Courtesy of The Developer magazine, we won the chance to present our design idea ‘The Front Garden City’ as part of the Radical Rethink series, presenting the design idea we formulated in collaboration with Matter Architects to a panel of experts and a public audience. The series formed part of preceding events, thinking about public space and place making, ahead of the Festival of Place 2020.
The competition sought ideas for policy shifts, design ideas, products or processes to improve our public urban spaces. We proposed the Front Garden City, a strategy that makes front gardens into a public commons. Our initiative proposes a new approach and supporting legislative policy that would enable people to repurpose front garden thresholds as places to meet, share and connect with their neighbours – to strengthen social bonds, address issues of loneliness and improve wellbeing.
The presentation involved feedback from an expert panel including Aminah Ricks (Future Planners) Pamela Smith (National Trust) Cat Drew (Design Council) Natascha McIntyre-Hall (Portsmouth City Council) Jonny Anstead (TOWN) and Romy Rawlings, Vestre. The event was brought together and Chaired with Christine Murray and Will Sandy.
To watch a recording of our talk click here, our presentation on the Front Garden City begins at 1:06:40
Read more about the genesis of the project here
