Regent Park,
Salford

Liveable Density around a New Public Park

At the heart of our placemaking-led, people-first vision for Regent Park is a new urban park which will provide much needed green space for the residents of Salford. Our Masterplan creates a safe, walkable and inclusive neighbourhood where nature and architecture work together harmoniously, fostering a community that prioritises liveability and wellbeing.

Ten new buildings are gathered around this new park which will deliver a new community including 3,300 new homes and 10,000sqm of commercial and community space. The location, typology, orientation, footprint and height of buildings deliver a sustainable level of density whilst maximising liveability, on-site open space, and sunlight levels into the park.

The Regent Park proposals emphasise a placemaking-led, people-first vision, promoting health and wellbeing. The linear park enhances pedestrian access and connectivity between Salford and Manchester City Centre, whilst providing direct access to nature, with over two hectares of naturalistic planting along with over 150 new trees and SUDS to enhance biodiversity. Dwellings, gathered around the park, benefit from dual-aspect layouts, natural ventilation, high levels of sunlight and daylight, with views to the park maximised to enhance wellbeing.

Establishing a sense of community and fostering neighbourliness is a fundamental aspect of our vision for Regent Park. This includes ‘The Forum’, a space that combines site wide amenities such as a primary concierge, postal rooms and active travel facilities with spaces for the wider community. Bringing these uses together adjacent to the primary external play space maximises incidental social interactions, bringing the new and existing residents together, helping to build neighbourliness and a strong sense of community.

A key placemaking strategy is the recognisable skyline designed to aid way-finding to the park and the new pedestrian river crossing. The tallest buildings provide a sense of arrival and identity for Salford onto the river, creating a new dialogue between Salford and Manchester at a key gateway between the cities across the river. The warm colour tones and texture of the proposed buildings respond to their context, which combined with a visual cohesion across the buildings, creates a strong sense of local identity and residential character. Colonnades to the base of all buildings contribute to a strong relationship between the buildings and landscape whilst providing a human scale and sheltered routes through the site.

Enhancing a sense of Wellbeing

Local Centre as the Heart of the Community

Embedding Sustainability

Linear Park

Deliver a major, new, public park. Make it a community asset that will improve connections and access to nature. Use it to promote health and wellbeing. Improve access points and gateways on site.

Upper and Lower Park

Create an extensive Linear Park connecting Oldfield Road and Ordsall Lane, providing an Upper and Lower Park. This includes West Union Park, sited at the heart of Linear Park, forming a landmark urban park for residents and visitors.

Local Centre and Community Forum

Maintain the retail provision on site for the benefit of the existing Ordsall community as park of an enhanced Local Centre. Accommodate retail uses and The Forum, providing community space that provides an active edge to the park.

A Collection of Buildings

Create buildings that enable the delivery of high quality homes. Provide dwellings with views to the park to maximise wellbeing. Maximise open space on site.

Skyline Profile

Contribute positively to the Salford Skyline. Complement gateway spaces on site. Aid navigation to and through the site.

Fulcrum Building

A unique building on site. The form is derived from its masterplan function, acting as a navigational marker at the confluence of key pedestrian routes to and through the site.

Edge Structure

Enclose the park appropriately, define the primary east-west pedestrian connection through the site and enable the development of the Future High Street.

Permeability and Linear Buildings

Maximise permeability on site. Improve connections to and for the existing Ordsall community. Maximise sunlight to the park. Provide activity to the park and Future High Street. Include high-quality homes.

Colonnades and Park

Colonnades: to define the extent of the park, to create spaces for activity to spill out between inside and outside, to create a positive dialogue between building and landscape, to provide Human Scale, to reinforce this as a place for people, to shelter from extremes of weather, to contribute to a distinct sense of place.

Placemaking Context - A Strong Sense of Identity

Creating a strong sense of identity, one that is distinct and reflects the site's locality and/ or history contributes greatly to quality of place. It creates an environment that is attractive to people and fosters a strong emotional connection, creating a sense of belonging for new and existing residents, underpinning social and economic value. This identity can be seen in the warm tones and texture present in the local historic building stock.

Placemaking Function - Making the Place

Whilst a Placemaking Identity supports the creation of a place that attracts people to it, the functionality provides purpose of place, providing activity on site to increase dwell time. The site will continue to function as a Local Centre, delivering retail and community uses for the benefit of both the existing Ordsall community as well as the new community on site. This new, on-site community, delivered through the residential uses will sustain the future viability and vitality of the Local Centre.

Placemaking Form - Delivering the Place

The site is of strategic importance at a key location, marking an arrival into Salford. Regent Park delivers a series of scales in their design from a Human Scale through to that of the Regional Scale. The proposals look to reflect the Regional scale by appropriately marking the site with buildings of height, announcing the arrival into Salford. This consideration of scale goes all the way through to a Human Scale, with the provision of colonnades to the base of buildings.

The Forum

The Forum has an integral role in delivering the people-focused, placemaking-led design of Regent Park. Located centrally and prominently within the masterplan to promote its use, The Forum centralises amenities to encourage incidental interactions between residents and visitors, fostering a sense of community and neighbourliness on site.

The Forum - Community Hub

A Community Hub provides flexible and multi-purpose space that will be capable of hosting a variety of activities and events. Available to both on-site residents and people from the existing Ordsall community it will integrate Regent Park and its new community with existing local residents.

The Forum - Parcel Hub

Alongside a main concierge for the development, The Forum will also contain a centralised Parcel Hub which will serve all buildings. Along with providing a convenient location for home deliveries and returns, the Parcel Hub will act like a village post office helping to build a sense of community.

The Forum - Mobility Hub

A Mobility Hub is included within The Forum to promote more healthy and sustainable means of transport for residents to and from site. The Hub provides information to encourage residents to walk and use public transport for journeys as well as providing cycle hire and repair facilities to encourage movement by cycle, integrating with the regional Bee Network.

The Forum - Park Hub

Located adjacent to the internalised Forum space, the Park Hub provides high-quality external space to complement and extend the functionality of The Forum. This includes hard landscaping to allow for activities at The Forum to spill between internal and external spaces as well as a play area, set within a naturalistic park setting; a space for families to play safely, together.