project overviews

By Duncan McLean

The landscape-led approach to the refurbishment of Inverness city public realm clearly identified ‘people’ and ‘place’ at the forefront of the design process. The city centre now has growing economic confidence, a new café culture and active, pedestrian-friendly streets.

Inverness is Scotland’s newest city and the centre of Highland culture. As such, it is undergoing rapid transformation through development, environment and cultural initiatives.

Largely in response to Inverness’ new city status in 2000, the concurrent rapid growth and development, it was decided to update the perception of Inverness city centre as an unattractive destination and suffering economically.

To this end, The Highland Council commissioned Land Use Consultants (LUC) in October 2005 to develop, design and administer the contract for a comprehensive refurbishment of city centre streets, public realm, traffic management, a new public art programme and new lighting.

Diamond Architects, in collaboration with Public Works, an art/architecture collective, undertook a series of workshops with the residents of Braithwaite House, a 19-storey residential tower block part of the 1960s Banner Estate in north-east London. The aim was to develop a brief for the creation of a welcoming new piece of shared public outdoor space, formerly a bare expanse of asphalt.

The scheme's modest budget (just over £150,000) plus complex logistics including the loading issues of the podium's concrete deck, has led to a design focused on a series of interventions and surface treatments. By introducing pieces of furniture, games, planting and surface treatments, the project has created areas for activity, play and interaction, as well as a space for contemplation.

By Diana Balmori

How do you reclaim the city’s streets for pedestrian use in a way that is flexible, inexpensive and contextually appropriate to the site in question? Balmori Associates has wrestled with these issues since being asked, by New York City’s Meatpacking District Initiative, to create a temporary solution for the public space of Gansevoort Plaza in the busy Meatpacking District (MPD).

The NYC Dept of Transportation continues to re-imagine traffic throughout the city; employing a system of bike paths, street closings and new traffic alignments to create public space and make traffic safer and more efficient. The task was to imagine the public spaces created by the new traffic alignments, and design a language of street furniture and planting that helped to define the space. Before beginning to develop our design principles, the design team first had to ask, what should a public place be?