VeloCity – Mikhail Riches

Introduction

VeloCity is a proposal created by an all-female multidisciplinary team comprising of Tibbalds Planning & Urban Design, Mikhail Riches, Featherstone Young, Marko and Placemakers, Expedition Engineering & Khaa. Our proposals won the National Infrastructure Commission’s competition to explore ideas for development typologies across the Cambridge – Oxford corridor that integrate placemaking with new infrastructure.

VeloCity is a unique region in the UK no longer dependent on the car and supported by a network of fast rail and road links that connect major towns and cities. Cycling as the mainstream form of movement has shaped the way places are planned and the way people communicate and relate to one another, forming resilient intergenerational communities and a strong identity for this progressive region.

We are interested in the place-making opportunities created when the car no longer needs to dominate our environment. What happens when we no longer need to travel regularly to key centres to work, shop or learn. With such freedoms where would we actually choose to live?

The ‘village’ is seen as a place of community, a place of character and tranquillity. Planning policy has historically resisted their expansion as they are seen as unsustainable. As a result they have become characterised by high prices, ageing populations and the closure of services.

Given the anticipated technological advances and changes in the way we use the car we see no reason why we can’t turn this long held policy of restraint on its head. By promoting symbiotic groupings of well-designed and more balanced village communities, supported by the necessary social, environmental and economic infrastructure to allow them to function in a sustainable fashion.

Town Cluster

Existing villages within a 7 mile catchment of local centres and transport nodes such as the new stations on the East West Rail link can be grouped into 3-4 clusters of 4-6 villages. 7 miles is a comfortable distance for an adult on a daily commute to the transport interchange. These village clusters can be ‘self-sufficient’ on a daily/weekly basis along with links to the Fast Track connecting to Cambridge and Oxford. This model can be repeated across the corridor wherever local centres/ transport infrastructure are located.

Village Cluster

Village clusters are within 1-2 miles of each other, which suits an older person or a child cycling to school. Roads to the main routes are retained. Linking roads between villages are replaced with ‘Slow Lane’ cycle routes through the shared green heart of fields between the villages. The car is also removed from within the villages to create a cycle/pedestrianised centre. Each village provides a specific service that links the cluster together such as a local produce market, schools, workplace, cultural facilities or waste recycling centres.

Village

New development is focused around existing villages rather than creating new ones, building on and reinvigorating their unique identities and characters. Existing field patterns create a framework of 0.5ha plots where a mix of new high density housing, community facilities and infrastructure are located around the edges of a village, retaining its heart: the green, the church, the manor, the farm etc. 20 ‘housing fields’ have the potential to provide 600-1000 new homes per village, which across the clusters could create 15,500 new homes around each interchange town.

The Big Back Garden

Each village cluster is unique and strongly reinforced by its landscape character. The ‘Big Back Garden’ combines active recreation with productive landscape and areas of ëuntouchedí landscape. It forms the centre space of the village cluster, defined by activities developed and initiated by the village inhabitants. These create sense of place and quality of life. The back garden provides an alternative healthy and socially connecting lifestyle that reinforces the attraction of living in the country. Tapping into the areas specific landscape character, each big garden has the potential to become a destination beyond its village cluster. Cycle paths cut through making fast connections between the villages as well as demarcating the active centre of this space which becomes the main social exchange hub.

A productice landscape buffer runs on the inner rim of the cycle/service loop, widening alongside villages to create substantial permaculture of community allotments, orchards and small scale farming.

Light Touch Living

Light Touch Living starts by designing out the need for consumption of resources, and this is at the core of the Velocity concept. Creating strategic cycling routes to support the shift from fossil fuel based personal transport. Reducing consumption also means creating new homes and community buildings built to passive standards. This passive approach will be complemented by integrated infrastructure systems. The productive areas within the Big Back Garden include areas for solar arrays which could be combined with livestock grazing or wildflower meadows. A circular approach to water management sees wastewaters treated through swales and then reused for irrigation. A high-speed fibre network is a key enabler of smart resource and waste management. The dense village form reduces the amount of land take to a modest footprint. This small loss of agricultural land will be offset by significant ecological enhancements both within the village and the productive landscape of the Big Back Garden.

Mikhail RichesAnnalie Riches

Featherstone YoungSarah Featherstone

KhaaKay Hughes

Tibbalds Planning & Urban DesignJennifer Ross

Marko and PlacemakersPetra Marko

Expedition EngineeringJudith Sykes

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VeloCity: A place-based vision for re-imagining the 21st-century village
Mikhail RichesAnnalie Riches
Featherstone YoungSarah Featherstone
KhaaKay Hughes
Tibbalds Planning & Urban DesignJennifer Ross
Marko and PlacemakersPetra Marko
Expedition EngineeringJudith Sykes