Papworth Everard Village Design Guide

Place-specific design guidance developed in collaboration with village residents and using an innovative ‘fanzine’ approach.

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Our Village Design Guide for Papworth Everard, one of a pair produced for South Cambridgeshire District Council, is intended to give confidence to all parties involved with the planning and design process that they understand the essential character of the village, and how to respond to this appropriately through design. The intention is that this will lead to better quality, more locally distinctive development that is welcomed by local residents and contributes positively to the sustainability of the village.

DK-CM, working with Spacemakers and EUropa, delivered a highly bespoke engagement process to directly inform the Design Guide. A group of villagers were asked to work with us creating – in the space of a day – a fanzine for the village that celebrates its strengths and analyses the challenges it faces. Information from the fanzine then directly informed the design guidance we developed – and a major innovation of the final guide is that the images and ideas of the villagers have been directly incorporated into the adopted guidance, which is a material consideration for planning applications in the village.

It was vital for the final guidance to be highly particular and to celebrate local distinctiveness. Papworth Everard is distinctive largely because of the huge role of the Royal Papworth Hospital, located in the heart of the settlement, in the village’s economy, culture and character. In advance of the hospital leaving Papworth Everard in May 2019, villagers were concerned with how the village might preserve the hospital’s long-term role in providing affordable and accessible housing locally, as well as new positive uses for the hospital site in the wake of the hospital’s departure, connections to landscapes and open spaces beyond the village, and a clear strategy for the unusually high number of vacant sites.

The adopted Village Design Guide can be downloaded here.

Credits

  • Client: South Cambridgeshire District Council
  • Collaborators: Spacemakers, Europa
  • Dates: 2018-19
  • Status: Adopted

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