Scotswood Expo Masterplan, Newcastle, Urban Initiatives
Scotswood Expo Masterplan, Newcastle
Artist’s impression of Expo Link
sometric testing of the New Norm approach by Glenn Howells Architects and Maccreanor Lavington Architects
Scotswood Expo Masterplan, Newcastle
Urban Initiatives explains how an international exposition for the city’s West End will demonstrate a ‘new norm’ in creating urban neighbourhoods
In 2006 Newcastle City Council in association with Bridging Newcastle Gateshead commissioned Urban Initiatives to develop a masterplan for Scotswood, a largely cleared site in the West End of Newcastle. The masterplan will be run in conjunction with an international festival in 2011-13 (the Expo) which will explore new ways of living. At its heart the Scotswood Masterplan and Expo International Festival will be a prototype embdying three main concepts or objectives that have been developed in response to this site: the New Neighbourhood, New Norm and ‘The Civic Play’ (a cultural master plan associated with the physical masterplan).
New Neighbourhood
Scotswood, in Newcastle’s West End, is an area that exemplifies urban decline through huge population loss, high unemployment, disadvantage and stigmatisation. The people of Scotswood have been largely failed by past ad-hoc attempts at regeneration. The new neighbourhood at Scotswood has been designed to include all the elements of community, social and economic transactions, and streets, buildings and spaces that make up a successful place. The development comprises 1,800 new homes in a range of sizes and types including 25 per cent affordable units. But it is not just about housing: there will be a new primary school, 3,000m2 of start-up business space, over 2,000m2 of new shops, restaurants and cafes and a major new flexible community building.
Transforming Image
As much as the area suffers from real problems, it is the area’s social disadvantage and stigma that is just as important. The Expo International Festival concept is a tool that will be used to challenge the stereotypes of the area, help to make the area integrated with the wider community, project a positive, aspirational image, generate better market values, and create ‘a fresh start’.
Value through landscape and public realm
At the centre of the Expo will be a new set of terraced gardens (the Expo Link), a redesigned and refocused Hodgkin Park and linear park along Hadrian’s Way forming part of a wider green space network. The landscape concept is designed to demonstrate adaptability to the changing needs of the local community and provide a tableau for their hopes, dreams and memories.
‘New Norm’
The ‘New Norm’ is an approach which recognises that whilst there is a place for special new buildings, there is a need to create excellent and varied, but yet essentially standard housing i.e. the large proportion of urban fabric. It is about raising the level of attainment in a way that is replicable and challenging the unsustainable manner in which many new homes are being designed and delivered. This will implemented through a design code that forms part of the development agreement for the site (the city council is the current landowner).
The Plot
The New Norm is based on the concept of a standard width development module of 15m as the basic unit. This can be subdivided into two, three or four plots or doubled and split into five plots as defined by common party walls. Along with the height of the building, this defines the maximum building envelope and therefore the volume of each unit.
Different internal and external layouts, garden design, type and façade can all be developed in adjacent units allowing architects to innovate. It enables internal growth and change within the concept of ‘long life, loose fit’. It also allows for variation in street-scene and building shoulder height to create visual interest. The primary house or houses will be aligned along the front edge of the plot.
The Block and Street
The next step up from the plot is the block. The New Norm identifies a number of different block typologies including the standard perimeter block, the mews perimeter block and the mews court perimeter block. These allow for different levels of intensification and a range of flexible uses to develop as part of a process of internal growth and change within the same site area. Streets are the key structuring element of urban form as the primary site of activity, interaction and movement. The New Norm proposes a hierarchy of street types based on the multi-functionality of the street as a critical part of the public realm.
‘The Civic Play’
The phasing of the scheme is likely to take place over the next 15 years. A programme of cultural and public arts will be integrated to deliver early and ongoing change – ‘The Civic Play’. The New Norm enables different approaches to development to take place. Rather than parcelling up land in blocks or zones and selling each one to a developer to build and sell on, the use of the development module allows for smaller development companies or even friends to get together to develop a single module. The New Norm allows for the sourcing of common modules or parts to ensure quality and reduce build costs and complexities. The New Norm enables units to be developed to different specifications and even levels of completion, whilst still using a common ‘kit of parts’ for each of the key modules of a house - allowing for standardisation to ease building and achieve economies of scale.
Conclusions
The volumetric/ plot width normative approach allows for huge variation in architecture and house types (fully tested by our architects panel), but with sufficient standards to ensure that the place still works in urban design terms. It also lends itself to being effectively coded. Areas of low demand need more design aspirations and focus than others given the fundamental change in image required.
Click here to view images of the isometric testing of the New Norm approach by Glenn Howells Architects and Maccreanor Lavington Architects.
