Jury’s comment:
This project to save the historic fabric and vibrant quality of life of a section of London has enormous international significance, especially now, when large scale demolition of swathes of historic cities around the world is accelerating.
The Norton Folgate district was democratically designated a Conservation Area 40 years ago. Mayor Johnson unilaterally swept that aside and declared it available for development. The area is now threatened with wholesale demolition of scores of premises and replacement with over-scaled office slabs and investment properties.
Burrell Foley Fisher’s scheme demonstrates how to holistically protect the area’s rich heritage assets, retain the fine grained urban fabric, and enhance the character of ‘Place’, providing diverse jobs for local people, greatly increasing the housing, including affordable housing, and celebrating the presence, lives and works of Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens and Sir John Betjeman in Norton Folgate.
The IMCL jury strongly condemns the undemocratic “taking” of urban districts and public streets by developer-oriented governments that amplify inequality; and supports the protection of fine-grained, diverse, human scale urban fabric, heritage assets, and character of ‘Place’ so admirably demonstrated in Burrell’s proposal for Norton Folgate.
International
MAKING CITIES LIVABLE CONFERENCES
In concurrence with the judgment of its Design Awards Jury
Presents an
HONOR AWARD
For Excellence in creating
Public Places for Community, Democratic Dialogue, Health & Equity
to
City Continuity Community
by
John Burrell, Burrell, Foley, Fisher
Client:
Spitalfields Historic Building Trust