12 - 04 - 2023
We are excited to announce that this year’s Planning Awards has shortlisted Rochester Riverside Phases 1 and 2 for Best Use of Arts, Culture or Sports in the Placemaking award category!
Designed for Countryside and Hyde, the award-winning scheme delivers 656 homes and commercial and community spaces in a landscaped public space network that connects the biodiverse riverside to the historic city centre. The multi-disciplinary partnership between BPTW, public art consultants FrancisKnight, landscape architects LUC, and artists Christopher Tipping and Katayoun Dowlatshahi helped create the unique placemaking strategy found at Rochester Riverside.
With their rich historical narrative, Rochester and the river Medway provide a wealth of inspiration to draw upon. Rochester Riverside’s placemaking philosophy was guided by the historic city’s community, architecture, and spatial characteristics, the architecture of Chatham’s Historic Naval Dockyard and the River Medway’s unique riparian character and salt marshes. This inspiration is present in the architectural forms and material selections, the native planting species and the artistic motifs included on custom paving and wayfinding. The success of this placemaking strategy and the finished result is a testament to how collaborations between artists and designers from the start can create an original neighbourhood rooted in the local sense of place. You can find out more about the art and architecture strategy at Rochester Riverside here.
Rochester Riverside has been awarded and nominated for a host of awards, from winning the Housing Design Awards Winner of Winners in 2020 to the 2022 Medway Design and Regeneration Awards.
Header image credit: Richard Gooding
