Ebbsfleet Development Corporation appointed RCKa to lead a multidisciplinary team of architects, placemaking specialists and urban designers to co-create a strategy for community and cultural infrastructure in the Garden City through a comprehensive programme of outreach and engagement.
The Ebbsfleet Garden City is strategically located at the heart of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor – a region of untold creative potential. The Garden City will bring together 40,000 new residents and the potential for 30,000 new jobs, to re-imagine the industrial heritage of North Kent as a reinvigorated location for investment and growth.
With funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Creative Estuary – Ebbsfleet Development Corporation commissioned the Cultural Co-Location Pilot in order to test and demonstrate new practice in the role of culture in planning and placemaking. EDC’s ambition is to build on the principles of the original garden cities by developing community buildings for local people with local people and to offer a wide range of opportunities for residents to get involved with the creative arts.
From the outset, RCKa set out to identify creative, cultural and community sector partners from the local area and across the south-east, offering them the opportunity to ‘co-locate’ within the civic buildings and outdoor spaces planned for the Garden City. This co-production process took place against the backdrop of the Covid-19 crisis that required a radical re-think in the way in which we engaged and collaborated with project stakeholders.
The team developed a bespoke approach and methodology to the innovative brief, ambitious client objectives and unique project circumstances. The headline figures over the 12-month programme point to best practice innovation in co-design and coproduction including:
- Contact made with 1,500 organisations in the creative, culture and community sectors
- 200 attendees at our ‘Come to Ebbsfleet’ co-location event
- Almost 100 expressions of interest from organisations keen to co-locate to Ebbsfleet
- More than 2,000 visits to our neighbourhood websites
- 200 questionnaires returned from local consultees
“On behalf of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation we would like to thank RCKa and your team for the fantastic work you have all done on the Cultural Development Fund project over the past year. The engagements and quality of outputs are beyond the expectations we had when we embarked on this project, and we are confident they will have a significant impact on the delivery of the Garden City in the future.”
Kevin McGeough – Head of Strategy and Placemaking, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
Client
Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
Location
Ebbsfleet, Kent
Collaborators
AOC
Fourth Street
Studio ONB
Project Team
Tom Hart
Dieter Kleiner
Anthony Staples
Daria Szmucer
Andrea Villate