Seb Burchell Urban Design portfolio

Seb Burchell

MSc Urban Design and International Planning at the University of Manchester - Proficient in Autocad, Sketchup, Twinmotion, Abode Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

About me:

After working in the marketing, and SEO industry for 5 years, I chose to return to University to study for an MSc in Urban Design as I was looking for a role where I would be working more directly with the built environment. Undertaking the speciailist design route at Manchester, I’ve created visual city reports, masterplans, SPD’s, and small scale project redevelopments - all using a variety of softwares and best practice Urban Design principles. International planning and policy projects have also been explored both theoretically and within practice.

Selhurst Park: Inclusive Stadia-led Regeneration for all Ages

29 Hectares

Distinction: 78

Active heritage trails filled with local art installations and pieces of green infrastructure, connects the area effectively to green spaces in the North and South.

Multi-functional stadium complex, with a wide range of matchday/nonmatchday activities - fan zones, museums and food/market halls. Multi-functional parking solutions, have also been created with the half podium (North to South around the stadium) serving as a key area of public realm, with the underneath as accessible parking and servicing infrastructure.

Expanding the strong residential character area towards the north of the site. New typologies feature historic materials and distinctive architectural features from the past.

The research topic for my dissertation was Inclusive Urban Design for all Ages, within a Stadia-led Regeneration context. The project transforms Selhurst Park stadium and the surrounding area to strengthen Eastto-West connections and legibility, while ensuring the surrounding public realm area can cope with a large numbers of fans in a safe environment. Creating a multi-functional scheme that could be used on all days of year was also a priority.

Strong East to West connectivity to key transport infrastructure through boulevards (lined with active frontage).

A new compact and walkable community corridor has been created along Selhurst Road with uses complimenting each other (e.g, a new leisure opposite a school).

Thornton Heath gateway

Holmesdale Road gateway

Front door

Urban Design Analysis

Public Realm

With community and cultural assets

Throughout all of my projects I learnt how to conduct rigorous Urban Design analysis at various scales (Strategic, City, Area/Neighbourhood, and Local/Site).

For my dissertation, I tailored the Urban Design analysis to suit the theme of the study (Inclusive Design and Stadia-led Regeneration), naturally prioritising certain variables over others. Below is an example of Public Realm and Cultural asset analysis from the work.

Community and public realm features are frequent surrounding the site including: street art, markets, monuments. and floor art. Physical community and listed/non designated heritage assets are prevalent around the area, mostly within South Norwood and along Selhurst Road, therefore defining the area. Within/on the edge of the site are a number of build ings that have some either heritage, or undesignated cultural importance.

As you move within the site, the heavy residential uses have led to a lack of obvious community and public realm assets. Nonetheless, semi-formal spaces appear on certain days, however the built environment fails to facilitate informal spaces for play and rest.

New public realm assets

New cultural assets were added to the redevelopment to con nect with the art features in Thornton Heath and the historic/ community assets in South Norwood. The new installations all embody multi-functionality, while adding to aesthetic quality in the area.

A9 Play streets projects at South Norwood Recreation Ground

Clifton Arms Pub

Park Road Landmark Mural - awarded South London mural of the year A8

Sculpture on the Crystal Trail Playful tube space

Cultural Asset/Legibility indicator/Defensive architecture

Masterplan vision at night

The public realm area surrounding Selhurst Park now becomes multi-functional/all-year round space for residents, visitors and fans of the club. Multi-functionality extends to the rest of the site. For instance, Norwood Boulevard hosts markets on the weekend and consumer opportuni ties on matchday.

The wide public realm space offers easy movement for all users, while the half podium sur rounding the stadium adds a level of intrigue to the design.

Recognisable club branding enhances place identiy, while tree lines, raised corners, and statues aid in enclosure, and separating the stadium from nearby residential areas.

Further recognisable club features have been retained such as The Holmesdale Road Stand, a culturally significant stand since the 1970’s. Terrace housing typologies have also been included to resemble the 1900’s stadiums that were found within residential areas.

Multi-functional spaces

Pocket parks and articulated corners

Interconnected pocket parks along Norwood Boulevard are created through chamfered corners. Each space holds a slightly different function, e.g play space, rest and meeting space, active frontage space for hospitality.

