Organised by Design South East and the MA Urban Design course at UCA Canterbury, this year’s Urban Design Autumn School will be based at the Turner Contemporary in Margate. Confronting development pressures across Kent, and leading on from last year’s theme ‘Growing the City: Designing the Urban Edge’ this Autumn School will explore how intensification could help activate underused town centres and reduce development pressure on the greenbelt. We will use Margate as a test bed for ideas, considering how new development can be positively integrated into the existing urban fabric, and how this can help provide successful public spaces.
Through the 2-day programme this KENT DESIGN event will introduce you to creating well designed, well connected and sustainable places. Participants will work in small groups, with each taking an individual site spanning from the seafront towards the town centre periphery. Each group will be mentored by leading urban design practitioners, there to help you in developing your own design proposals. This will take into account specific issues faced by Margate based on the recent increase in demand for development associated with the upturn in the creative industries, the technology sector and tourism. Although the distinctive historic fabric of the town is relatively intact, decades of neglect and insensitive development have created a series of holes in the town centre. This workshop will focus on strategies to stitch these areas back into the fabric of the town centre, considering issues such as the potential to improve connectivity between currently severed locations, and the activation of underused public spaces.
Download a copy of the Autumn school_Margate_Programme
For more information please visit www.kentdesign.org
Kent Design members can email kentdesign@designsoutheast.org to book free and subsidised places. Please check with you KD representative prior to booking your place.
