For my first urban design project, I collaborated with a group of internationals from India, China,
and Europe. It was difficult at times for eveyone to agree having American, Asian, and European
design perspectives at the table. Nonetheless, we all enjoyed working together and learned a
great deal from eachother.
The site is located in a flat flood plain in one of England’s most important cities that once
produced half of Europe’s steel output. The flat terrain and proximity to the river allowed for
sprawiling manufacturing facilities to be built. Today, many of the factories have been abandoned
allowing other land uses to trickle in. As a result the valley is a fragemented post-industrial
landscape consisting of some remaing industrial, commercial, residential, and little green
space. Our objective was to create a more unified area with a strong identity to make it a destination
neighborhood in the city of Sheffield.
In order to understand the area we used GIS data extensively to create maps that supported
our design intentions. We put special emphasis on creating more green space along the Don
River to allow for flood management, habitat restoration, and connections to existing greenspaces.
We utilized the greenspace to connect fragmented residential parcels to create a more
unified and enjoyable living area. Certain intersections on the busy arterial road were indentified
for pedestrian improvement to allow easy acces to mass transit links reducing the site’s dependecy
on automobiles. We selected some buildings to be preserved and others to be refurbished
while retaining its architectural character to honor its industrial heritage. In the site we designed
a compact residential community that demonstrated our aims and objectives.