Three finalists have been selected to go forward to the next stage of a competition to select an individual, or a team, to design a new Greenway and Park which will form the centrepiece of St Cuthbert’s Garden Village communities in the south of Carlisle.
Carlisle City Council, in partnership with the Landscape Institute, launched the two-stage design competition earlier this year and received 13 professional entries. The following three finalists have been selected:
- The Greenway Ribbon – Gillespies.
- St Cuthbert’s Monastic Gardens – AFL Architects.
- The Weave – BMD and JTP.
All three finalist’s submissions will be showcased at a public exhibition at Carlisle Racecourse on Tuesday 19 October. In the meantime, all entries can be viewed at https://competitions.landscapeinstitute.org/st-cuthberts/exhibition/
St Cuthbert’s Garden Village is one of the largest projects of its kind nationally and the largest in the north of England. The scale and location of St Cuthbert’s Garden Village (SCGV) provides a genuine opportunity to make a difference – in a well-planned and coherent way.
‘Start with the Park’ – to be based near Durdar and Blackwell – is an opportunity to create a resource that could be a visitor destination attraction in its own right and will benefit the existing and future residents of Carlisle. By establishing the ‘Greenway’ at the outset of SCGV, a greenspace will be created at the heart of the community and will be a unique selling point. It will also connect the proposed new communities with each other, with existing villages in the area, with the city, and with the surrounding countryside.
The Greenway also provides an opportunity to look at new ways of delivering cycling and walking infrastructure in Carlisle to encourage recreational and active travel. A key element of this will be ensuring that this connectivity is both within and beyond the garden village – in particular ensuring active/sustainable transport connectivity to the city centre and the transformational regeneration projects within the southern gateway area such as the railway station improvements, new university campus and business space at the Citadels and Caldew Riverside.
Cllr Paul Nedved, Portfolio holder for Economy, Enterprise and Housing said:
“The landscape competition has been a great success and we were really impressed with the high calibre of professional submissions. We are now giving the public an opportunity to have their say on the three shortlisted finalist’s designs at an event this month at Carlisle Racecourse. Please come along and have your say.”
A spokesperson from the Landscape Institute added:
“We are delighted to work with the Carlisle City Council and United Utilities on the St Cuthbert’s Garden Village “Start with the Park” competition and were really impressed by the quality of the professional entries. Thank you to all those who took time to participate! Looking forward to exciting Stage 2 projects!”
Carlisle City Council partnered with The Landscape Institute, and United Utilities as main sponsors, to deliver the competition, which launched on Monday 12 July 2021. The competition was open to both professionals and students across a range of disciplines. The deadline for stage one entries was Thursday 16 September 2021.
The professional competition follows a two-stage process. Each of the three entrants selected to progress to stage 2 of the competition will be awarded an honorarium of £5,000. The overall winner of stage 2 will receive £10,000. It is the intention to award a contract for the delivery of the winning scheme. However, whilst landowner negotiations are well underway with positive conversations taking place, should these not be concluded at the time of the competition outcome, there will be a delay to the award of contract.
The deadline for the stage two submissions is 26 November 2021 and the overall winner will be announced on 17 January 2022.
The student competition was single stage, and no overall winner was selected.
The Greenway, ‘Start with a Park’ project is identified in the Carlisle Town Deal Investment Plan, alongside six other schemes. Carlisle submitted the Investment Plan to government in October 2020 and received a Heads of Terms offer for £19.7 million of investment for the city in March 2021.
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