches of Dunkirk bringing back 130 men in a boat whose usual capacity was 21. 54 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Bridge Academy Hackney, London
The latest evolution of BDP’s vertical urban schools’ concept, this academy is set on a constrained ‘postage stamp’ sized inner city site of 6,000m² but the seven storey building has an internal area of 10,250m² with 5,500m² of external space transforming the playground into social and learning gardens and piazzas beside the Regent’s Canal. The vertical school design creates a social gathering space at its heart with teaching and learning rooms rising above this central social space. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 55 56 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Bridge Academy, Hackney, London Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 57 58 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Bridge Academy, Hackney, London Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 59 60 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Salisbury Retail Masterplan € Carlton Advanced Learning Centre, Barnsley
A retail-led mixed use masterplan for a sensitive A new school in the government’s BSF city centre site next to the river Avon offering programme for student-centred learning improved linkages to the historic Market Square incorporating open plan resource and teaching and views to the spire of Salisbury Cathedral. areas formed into ‘learning houses’. These Key features include a new public square and distinctive spaces are connected with a a waterside setting for restaurants and bars. ‘marketplace’ for the whole school to gather, perform and showcase its achievements. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 61
‹ Magennis Bar, Belfast ‹ Cambridge Campus, Anglia Ruskin University
Taking its name from a former bar on the site Following a masterplanning exercise to provide and adjacent to Belfast’s landmark St. George’s new faculty spaces and modern shared facilities Market, this is a six level development of compact for this congested campus, the first phase will apartments over a single level of retail which will include the creation of a library and media bring life back to a key corner site at the edge of centre and a 400 seat lecture theatre. the city’s business and legal district. 62 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008 Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 63
Ÿ Loampit Vale, Lewisham, London ‹ Kensington Central Library, London ‹ Westminster Academy, London
Turning a 1.7 hectares brownfield site in Following a masterplanning exercise to provide Situated on a very constrained site in West Lewisham town centre into a mixed use new faculty spaces and modern shared London the Academy provides education development consisting of a leisure centre, facilities for this congested campus, the first for 1,175 pupils and is the successful result 800 new homes and a series of commercial phase will include the creation of a library and of a true collaboration by a large and spaces for cultural activity. The landscape media centre and a 400 seat lecture theatre. disparate team and close consultation ties into BDP’s recently completed Cornmill with community groups. Gardens scheme to provide a coherent public realm design for this quarter of Lewisham. 64 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Brockington College, Leicestershire
A fully integrated community college set in spacious playing fields and looking out to open countryside reflecting the rural edge that the school enjoys. Within, a large central space forms a physical heart to the school allowing informal interaction between pupils and staff and also providing space for learning in large or small groups. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 65 66 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
New Birmingham Wholesale Markets
The new markets will deliver a centre for food excellence and sustainability with health, education, research and tourism complementing its primary use as one of Europe’s largest composite wholesale markets. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 67
Barnard Castle, County Durham
A streetscape strategy for Lower Galgate in this thriving historic market town. 68 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Silverburn, Glasgow
Making use of a brownfield site, Silverburn has extended and regenerated an existing neighbourhood and retail areas at the edge of Pollok town centre, outside Glasgow. In addition to retail, the centre includes a food court and a popular wintergarden. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 69
The Learning Hub, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
A highly sustainable single storey learning centre adjacent to the new super hospital combines three elements, each expressed with different materials to generate a high quality contemporary piece of architecture. The Hub provides training facilities for existing NHS staff, courses to encourage new entrants and a further programme of teaching aimed at construction workers in support of the government’s ‘Skills for Life’ strategy. 70 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Guerilla Lighting, Glasgow
At this third guerrilla lighting event, after Manchester and London, the standard format of lighting elements of the built environment was expanded to include some teaching with the architecture students at Strathclyde University and made more playful.
