News
Regenerating the Cornish Heartlands: Design Competition Announced
4th October 2006
The Landscape Institute has been appointed to manage a design competition for a park adjacent to a UNESCO World Heritage site in Cornwall.
Kerrier District Council aims to create a high profile and inspirational six hectare park beside one of the county’s scores of abandoned tin and copper mines which will also become a gateway to the UNESCO site close to Camborne, Pool and Redruth.
The £9 million Heartlands Park project has been devised with the help of CPR Urban Regeneration Company, English Partnerships and other stakeholders and is bidding for Big Lottery Living Landmark funding.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Tim Kellett, urban design manager at CPR Urban Regeneration. “The vision of a cultural landscape for Cornwall has engaged all the agencies and the local community – it is at the heart of our regeneration plans.”
Robinson’s Shaft, the old mine alongside the intended park, will become an exhibition centre telling the story of Cornish emigration and culture and will provide an education centre for schools. Camborne, Pool and Redruth were reliant on the Cornish tin and copper mining industry. When the mining went into decline so did the towns. The UNESCO World Heritage site designation is expected to bring significant new growth to the area.
“The bid for funding so far has been intense and highly competitive,” explained Councillor Malcolm Moyle, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Arts and Culture at Kerrier District Council. “We’re delighted to have got to this stage of the funding process but now we need an exciting design to involve the community and recognise their fierce pride in all things Cornish, while providing all the details to get planning permission and, hopefully, the funding to make this happen.
“This competition is about demonstrating inspirational ideas that really capture the special identity of Cornwall and its unique culture. It is also about choosing the right team that we will have full confidence in to deliver a complex project on time, working intensively with stakeholders and the local community.”
English Partnerships is committed to delivering a wider regeneration project in Pool. David Warburton, area director for Southern England, said: “Starting with the Park will signal that our regeneration is not only about economic and housing benefits but it is also about building communities.”
Nigel Thorne, president of the Landscape Institute, said: “This is a great project and will allow many landscape architects to be truly creative in responding to a competition brief aiming to address some difficult issues through design. The proposed park will act as a real catalyst for the much needed economic development of Camborne, Pool and Redruth.
“It is an excellent opportunity for the Landscape Institute’s members and we are very pleased that the development’s partners want such a landscape-focused competition to be guided by the LI.”
The competition brief is now available, Stage One submissions need to be received by 24 October, and can be obtained by contacting LI Competitions: competitions@landscapeinstitute.org or 020 7299 4500.
Source: LI
