18 Mar 2009
Design Team Appointed to improve Chorley’s Green Spaces

The design team who are going to help spend £364,250 rejuvenating Chorley’s green spaces has been selected following a four month competition.

The Halsall Lloyd Partnership has been selected following the four month Astley Village Green Spaces competition. They will work with housing provider Places for People and the local community to realise the vision for Astley Village. The project is part of the Green Spaces for People project, a £15m Big Lottery Funded programme to regenerate more than 70 green spaces across the country.

Launched in November 2008, the Astley Village Green Spaces competition sought ideas from design teams to help deliver a landscape/environmental improvement scheme for Astley Village, a 12 hectare housing estate in Chorley, Lancashire. It was important that the winning proposal addressed social inclusion, community cohesion, healthy living and community wellbeing and that the winning team could work closely with the local community.

The Astley Village Green Spaces competition started with an open and anonymous first stage, which attracted twenty seven submissions. From these, three teams were selected to attend a site walk-about and an interview with an assessment panel, which included community representation. The three teams involved in this second stage were:

Broadway Malyan
Donaldson Edwards Partnership
Halsall Lloyd Partnership

Ian Campbell, Places for People , Project Development Manager said: ‘We are really excited to being working with Halsall Lloyd Partnership on the Astley Village Green Spaces for People project. Their ideas were innovative and stimulating, and exactly what Astley Village needs.

13 Nov 2008
RIBA launches competition to find perfect green space for Astley Village

RIBA has launched a new competition to find a talented design team, who will help deliver a landscaping/environmental improvements scheme for Astley Village in Chorley, Lancashire.

The competition is being organised by RIBA on behalf of Places for People, one the UK’s largest property maintenance and regeneration companies. The area is one of seventy five projects nationally that are part of the Green Spaces for People Portfolio that is being supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

The competition is open to all practising architects, landscape architects, town planners and urban designers. Ideas are sought for improvements to Broadfields and Astley Village Ponds and surrounding areas. Places for People has high aspirations for a design that is creative and practical, whilst respecting the character and context of the village. The competition seeks a design team to work closely with the local community to design and deliver the project. The proposal will aim to address social inclusion, community cohesion, healthy living and community wellbeing.

The competition opens on the 12th November and the submission deadline is January 7th 2009. The selection will take the form of a two stage process, which at Stage One will involve teams submitting design ideas on a single A1 design board. Up to three teams will be short-listed and invited to attend an interview to expand on their first stage submission.

Further details and the online brief will be available from the 12th November 2008, on the website www.astleyvillagecompetition.co.uk



Lancashire Buildings

Places for People is one of the UK’s largest housing, regeneration and property management groups, responsible for nearly 60,000 homes. With a vision of creating sustainable neighbourhoods of choice, it not only offers a complete range of housing tenures but also the provision of local facilities and services, including schools, nurseries, retail, employment and transport links – all of the things that contribute to making communities prosperous, vibrant, popular and therefore sustainable in the future.

For more information on Places for People, please contact Ollie Lawson on 07929 161746 or email ollie.lawson@placesforpeople.couk

The Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme was launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments. The programme is funding a range of activities from local food schemes and farmers markets, to education projects teaching people about the environment. Places for People was awarded a £15,669,990 Changing Spaces grant in August 2007.

The Green Spaces for People project aims to provide a range of quality accessible green spaces such as community gardens, multi-use games areas and children's play areas to social housing communities throughout England. The portfolio consists of 75 projects.

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 188 Out of hours: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030 Textphone: 08456 021 659

Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Lancashire redevelopment - architecture competition

RIBA Lancashire Competition : River Douglas Crossing

Lancashire nature reserve, nr Preston

Lancashire Architecture Competition - Morecombe Bay



Manchester Architecture

World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe

Lancashire housing

Blackpool buildings

Lancashire Building : Kendal / Cumbria

Buildings / images for the Chorley Architecture page welcome:info@e-architect.co.uk

Astley Village Competition - page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt