Gants Hill Hub Design Group Update 3
The Gants Hill Hub Design Group has completed the first stage of the co-design process and developed ten ‘design principles’ for the Gants Hill Hub site.
The group is made up of 40 local residents of different ages, backgrounds and perspectives, and representatives from charity, health, business, political groups along with RCKa architects and Redbridge Council.
Residents were encouraged to use their networks to feed in wider views, which enabled more than 250 local people to contribute their views. In addition, Redbridge Council held a public webinar so people could hear about the emerging design principles and feedback during the session and via a survey.
Local residents helped appoint architects early in 2020, and the Design Group then developed ten ‘design principles’ for the Gants Hill Hub site, situated on Cranbrook Road, through five in-depth online workshops. The group identified green spaces, safety and services as the most important principles for the site. They agreed the top priority should be that green space is preserved, expanded or spread across the site.
The group also agreed how proposals for a number of factors should be approached. These included how library services should be retained and that sustainability should be highlighted as a key priority. The group felt car parking should be deprioritised, in particular for out of borough commuters.
Feedback from the group showed 85% agreed the co-design process improved the project brief, with 94% feeling they’d been given an opportunity to express their views.
Gants Hill resident Manoj Vaidya said: “I got involved in the co-design process as I wanted to shape what was created in my local area. Once it’s open, there will be a sense of pride that we helped design an important part of our community.”
The result of the workshops has been drawn together in a report for the Gants Hill Hub site, which includes an overview of the design principles developed, a capacity study of the site and lessons from the co-design process. The report and the design principles will be built on in the next phase of the process and will shape how the scheme is developed.
Image: co-design illustration credit to RCKa architects
