Project:  Morecambe Urban Design Appraisal

Client:  Lancaster City Council

Description:

Morecambe is a much-loved seaside town which is being regenerated under the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Townscape Heritage Initiative. We were commissioned by the City Council to produce a set of urban design visualisations to support their successful bid for Stage 2 HLF funding. This involved carrying out an urban design appraisal of the study area.

We carried out a series of urban design appraisals in order to understand how the study area related to its urban context. The key studies were Legibility and Visual Analysis or Townscape for which we employed the classic techniques of Kevin Lynch and Gordon Cullen, respectively. 

The latter included a serial vision sequence and identification of features that contributed to the distinctiveness of ‘place’, such as enclosed areas with ‘ambience’ and particular views.

Having understood the structure and identified issues with the urban fabric we were able to prepare an urban design concept.  This formed the basis for our visualisations of opportunities for public realm improvement in the conservation area.