Chamfered corner along Norwood Boulevard

Play pocket park with tree stumps

Rest, play and meeting space for all users. Rest, play and meeting space for all users along Norwood Boulevard.

Public Spaces

Interconnected public spaces, each having a slightly different focus were essential features of the project. The Holmesdale Road public realm is filled with club brand ing to enhance football related identity, while the Park Road public realm connects two fan areas. Statue square is a heritage inspired public realm that acts as a gateway to the rest of the stadium.

Memorable branding through club coloured paving, defensive architecture and flags were implemented.

Retaining a strong sense of enclosure within the spaces was further important, raising necessary building heights to achieve a 2:1, 3:1 ratio of public realm to enclosure.

Height transition and topography

Ensuring the stadium was both a focal point, and smoothly transitioned into the neighbouring community was a key focus for the project. The section along Hol mesdale Road also seeks to show a range of architec tural and topographical features found within the area.

Existing Serial Vision fan journey

Sketches along key routes provide a strong representa tion of the fans journey to the stadium. Passing onstreet parking, key pieces of green infrastructure, the fans arrive at a key gateway (coloured image), where landmarks aid in wayfinding.

Holmesdale Road public realm

Park Road Public Realm

Statue Square

Holmesdale Road

Park Road

Holmesdale Road public realm

Section of Holmesdale Road

Masterplan Vision Document

Ashton Town Centre Regeneration

An integral part of the Masterplan module was to create a Strategic Framework document for the regeneration of Ashton-under-Lyne town centre.

The 20-page document contained thorough Urban Design Analysis, Best Practice comparisons, a National, Regional and Local policy review, Opportunities and Constraints maps, Vision, Design actions, and key primary research data.

The document was written using professional Urban Design vernacular and took inspiration from several UK masterplan documents (Stockport Town Centre, Baltic Triangle, Stafford Town Centre, Rotherham Town Centre, Shrewsbury Town Centre and Lille).

Ashton-under-lyne vision principles

Initially we conducted extensive Urban Design analysis, comprising of several site visits. Next, an Opportunities and Constraints map was drawn before heading into the initial design proposal stages.

Our Urban Design analysis pointed to 8 principles that would drive the regeneration of Ashton town centre.

Currently the town centre offers little to no social activites for the residents or visi tors. In addition, much of Ashton’s population are socio-economically deprived.

As a result we understood it was important to create high-quality, multi-functional and low-cost spaces and opportunities, that were particularly suitable for Ashton’s socio-economically deprived community.

Additionally Ashton, like much of Greater Manchester, has a rich industrial history. We recognised this characteristic and chose to place these historic assets and Urban Design features at the centre of our vision.

Finally, Ashton’s unique location (between Manchester and Leeds, and next to the Peak District) means it has fantastic connections to desirable locations within the region.

Consequently, we wanted to enhance the commuter opportunities within Ashton, while attracting people to stop and stay in the town centre while on their journey between the three destinations.

Below are just a few of the Design Actions we chose to include within our proposal.

Actions and Interventions

Public Realm enhancement Grid Morphology All day pedestrianisation 24/7 Activity

Introduce street furniture with the main square and (public realm space in front of college name) to enjoy heritage assisted key views.

Integrate historic grid morphology into the town centre. New grid network increases permeability, while raised corners im proves legibility.

Fully pedestrianise the main square, for safe, comfortable and confident movement at night and day.

Create a series of public realm spaces that are designed to support activity during day and night.

Ashton-under-lyne Masterplan (individual)

Distinction: 75

All areas merge into neighbouring character area through use, materials, scale and typologies.

Long section of New Brewery Lane through to Wellington Road.

Now a pedestrianised town centre, prioritisng connections to and from key pieces of transport infrastructure to the town centre.

The focus of the Ashton town centre masterplan was to regenerate a dying high street, while ensur ing walkability and integration to edge character areas. The new design retained and enhanced key heritage assets through aligning different public spaces and reintroducing pedestrianised/shared space historic shared space routes that ran through the town.

Strong desire lines are created through Katherine Street and along Wellington Road.

