What was the project?

Fiona Duhamel, Regeneration Delivery Manager at Colchester Borough Council requested an Inspire East Enabler to support the developer competition process for the proposed Cultural Quarter site in Colchester.  This site forms part of the St Botolphs Regeneration Project and is subject to the St Botolphs Masterplan which was adopted by the Council in 2005.  The Council had a vision to create a mixed use scheme on land in Council ownership, adjacent to the new Visual Art Gallery.  It was envisaged that the development would be complementary to the gallery and would contain uses which reflected the creative and cultural heritage already in the area.

The Council wished to run a competition to secure a developer/architect partnership to regenerate this site.

What support did they get?

Inspire East Enabler Anthony Hudson  spent a number of days working with Fiona and her colleagues to develop a competition framework and development prospectus.  He formed part of the technical team, together with Colchester Borough Council officers, which worked to develop a document which provided details of the site and local regeneration area, but also gave instructions of the competition process.

Anthony brought his significant experience to this project both in design, but also in establishing the competition process.  He was especially helpful in helping officers determine the selection criteria to be used and the relevant weighting to be applied to various elements.

What was achieved?

The competition process was a great success and the final four shortlisted entries formed part of a public consultation exercise where local people were asked to say what they liked best about each scheme.  The greatest number of people liked the competition entry from Garbe/Ash Sakula and this was also chosen as the winning entry buy the judging panel, not only because the design fitted into the history and creativity of the area, but also because the developers demonstrated they fully understood what the Council were trying to achieve in terms of the cultural regeneration of this area.

We knew the correct entry had won when the scheme won “Best Future Project” at this year’s MIPIM in Cannes and we are currently working with the developer to agree a development agreement, in spite of current market conditions.  Fiona Duhamel, Regeneration Delivery Manager

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