Ashford is one of the UK’s four major growth hubs under the Government’s Sustainable Communities Plan, which aims to create 28,000 new jobs, 2m sq ft of commercial space and 31,000 new homes for the region. Fundamental to the success of this plan is the need to improve the town centre to create a viable and sustainable place for living and working. The need to ‘de-ring’ the three-lane, one-way ring road was established in the Greater Ashford and Town Centre Development Frameworks. This led to the ‘Breaking Boundaries’ project, which has delivered a shared space accommodating up to 10,000 vehicles a day where pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles have equal priority.
Reclaiming the public realm
Whitelaw Turkington’s involvement began with a commission to put ‘flesh on the bones’ of the Town Centre Development Framework and Public Realm Strategy. The brief was to deliver a ‘unique and distinctive’ public realm for Ashford, raising the town’s profile and setting a new standard for future development. This was some challenge, given that the available ‘public realm’ was mostly under the jurisdiction of highways planners. Reclaiming the public realm from vehicular-dominated space has always been at the heart of the design ethos. The team was inspired by the work of Danish engineer Hans Monderman, and Ashford presented the perfect opportunity to introduce his successful approach to reducing traffic accidents. This involved removing traditional highways signage and markings and introducing an element of uncertainty as to who has priority. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians have to negotiate their way across the space. Some have described it as effectively throwing away the highway design rule book. The long-term vision is to transform the entire ring road into a series of interconnected town centre streets. The first phase, completed in November 2008 (along Elwick Road, Godinton Road, West Street and Forge Lane), lies alongside the primary town centre development sites. The remainder of the ring road has been converted to two-way flow with straight-across pedestrian crossings to provide low-key improvements until funding is in place to complete the works.
The Champions Group
High-level political backing was needed to support the project. The long journey to convince the sceptics was eased by the establishment of a ‘Champions Group’ comprising specialists from all areas of expertise and interest. This group ensured that the overall vision was not compromised by traditional, single issue, pragmatic solutions.
Changing perceptions
Public artists were integrated into the design team from the beginning in order to introduce the innovative and distinctive elements that would set Ashford apart, in addition to the radical approach to the change in traffic priority. Public art was instrumental in helping to celebrate the changing perception of this ring road. ‘The Lost O’ (www.losto.org) public art project was held during the Tour de France in summer 2007, when the work had just started on site. It transformed what could have been mayhem and irritation during the transition period into a celebration. Throughout the project, a media and marketing campaign, running in parallel with the Champions Group, has been invaluable in promoting the scheme at a local and national level.
An integrated and interdisciplinary design team
Kent County Council’s (KCC) Regeneration Team supported the creation of the Integrated Inter-disciplinary Design Team (IDT) from the outset. Landscape architects Whitelaw Turkington led the team at detailed design stage, with the latter stages being shared equally between Jacobs (KCC’s term consultants) and Whitelaw Turkington.
Three artists were appointed as part of the IDT from inception to completion. This has led to a healthy and, at times, challenging marriage between the creative and the functional. Yet as a consequence, the resulting works are truly embedded not only in the engineering and functioning of the street, but also in the context of Ashford.
Engagement and re-education
Such a transformation of the ring road has required an extensive programme of community engagement and, in some ways, re-education. Tenders were also assessed in terms of quality and cost, with a major emphasis on how contractors would phase work and ensure an ongoing dialogue with local residents and businesses. Meetings with representatives from local access groups, including Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and long cane users, were set up and their concerns about safety addressed within the design concept. A 50mm upstand provides guidance for the visually impaired, and a tactile guidance strip designed into the square provides a ‘safe route’ away from moving vehicles.
Avoiding mixed messages
In order for the shared space concept to work, it is important not to give mixed messages to users of the street by reintroducing standard highway signs, lines and signals into a scheme which relies on less formal, social rules implicit in the use of the street. Our intention was to remove all signalised crossings from the scheme and to provide courtesy crossings along natural desire lines for pedestrians. This approach was backed up by the Stage 1 Safety Audit, which also considered the potential risk of mixed messages. Nevertheless, it was decided that given the predicted volume of traffic (between 8,000 – 10,000 vehicles per day) and the valid concerns over negotiating a courtesy crossing without the possibility of driver/pedestrian eye contact, one signalised crossing has been introduced. Designed with minimum requirements for lining and associated visual clutter, it is positioned outside Elwick Square opposite the entrance to a new shopping centre extension.
Environmental transformation
The appearance of the street is paramount in providing the required signals to drivers about appropriate behaviour and speed in a scheme of this nature. It is important to give psychological clues to drivers, through the layout of the space and the language of materials used rather than through traditional highway traffic calming measures. A complete environmental transformation at the transition point from traditional highway to shared space scheme has been created, although the usual forest of signage (20mph zone, restricted parking zone) is required at the entry to the scheme. One consistent material is used in the carriageway and footway (a slimline natural clay paver by Vande Moortel), and the road is narrowed to appear 6m wide with a 0.5m overrun strip introduced to cope with the park and ride buses. Subtle gateways are created at each transition point in a mid-grey granite, with shallow level changes, lighting, tree planting, seating and cycle stands completing the transformation from highway to public realm. Technical performance, buildability and maintenance were as much of a consideration as aesthetics when it came to material specification. The client supported the use of high quality natural materials to set the standard for future town centre projects and provide an enduring design aesthetic.
Lindsey Whitelaw is a director at Whitelaw Turkington
KEY POINTS
• A strong delivery framework and vision drove the project forward. In this case the enlightened client was also the local highways authority
• An integrated, multi-disciplinary design team took a design-led approach with an emphasis on placemaking, as opposed to slavishly following rigid highway standards and guidelines
•The design team took an inclusive approach requiring extensive consultation; careful specification and detailing of materials met demanding performance criteria
