The National Infrastructure Commission and Malcolm Reading Consultants have announced the shortlist for The Cambridge to Oxford Connection: Ideas Competition. The free-to-enter competition focuses on integrating placemaking with infrastructure in one of the UK’s leading growth regions: 130-mile Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor. The region is home to 3.3 million people and hosts some of the country’s most successful cities, as well as the world-leading Oxbridge universities. Launched in June 2017, the first stage encouraged entries from teams with a range of backgrounds - made up of urban designers; architects; landscape designers, planners and community specialists (to name a few).
The Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford corridor is one of the fastest-growing and productive regions of the UK, but there are also significant pressures – on housing, transport, connectivity, and much else – which call for imaginative, forward-thinking solutions from a broad spectrum of expertise said Malcolm Reading, Competition Organiser.
Four out of the 58 teams have been selected by the competition’s jury and will now develop detailed concepts in the second stage of the competition. The UK based shortlist features multi-disciplinary collaborations and a mixture of established practices and emerging talent.
Shortlist:
· Mae
· Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design
Honorable mentions were given to O&H Properties and OMMX, who was awarded £500,000 for the London “Naked House” initiative earlier this year.
At the second stage, we will be looking for proposals that are rooted in their context and understand the local character, environment and landscape. We have asked competitors to consider how places will be integrated with infrastructure, but above all, we want to see what the proposals will mean for the lives of the people living and working in the corridor - Bridget Rosewell, Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission and Competition Jury.
The shortlisted teams will each receive £10,000 to develop their initial first-stage submissions into design concepts for development typologies appropriate to the corridor. They will be asked to consider existing, planned or proposed infrastructure and how to integrate this with development to create sustainable and livable places.
The shortlisted teams produced particularly imaginative and stimulating responses to the first-stage brief and we look forward to seeing how their ideas and visions develop - Bridget Rosewell, Commissioner for the National Infrastructure Commission and Competition Jury.
The competition jury will meet again in October to review the second-stage submissions, interview the shortlist and select a winner of the competition. The announcement of the winner is expected in early November.
News via: Malcolm Reading Consultants.
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