TOWN, alongside hotel and mixed-use developer Nicholas James Group, was shortlisted by Winchester City Council as one of three potential parties to undertake the redevelopment of Central Winchester, an important site in the centre of the city. The competitive dialogue process lasted nine months over 2022/23, with TOWN eventually coming a close second.  

Here, we reflect on the opportunity and our proposals which demonstrate TOWN’s ethos in response to the challenges of town-centre regeneration sites through innovation and collaboration.

Background

Winchester City Council has long identified Central Winchester as a key strategic area to be transformed through regeneration, having sought for some years to bring forward its development. The city centre location and historic setting has garnered public interest whilst also presenting significant development constraints. The Council set up a competitive dialogue tender process seeking to procure a development partner that would bring innovative thinking to respond to these challenges and deliver a mixed-use and sustainable quarter.

Working with Gort Scott architects, TOWN developed a proposal for a discovery quarter, offering a compelling mix of leisure, start-up and small retail space, with new homes designed to provide a place to start and to stay. This set within a masterplan to reflect ‘Winchesterness of the future’ and supported by smart infrastructure for a sustainable city, including site-wide renewable energy solutions and shared mobility. Through our exemplary approach to engagement, we committed to a meanwhile programme that would create visible impact from day one.

Winchesterness of the future

‘Winchesterness’ for us is urbanism that is at the same time ever-changing and never-changing; not ‘traditional’ so much as timeless. We proposed to adapt the rich patterns that make Winchester unique to the contemporary challenge of growing a new quarter of the city by conceiving a fine-grained mixed-use masterplan that reintegrates the site into the city’s fabric and pedestrian movement network. With this, studying and emulating special characteristics of Winchester such as ‘hinges’ between public realms, narrow alleyways to larger open spaces, various scales and the way buildings and entrances frame space. Ground floors would be activated by a mix of uses, including independent retail and creative-maker space. To support sustainable long-term management of the public space, we proposed establishing an Estate Trust.

Discovery quarter

Creating the conditions for a new culture of discovery in Central Winchester by providing accessible ground floor space that nurtures a mix of everyday uses and embodies an independent and creative spirit. We proposed a stylish new 40,000 ft2 innovation hub in and around the retained Kings Walk structure, which would be designed and operated in conjunction with Plus X and incorporate low-cost, creative, maker and event spaces within this and the Antiques market. This would be accompanied by interlinked public spaces that are green and essentially car-free. It would provide a safe and welcoming place for strolling, lingering, chance encounters and face-to-face contact.

A place to start and to stay

The location, environment and quality of our proposed housing would make Central Winchester a new residential destination within the city. This sought to strike a balance between capitalising on the long-term strength of the local housing market to underpin the Council’s wider investment objectives and making an inclusive place which offers a genuine ladder of housing opportunity, acting as a magnet for younger people and offering a new choice for ‘downsizing’ Wintonians freeing up family housing elsewhere in the city. These would be airtight, well-insulated and renewably powered dual-aspect homes sized at or above national space standards and with private outdoor amenity space. We proposed a wide mix of types of dwelling, including studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments together with larger duplexes suitable for families, calibrated to market evidence and housing need.

Archaeological preservation

Given the huge potential for archaeological discoveries, we sought to celebrate this as an opportunity for engagement and community participation in the development. Archaeology would be embraced as a placemaking opportunity to tell the story of the site and showcasing any remarkable discoveries through the development process and where appropriate integrating with the public realm proposals.

Smart infrastructure for a sustainable city

Embracing the Winchester Movement Strategy we intended to deliver a new spine of on-street bus facilities and provide complementary multimodal mobility and delivery hubs; with most streets and spaces entirely car-free so that walking and cycling is easy and air is clean. To reduce embodied carbon, existing structures and materials would be reused wherever possible, including Kings Walk, and prioritise sustainable materials for new structures.  We proposed the Passivhaus standard for housing and other feasible uses, alongside similarly challenging benchmarks such as BREEAM and providing a site-wide, battery-backed smart renewable energy and digital grid. On increasing biodiversity, we proposed to deliver net-gain on-site through first-class native-planted landscaping and de-culverting of the River Itchen branch to create new urban habitats. The commercial letting strategy would be utilised to nurture Winchester’s emerging culture of slow and local food and prioritise healthy, low-impact services that appeal strongly to younger people.

Exemplary engagement beyond the traditional project lifecycle

We developed a framework for engagement bespoke to Central Winchester based on the following principles:

• Good governance – transparent decision making and clarity on process;
• People-led approach – by reaching out, involving people in decision making and by having a physical presence on site where people can engage easily;
• Co-creation- Creative processes run in collaboration with stakeholders, building upon the skills and knowledge of local people, to shape the proposals;
• Co-producing futures – Stakeholders would have a role in the future management and curation of CWR post-completion in the form of an Estate Trust, taking on the long-term stewardship of the public realm and site-wide services.

Visible impact, from day one and phase one

We recognised how long the Central Winchester project has been in gestation and how important it is for local people to see things happening. Working closely with the Council, we proposed early and visible impact through a ‘first 100 days’ plan to be present in and around the site, hold engagement events, get local people talking to us and about us and used to the feeling that things are changing in central Winchester, setting the stage for continuous and active engagement throughout the life of the project and disarming some of the biggest potential risks early. This would evolve into a longer term meanwhile strategy as different phases of the development are delivered, with the intention that meanwhile space would provide a launchpad for longer-term tenancies in the completed development.