‹ Maggies – London Night Hike 2008
At Nite Hike, the annual night time walk around London run by Maggies cancer support charity, BDP’s lighting group was invited to illuminate Wellington Arch – the 15 mile marker. Walkers were also given the chance to write in light, captured by photography and then projected moments later onto the arch. Many of the walkers cited this as the highlight of their night. 71 open spaces 72 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Perspectives on Open Spaces Home David Clarke By people in BDP
Home is in Derbyshire. A hamlet of 22 homes, a farm, a post box and an old-fashioned red Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed phone box all nestled into a south-facing hillside. This settlement has been here for hundreds of years and was probably originally established by lead miners and now falls under the guardianship of the Peak District National Park Authority. Most of the grey limestone or rendered cottages enjoy views down the Derwent Valley where Arkwright’s Mill at Cromford, an important and internationally recognised site from the Industrial Revolution is preserved as the world’s first successful cotton spinning mill powered by water. All that hustle and bustle, sweat and noise seems so far away now.
Now the predominant sound is near silence. The sheep in the field at the end of the garden seem to have a lot to say and the distant rasp of a motorbike on the road in the valley are the most noticeable intrusions. Only a local resident’s car or farmer’s tractor are louder.
Walk a few hundred breathless metres further up the lane and there’s a big change. You’re on top of the world. The previously framed views are blown wide. Huge vistas for miles and just a few ragged trees. This is the land of the dry stone wall; snaking grey subdivision on the wild, sparse moor. Out of the lea of the hillside everything is blown about. It feels 10 degrees colder and very beautiful. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 73
Journey Home Open Spaces Country Living Ian Flack Christoph Ackermann Helen Groves
Friday’s journey home passes through a rich Scotland is a lucky place to be, even though So what is it about living in the country that variety of landscapes. Across the rapidly it is a relatively small part of the earth, only appeals to me? emptying car park in front of the office, down occupying some 30,000 square miles. the narrow alley at the side of a pub, over the I have lived in all sorts of places before: cities, now quiet shopping streets and into the civic Why is it so good? Arriving in Scotland some towns even my childhood town in Mexico. square as it gradually fills with the evening’s ten years ago I was not immediately taken Now I live in a little village in the Somerset revellers. Wearily I wind my way down the by its urban splendours, far from it. This countryside with the rolling landscape on the hill where I join forces with other commuters, perception does only get enhanced by the other side of the garden gate. We talk – rightly, heading like worker ants back to our place in challenging weather which seems to render I believe – about Places for People but I the hills. cities grey most of the time. Considering think that these places are not just the urban these environmental conditions I am still interventions that we do so well, they are also The atmosphere onboard the train is subdued puzzled how the people of Scotland stay the places that we as designers are less in as tired workers mull over the week’s events. so friendly and welcoming. control of – the wilder spaces that allow us to As we gather pace I catch glimpses of city life be part of nature. swiftly passing by; a business park; terraced It was not until I left the city of Glasgow for housing; large supermarkets; remnants of the the first time to visit the hinterland that I fully I am pleased that my children are in touch with industrial past; the western suburbs. In the appreciated what Scotland has to offer – easy the seasons and can see the crops growing distance the tall hospital and university tower access to the most stunning and isolated and the harvest brought in. However, I hope get ever smaller as Sheffield swiftly disappears open spaces I had ever seen. Having travelled that they will one day roam the big cities too from view. and lived in many different countries, I have and across the world, to gain the balance that yet to find another place where you can get I have appreciated with my journeying. We are thrown into darkness as we are away from it all within an hour’s journey. Every squeezed through the Totley tunnel and as imaginable landscape is at your disposal, palm we emerge back into daylight, the contrast trees on Bute, windswept cliffs on Skye, the is stark and immediate. The Peak District – a mountainous highlands or the wide beaches of rugged and spectacular landscape stretches Fife. No matter where, you will not struggle to out before me. Bracken strewn hills, heather find a quiet space where you can take a deep topped moors, woods and river entwine to breath and clear your mind. create a powerful scene. My cares disappear amidst the promise of a weekend spent exploring this land of spiritual refreshment, away from the masses, alone with my thoughts. 74 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Liverpool One
Illustrating our approach at the largest scale the unique inner city regeneration masterplan weaves the functional pattern of a retail- led development into traditional streets and squares with mixed use above and beside. As well as overall masterplanner BDP was concept architect on five major mixed use buildings, executive architect for nine, and responsible for the majority of public realm and lighting across the whole project. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 75 76 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008 Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 77
Liverpool One 78 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Liverpool One Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 79 80 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Ÿ Lords Cricket Ground, London
BDP were finalists in an international design competition for the re-modelling of Lord’s Cricket Ground. We created a trio of green spaces around which buildings and grandstands are linked, for people to meet, mingle and watch cricket. New routes and gardens reactivate the ‘passegiatta’ and views are reoriented and maximised to the iconic media centre and historic members’ pavilion.
