As part of The Island Quarter’s commitment to echo and represent the communities that will enjoy it in the future, the design team is holding a series of engagement sessions to gather ideas, opinions and insights that will inform its work going forward.
Led by John Morgan of masterplanner Leonard Design Architects and David Jones of planning consultant Axis PED, the sessions touch on a broad range of topics and issues and feed into The Island Quarter’s wider development strategy.
In the fifth of our #TIQandYOU series, we discuss October’s custodian session, which brought together the key changes discussed throughout previous engagement events into an updated landscape-led masterplan.
“Wherever people look there are activities.”
“We’re learning from other cities to bring in knowledge of what has worked well.”
“It’s great to see the energy with this site. There’s a common theme that always going to integrate and change.”
Bringing together a selection of attendees from the various engagement sessions held throughout the last 18 months, the custodian session was an opportunity to discuss the overall feedback and suggestions and how they have been incorporated into the updated designs for The Island Quarter as a whole.
With representation from the areas of sustainability, ecology and transportation – as well as members of the public – this latest session showcased how the proposals for our site have developed in response to their input.
This included a renewed focus on connectivity, both throughout the site itself and with the wider cityscape, prioritising sustainable travel and pedestrian access.
These changes anchor our site within Nottingham and the city’s unique heritage, ensuring it meets our mantra of The Island Quarter being ‘of Nottingham, for Nottingham’ and forms part of the city’s tapestry, unique heritage and personality.
Our ongoing conversations around sustainable travel have informed some of the key features of the masterplan, with pedestrian and cycle access prioritised throughout The Island Quarter’s access hierarchy.
We also want to ensure that the green space on site is as much of a feature as the buildings that form the built landscape. This means significant greenery throughout with shading through tree canopy coverage. and a permeable and accessible approach to pathways so pedestrians feel safe throughout our development.
The masterplan has developed significantly in recent months and much of this evolution has been informed by these progressive discussions from our ongoing engagement efforts with various groups from across the city.
We are proud to be creating spaces that are accessible, and adaptive enough to meet changing needs.
We will be soon commencing the second phase of our engagement process, as we continue to gain valuable input from the public and organisations who are helping to make this project as beneficial as possible to the short and long-term needs for the city.