Judges commend Andrew Jackson's A Catalogue of Regeneration by Andrew for its incremental, achievable approach
Commended: A Catalogue of Regeneration by Andrew Jackson
Inequality in the UK has been both highlighted and heightened by the coronavirus. This project looks at Manchester, one of the worst-hit areas. In particular it focuses on rat run streets of two up two downs. These homes are blighted by the dominance of cars in the narrow streets, which leaves little space for play, social distancing or even a neighbourly chat. Trees and informal green spaces are few and far between, reports Andrew Jackson.
His regeneration catalogue works at street and house scale and its programme and timescale are adaptable. A series of incremental improvements can be applied when the community is ready to commit to such action and has budget available. It is intended to regenerate a street in a ‘cheap, sustainable and collective way’.
The catalogue has five big steps, starting with repairing potholes, then tidying up facades and building up to create Woonerf (home zones), banning cars, bringing green elements to the street and ultimately building works to improve and expand individual homes. Most importantly for sustainability it works with the existing building stock, in this case inner city terraces – it has echoes of Urban Splash’s Chimney Pot Park, designed by shedkm.
Judge Francine Houben felt it was well targeted and deliverable. ‘Poorer people suffer the hardest,’ she said. Fellow panellist Sarah Castle, who comes from the city, approved: ‘They’ve taken a place and broken it down into sets of things people can do to achieve it… People are really resistant to taking cars off the street. I think this project makes it manageable, I liked the softly softly approach, incremental but with the right goal.’