⁄ Lelystad, Netherlands
Taking inspiration from the character of an English landscape individual houses are set in a natural landscaped environment. Curvilinear forms, changing vistas and a strong relationships with the surrounding woods and water combine to give the impression of a totally natural space.
‹ Hirael Bay Masterplan, Bangor
The masterplan includes reclaimed land to enhance flood defences, a new sports centre, residences, hotel, marina, cafes, restaurants and outdoor sports pitches and parks. On the north of the bay new faculty buildings for Bangor University are also featured. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 81 82 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Libyan Universities
Ten new universities open Libya up to the west. The universities in the Sahara Desert, on the coast and in the mountains will accommodate over 28,000 students and are being designed entirely around local settings, microclimate and culture, while conforming to an over-arching academic plan. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 83
Ÿ Sabha University ⁄ Surman University ‹ Zuwarah Central University 84 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Dumfries and Galloway College
The college has relocated to a new facility where it shares a site with the University of Glasgow, University of Paisley and Bell College and creates a new ‘super’ Crichton campus – the first such collaborative project on this scale in Scotland. The new campus will be a ‘one stop shop’ and will allow students to benefit from this unique, highly progressive learning experience. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 85 86 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Lancashire County Cricket Club, Old Trafford, Manchester
The new ‘Old Trafford’ locates the renewed cricket ground at the heart of an integrated world-class sporting destination. The new facilities will set the highest standards for international cricket, and provide the club and the wider city region with a revitalised sustainable base for the future. Cities Suburbs Local Places Open Spaces 87
BBC Framework, Wood Norton
As part of a framework agreement with the BBC, this carefully crafted state-of-the-art prefabricated timber shell building has recently been completed and is set appropriately within a woodland environment. 88 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
Waterhead, Ambleside, Cumbria
A scheme design for Waterhead at the northern edge of Lake Windermere in the heart of the English Lake District. The scheme which consists of a new high quality pedestrian promenade, new yacht moorings and the reconfiguration of a small stretch of road, forms part of an ongoing masterplan and delivery strategy known as ‘Polishing the Gem’. 89 awards Awards 91
Best Designed Place Award & GGB BDP Building of the Year 2008 Award
The Best Designed Place awards go to G G projects completed over the past year which celebrate a sense of place for people. The projects chosen this year are from a range of building types and sectors but all have the common theme – a people- centred approach.
In the Review we also announce the winner of the GGB BDP Award, our own award named after our founder, awarded to the project from those nominated by our offices which best demonstrates our abilities and values and has been recognised by clients, BDP Studio, Manchester Bridge Academy, Hackney Brockington College, Leicester Cornmill Gardens, Lewisham Coevorden Urban Realm, Holland customers and society.
G G G All the projects shown here have received a Best Designed Place Award. Projects displaying G motif were short-listed for the GGB BDP Award – the winner is Victoria Square, Belfast.
Dumfries and Galloway College Leigh Academy, Dartford Liverpool One Silverburn, Glasgow Victoria Square, Belfast 92 Awards
GGB BDP Building of the Year 2008 Award Winner
Victoria Square Belfast
Jury’s Comments:
“A landmark building for Northern Ireland, a huge impact on the Belfast community and a fine example of BDP’s interdisciplinary design skills”.
“The best street in Belfast”.
