Location: City of Hereford 

Services: Urban Design & Landscape Architecture

A challenging street re-design in the heart of a medieval Cathedral City which needs to adapt to changing priorities whilst also being respectful and authentic to it’s historic status.

The Challenge

The scheme, part of the River Wye and Cathedral Quarter, sought to improve the quality of the streets and spaces between the buildings in this historic part of the city. We needed to be able to reduce the dominance of highways, while reflecting on the fact that Hereford is a rural County so some car access was necessary. We also needed to consider the influence of change on the historic environment, in the context of towns and City’s needing to be adapted for climate resilience, yet still true to their sense of place.

Our Role

We established clear goals and objectives at the outset of the commission, knowing from experience that street redesign projects frequently give rise to conflicting spatial requirements. We used precedents and principles to build stakeholder consensus before wider public consultation. We made alterations to the scheme to reflect on comments and developed an outline (RIBA 2) spatial arrangement in a 3D model.

The Outcome

The outcome of our work was the Council were confident in the design to allow it to move to detailed design. We have been retained by the Council and our role includes continuing to work with stakeholders and refining the design for tender prior to construction.

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