Winner, Royal Town Planning Institute Award for Innovation:

“It is clear that every large town or city would benefit from such a form of presentation…

Highly original approach…”

Cambridge Futures

Client: University of Cambridge / Cambridge City Council

Cambridge Futures is a project undertaken collaboratively with Cambridge University, Cambridge City Council, and others, to examine the growth of the Cambridge region over the next fifty years. Seven possible scenarios have been developed and evaluated in terms of their economic, social, environmental and transportational consequences:

  1. minimum growth – replacing rather than extending building stock;
  2. densification – intensifying land use and building at higher densities within the urban envelope;
  3. green swap – urbanising green belt land in exchange for protecting rural land elsewhere;
  4. transport links – improving principal public transport infrastructure and encouraging adjacent development;
  5. new town – concentrating all new development within a new town;
  6. necklace – distributing urban growth into existing suburban developments;
  7. virtual highway – channelling development into areas served by digital communication networks.

The project was conceived substantially as a consultation exercise to inform the public, stakeholders and policy makers. Cambridge Futures was awarded the Royal Town Planning Award for Innovation.