Birds eye view of the event square

Central event space with ampitheatre next to Ashton indoor market

Key views, heritage, scale and material integration in Ashton town centre.

Character area insight

History was enhanced and integrated into the design through connecting key listed buildings (Ashton Library and the Hippodrome) to spaces and new structures through key views and facade material. Working in tandem, these features enhanced local character and identity.

Connections to key spaces from surrounding buildings have also been integrated into the design. Entrances lead out into the park offering excellent accessibility for users.

In the Northern Corridor character area, a selection of podium garden provide innovative parking solutions. The area has excellent pedestrian connectivity to Ashton train station and the town centre via private entrances.

The character area also contains a distinctive shared space road, ensuring pedestrian activity is prioritised within the town centre. Changes in road/paving material provide clear movement corri dors, while signage is prevalent to ensure safety is not compromised.

Within the Green Quarter area of Ashton, all homes have private green space (garden, balcony, or rooftop) as exempfilied by the section. The Linear Park draws people to the heritage assets found within the town centre, and provides ample opportunities for rest and play.

Wellington Road has clear movement corridors, as well as maintaining its pedestrianisation, withparking available within interior block (housing) courtyards.

The red brick materials of the properties tie into the industrial history of the Greater Manchester area.

Sketchup/photoshop model of Historic Residential quarter

Katherine Park pedestrian connectivity and accessibility

Sketchup/photoshop model of the Northern Corridor

A B C D

Section of properties along Wellington Rd.

Shared space route on Penny Meadow

Linear Park towards the south of the site

Bromley Street (6 Hectares), North Manchester

Distinction: 75

The first design project I undertook was redesigning a small area of post-industrial land in North Manchester. The key aims of this project was to create a mixed-use development that was contextually reponsive to the socio-economic (young city working first-time buyers) conditions in the edges of the city.

Varied mix of residential and commercial opportunities for residents and visitors alike.

Underground/podium servicing and parking ensure good walk ability throughout the site, while using topography towards the north of the site to elevate key views of the ever-changing Manchester skyline.

Section of Linear Park running alongside Rochdale Rd.

Tree lines within the interior block allows for light, but also providing a good sense of enclosure for residents (North/West uses) and office workers (Rochdale Road side uses).

(left) - View of Rochdale Road (key arterial route), and the integration of crossing infrastructure/cycle lanes and bus stops.

(RIght) - Sustainable Urban Drainage Solutions - Rain Gardens lining the back of apartmetns separated by wooden bridges leading to service lay-bys. Apartments are backed onto a road/railway.

Overcoming illegibiliy along Bromley Street

Use and form

Uses within the Bromley Street development intend to appeal to young first time buyers.

Residential flats tie in with neighbouring uses in North Manchester, while a strong com mercial presence ensures a consistent usage of the site. The groundfloor retail uses provide workers and residents with accessible retail and leisure consumer opportunities.

Active frontage guides users along the arterial route of Rochdale Road, via the developments new linear park.

Heights of the building increase towards the North West in line with topography, thereby providing key views of the adjacent valley.

1 - Raised corners upon entry to South-Eastern gateway for legibility purposes, and identity.

2 - Landmark curved corner active frontage offers equal opportunity along key junction and movement corridor.

3 - Corner articulation on South-Western gateway to create sense of arrival.

4 - Active frontage on Northern gateway visibile from all points of entry. Angled blocks and setbacks guides pedestrians into active space.

5 - Dual aspect apartments - with ‘backs’ overlooking the railway.

Using topography and height

Long section through Bromley Street Boulevard illustrate the changing building heights in line with topography. As the ground level increases so does the height of the apartments. The tiered effect adds intrigue to the develop ment and uses topography to enhance key views.

Red Brick Typologies

The majority of the buildings within this de velopment took inspiration from Manchester’s industrial history, containing red bricks.

Gentle increase of buildings heights provide identity and character to the area.

Towards the north of the Boulevard, height is used in line with topography to provide key views of the city and the Irk Valley.

In the case of this building below, bricks were used to represent materials found in a historic quarry less than 100m away.

Moreover, the arched entrance draws upon the railway (and it’s associating arches) that backs on to the building

Red Brick building on Bromley Street