“A spectacular achievement in a difficult context”.
“A highly skilful piece of place-making, blurring the edges between new and existing, the sense of increased civic pride is palpable”.
“Creates streets that really belong to the City – it is hard to believe they have not always existed”.
“City making par excellence”. Awards 93
BDP Sustainable Futures 2008 Award Winner
Future Hope Sports Academy Kolkata
This award, made from sustainable woods, is given to a project in design which demonstrates innovative thinking that progresses our work in designing sustainable places. Fifteen projects were entered from around BDP, ranging across many sectors of activity.
The projects were judged by an independent jury panel of Ruth Slavid, Editor Online & Special Projects Architects’ Journal; Ian McGregor, Managing Director Young Property; Peter Hunter, urban design consultant. The winner and runners up were announced at the BDP Conference in Liverpool.
In first place was Future Hope Sports Academy, Kolkata; in second was Visteon Masterplan; and in third was Sittingbourne Eco-town. 94 Creating Places for People – Annual Review 2008
BDP Highlights 2008 So a review of the year’s progress would not be experience, to the extent that Company complete without recognising that the autumn Director David Cash now oversees the further has seen the most extraordinary series of development of key international regional hubs. changes to the financial structures that have underpinned the developed world for decades. Most importantly, we continued to deliver This will undoubtedly mean a period of great great projects for our clients, with a fantastic uncertainty in the economies and markets array of completions in all market sectors. which provide the context for our work. Many of these were recognised with national awards, perhaps none more significant than The review of BDP’s progress in 2007/8 is the Prime Minister’s Best Public Building Award the easy part. We had a very good year. Our for the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital turnover grew from £84 million to £99 million, in Brighton. BDP’s interdisciplinary team of and our people numbers grew to 1300. Their architects, engineers, interior and lighting talents, enterprise and commitment enabled designers and acousticians worked closely us to work on even more great projects and with the client, end-users, constructors and produce a good level of profitability which is funders to design a building of which the shared throughout the firm through our share award judges said “An uplifting project which ownership scheme. Over 853 BDP employees has given young patients in Brighton the best now own shares in BDP. possible environment – one which functions like a hospital but does not feel like a hospital.” The year also saw us improve and strengthen It is a wonderful example of what BDP is about. our regionalist culture. BDP joined with the What happened since the end of our year Dutch urbanism and landscape practice, 2007/8 has been truly astonishing. A meltdown Khandekar to form BDPKhandekar, providing of the basic tenet of our financial structures, urbanism, landscape and now architecture confidence in our banks, will have negative 1 Laura Bayliss throughout the Netherlands and also in India. consequences that are still relatively unknown, 2 Simon Paddison Shyam Khandekar became a member of BDP’s no matter how many of us improve our 3 Mark Ridler Board. We opened a new studio in Edinburgh, standing as amateur economists. At BDP we 4 Hossam Abdalla and moved our Manchester and Sheffield face this uncertain future knowing that our 12 13 5 Jason Bagge 10 11 14 studios to fine new buildings designed by BDP organisational strengths, our culture, sector 6 Brent Katzin interdisciplinary teams. The important links diversity, growing international capabilities 7 Ciaran Hanna with our associate firm in France, Groupe 6, and plans, and critically, the commitment and 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 8 Mark Cotton were enhanced by jointly working on projects talents of our people will drive us through the 9 Neil Sansum 1 in Ireland, Paris, Kiev and Dubai. uncertainties of the next few years. 10 Mehron Kirk 11 Martin Jones Internationally, BDP was invited to work on Our confidence in our people has encouraged 12 Ian Purser projects all around the world – throughout us to further expand our leadership. During 13 James Hepburn Europe, in Libya, India, Russia, and the UAE. the year 14 new profession directors were 14 Helen Harrison International work now forms an increasingly appointed along with 47 new associates. significant part of BDP’s portfolio of Annual Review 2008 Creating Places for People for Places Creating cities, suburbs, cities, places, local spaces open
Cities, Suburbs, Local Places and Open Spaces Creating Places for People