Urban Design and Masterplanning
Our architectural, planning and landscape professionals deliver urban design and masterplanning projects both in the UK and internationally. Our approach is characterised by an understanding of walkability, locality and mixed-use sustainable development, which we believe to be the key elements of resilient and enduring places.
Nansledan
The King’s Foundation has worked with Cornwall Council to deliver new homes throughout Newquay, including an urban infill scheme at Tregunnel hill and a 540- acre urban extension called Nansledan.
With a 30-year plan for completion, Nansledan will provide more than 4,000 new homes, a high street, school, urban farm and allotments to deliver a mixed-use neighbourhood. We led the project with the Duchy of Cornwall, and worked with ADAM Architecture to create a pattern book, developed through a public engagement process, that details its distinctive urban and architectural character.
Coed Darcy
Located between Neath and Swansea, ‘Coed Darcy’ is a new town on 1,300 acres of brownfield land, the site of a former BP oil refinery in South-West Wales. We advised The Welsh Development Agency on the creation of a new ‘urban village’, a development to incorporate low energy housing providing 4,000 new homes of mixed price and tenure, open space and an integrated land use pattern supported by a full range of services including four new schools, health and community facilities. With continued collaboration of key stakeholders, a Masterplan, Guidance and Town Code were produced and Coed Darcy achieved outline planning consent in December 2007.
Madinat Khalifa New Town, Bahrain
Since 2012, we have been working with Bahrain’s Ministry of Housing on the delivery of a new town projected to deliver over 4,800 units of social and private housing between now and 2030. Madinat Khalifa will serve as a model for sustainable development for Bahrain and across the Gulf, setting a new precedent for the development of mixed-use, mixed tenure, walkability and place-making in the climate and context of the Arabian Peninsula.
Sherford Masterplan
South Hams District Council commissioned us to carry out an Enquiry by Design process in South Devon. Following this, The Foundation was appointed Masterplanner of the project by the developer Red Tree LLP, to create a new community to the east of Plymouth. The work has included the planning of up to 5,500 new homes, employment, shops and community facilities, structured as a series of walkable neighbourhoods – where most residents are within a five-minute walk from their daily needs.
St George’s Barracks Officers Mess
In 2022, The King’s Foundation was commissioned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to help them achieve a positive outcome for the disposal of one of their sites, the Officers’ Mess at St George’s Barracks in Rutland. Our work comprised three parts: leading a community engagement workshop, creating a design guide with indicative masterplan for the redevelopment of the site to provide 85 residential dwellings and a local shop, and serving an advisory role in procuring a developer for the site. Successful outline planning permission was achieved in April 2024.
Our approach
Masterplanning and Visioning
We have experience developing masterplans for urban extensions in the UK and abroad, to integrate local identity, connectivity, resource awareness, and sustainability, with communities central to the design. Starting with ‘Enquiry by Design,’ we involve stakeholders and residents from the outset. We have created a walkable masterplan for the urban extension of Nansledan in Newquay, an innovative Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) in Upton, Northampton, and a sustainable new town masterplan in Bahrain.
Design Guides, Pattern Books and Characterisation
We work with communities to understand the qualities of architecture that capture the local identity. We ask people simple questions about what they like, and don’t, and get them to share examples of their favourite buildings, landscapes and spaces in their area. These characterisation studies then inform our design guides and pattern books to ensure a coherent language of architectural design and public realm that is rooted in the context and culture of place.
Publications and Research
Our publications showcase the research from the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation at Kellogg College Oxford. These examine our design principles and how they can generate lasting results for the population: Walkability and Mixed Use: Making Valuable and Healthy Communities (2020); Walkability, Accessibility and Health: Evidence Supporting the Benefits of Walkable Neighbourhoods (2021); Building Toward Net Zero Carbon Homes (2022); Planning With Nature (2023).Take a look at some of our projects
