Last week, our bridge in Castleford, Yorkshire was awarded the Palme D'Or - so to speak - of the U.K. urban renewal industry, at the annual Regeneration & Renewal awards.
The professional jury led by David Ubaka of Design for London commended the bridge for the quality of its design and the unusual and direct involvement of local people in its development.
Six years ago, working in close alliance with local government, I led a group who asked people living and working in Castleford to nominate the ten improvements that they would like to see made to the town - and a new way of getting from the town centre to an area known as 'Duck Island' came out No.1.
Local people were instrumental to the choice of architect, design and many other aspects of the £4.5m ($7m) structure.
With local government acting as convenor, project/technical manager and banker, local people were the client for the work - rather than just end-user consultee.
So yes, the award goes to the project team - Client: City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, Designer: McDowell + Benedetti, Structural Engineer: Alan Baxter & Associates, Civil Engineer: Arup Water, Lighting Consultant: Sutton Vane Associates, Timber Consultant: Engineered Wood Products/Michael Berringer and Contractor: Costain Ltd.And on the funding and support side, immense thanks needs to go to the local authority, English Partnerships (now Homes and Communities Agency), Yorkshire Forward, the Environment Agency, British Waterways, the Heritage Lottery Fund, SITA Trust and the project and cost managers of the broader initiative, MACE Group and Gleeds.
But in the end, this is just set construction, cinematography and commendation all round for production services.
Because the Best Director slots need to be reserved for the three organizations who were instrumental to making the bridge happen: the Lock Lane Residents Association, Castleford Riverside Community Group and Castleford Town Centre Partnership.
Now before you reach for your hankie to wipe away a tear, can I just leave you with a thought.
Recession has stalled the momentum, value and yield of regeneration, renewal and construction in the U.K. and rest of the world.
With big investment gone from the sector, big projects are history.
Master planning will remain in some shape or form, not least because it evidences the fact that something major is going on or being thought through - but the writing has to be on the wall for that too.
The flourishing of the Internet Economy suggests an age of direct communications, network relationships and more 'done with' than 'done to'.
The level of business insolvencies in the SME sector and the new relationship between the private and public sectors as a result of Government stimulus suggests a new dialectic of resilience and dependency.
So have we reached a moment of great opportunity?A moment to develop and deliver small projects that build out in to larger phenomena?
We could follow the lead of Enterprise 2.0 and progress these projects in ways that involve ordinary people deciding who, what and when.But this is about action, not feasibility, and choreography of initiative, not simply small-scale invention.
What should we call it?Maybe start with "Venture Urbanism" (and find something sexier a bit later)?
