Area Action Plan, Matlock, UK

Matlock with 11,000 residents is the largest town in the Derbyshire Dales. The town was formerly a spa resort and is a popular destination for visitors to the Peak District.

Atkins was commissioned to provide an imaginative and deliverable masterplan and Area Action Plan that will breathe new life into Matlock.

The key services provided by Atkins’ integrated team, comprising planners, urban designers, regeneration specialists, landscape architects, heritage consultants and transport engineers included:

• masterplanning

• commercial appraisal of development sites

• urban design

• planning

• architecture

• transport planning

• economic development and regeneration

Kettering Masterplan, Northamptonshire, UK

Atkins was commissioned by Northamptonshire Partnership to develop a masterplan for Kettering in Northamptonshire. The design process included the creation of a Strategic Framework for each town that determined the location of new developments and their use, public realm schemes and transport proposals. More detailed proposals were developed from these frameworks and formatted into development briefs that gave guidance on the mix of uses, urban form and design of individual sites. Stakeholder and community consultation formed an integral part of the masterplan process.

Area Action Plan, Burslem, UK

As the ‘Mother Town’ of Potteries, Burslem is rich in heritage and still retains much of the town’s original features. The town has suffered from the gradual decline in its manufacturing base and its retail core, but is now beginning to witness developer interest and the challenge is to ensure that new development is in keeping with the historic character.

Working with the Local Authority and other stakeholders our task was to deliver a masterplan and urban design action plan for the town centre, to guide regeneration.

Consultation formed a significant element of the commission, involving extensive interaction with community groups (partly through a special community conference) and with stakeholders and businesses.

Bay Pointe, Cardiff Bay, Wales

Bay Pointe is a contemporary waterfront residential development on the peninsula site at Cardiff’s International Sports Village (CISV). We were appointed to develop a masterplan for the scheme, which comprises 2400 apartments in 10 buildings, along with associated public realm and waterside spaces. The 3 Conran-designed landmark towers are the focal point of the scheme, standing 41 storeys high.

While the buildings may be breathtaking, more than 65% of the site is dedicated to open and public spaces, with the creation of a 1.7 hectare park as part of the project. Bay Pointe will also provide a 500m wide waterside footpath and cycleway that allows public access to the waterfront, and links to the boulevard that runs through the heart of the development. Bay Pointe is designed to be a place where people will be proud to live, and be a part of.

Ashford Growth Area, Kent, UK

Ashford in Kent is earmarked by the Government as one of the Sustainable Communities Growth Areas and is also being promoted as a key location for attracting inward investment to the region.

We have been working for The Church Commissioners on a masterplan for a new community on their land at Cheeseman’s Green, on the south east outskirts of the town. Ashford Borough Council has adopted our development brief which pursues village principles, offering a mix of uses, density and building type as Supplementary Planning Guidance. An outline planning application for the new mixed use sustainable village, providing 1,100 new homes and up to 70,000 square metres of business space, has also been approved.

The principles of sustainability have been central to the development of the proposals for Cheeseman’s Green, as has an emphasis on environmental considerations, the need to achieve transport sustainability and a commitment to the highest standards of urban design, including the public realm.

Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Atkins has been working on an integrated urban design strategic framework for the ‘Heart of the City’ in Londonderry.

Commissioned by the Department of Social Development’s Londonderry office, we took a comprehensive long-term view of the ‘Heart of the City’ in order to identify what would be achievable in the next 15 years. Our urban design strategic framework has begun a wide dialogue about what character is desirable for Londonderry City Centre.

We have developed proposals under eight headings - river, movement, major developments, opportunity sites, walled city, commercial core, parks and the public realm and neighbourhoods. A very successful public consultation programme won wide support for the proposals. Our Strategic Framework also shows, in some detail, how design guidance can help deliver the strategy. It is designed to be flexible and to avoid dependence on any single element which may not be realised.

Its aim is to achieve an environment that is vibrant and animated, reflecting the new ideas on urbanisation and the cultural importance of City Centres being seen throughout Europe.

Technopolis and E-village, Syria

The Syrian Government wished to establish two ‘Special Economic Zones’, one a high tech city, Technopolis, for heavy and light industry, and the other an ‘E-village’ to cater for educational and service sector organisations. We prepared masterplans for these zones to demonstrate their phased development. These plans identified infrastructure requirements for which preliminary capital cost estimates were prepared.