Ebbsfleet Valley
Cultural Masterplan
Ebbsfleet, North Kent
2007 - ongoing
CLIENT:Land Securities
PARTNERS:
Gehl Architects
ARUP
Gillespies
CBRE commercial
Savills residential
The Ebbsfleet Valley development is the largest regeneration project in Western Europe, three times the size of Hyde park, sited in a vast quarry in North Kent, consisting of nine new developments, 10,000 new homes, delivered over 20 years a new commercial centre, mainline connections to Paris and London from the Ebbsfleet International Railway Station and the 50 metre Ebbsfleet Landmark commission.
Futurecity were appointed to write an all encompassing cultural masterplan for the client providing direction and concepts for the use of public art, arts and crafts, new media, legible city wayfinding, signage, temporary events, cultural partnerships, creative industries, festivals and markets. Our brief was to establish a unique cultural identity for Ebbsfleet Valley and to create a vision document that looks to the future. The project has involved substantial consultation with the boroughs of Gravesham and Dartford, Kent County Council and arts and cultural organisations in Kent, the UK and abroad. Futurecity has looked at ways of drawing out an enduring identity for Ebbsfleet Valley that promotes its unique heritage and ecology, its industrial past. The strategy will provide deliverable ideas around embedded arts and culture in each of the new villages architecture, landscape and public realm. The strategy will also look at transport, infrastructure and architecture.
Futurecity believes successful urban place making is about seduction - and that culture is the key to unlocking the seductive power of city space. As an agency, we think the developer of the future should be less interested in the mechanics of planning than in the art of temptation and persuasion through culture. From public art, historical reference points, food and creative environments to architecture, public events and private passions, culture is what make places enticing and exciting. The Futurecity position is that culture, in all its myriad forms and expressions, is central to the success of Ebbsfleet Valley: essential both to the business case and to the social evolution of this future community.
To this end, Futurecity commissioned a series of texts exploring areas of possible cultural integration in the urban infrastructure of the future, concentrating on the new formative city of Ebbsfleet Valley; from ultra high-speed, fully networked virtual communities to high flexi-use public and private space.
Forming a holistic document with a unique place making vision for the city of the future, the Ebbsfleet Vision sets a benchmark for future urban development in the UK and Europe.
Futurecity were appointed to write an all encompassing cultural masterplan for the client providing direction and concepts for the use of public art, arts and crafts, new media, legible city wayfinding, signage, temporary events, cultural partnerships, creative industries, festivals and markets. Our brief was to establish a unique cultural identity for Ebbsfleet Valley and to create a vision document that looks to the future. The project has involved substantial consultation with the boroughs of Gravesham and Dartford, Kent County Council and arts and cultural organisations in Kent, the UK and abroad. Futurecity has looked at ways of drawing out an enduring identity for Ebbsfleet Valley that promotes its unique heritage and ecology, its industrial past. The strategy will provide deliverable ideas around embedded arts and culture in each of the new villages architecture, landscape and public realm. The strategy will also look at transport, infrastructure and architecture.
Futurecity believes successful urban place making is about seduction - and that culture is the key to unlocking the seductive power of city space. As an agency, we think the developer of the future should be less interested in the mechanics of planning than in the art of temptation and persuasion through culture. From public art, historical reference points, food and creative environments to architecture, public events and private passions, culture is what make places enticing and exciting. The Futurecity position is that culture, in all its myriad forms and expressions, is central to the success of Ebbsfleet Valley: essential both to the business case and to the social evolution of this future community.
To this end, Futurecity commissioned a series of texts exploring areas of possible cultural integration in the urban infrastructure of the future, concentrating on the new formative city of Ebbsfleet Valley; from ultra high-speed, fully networked virtual communities to high flexi-use public and private space.
Forming a holistic document with a unique place making vision for the city of the future, the Ebbsfleet Vision sets a benchmark for future urban development in the UK and Europe.