Submitted by M.L. R. Grove on Tue, 24/11/2015 - 12:47
CDRS members Will Anderson, George Mitzalis and David Jones presented their alternative masterplan for the Phoenix Estate in Lewes, E Sussex, to the South Downs National Park Design Review Panel earlier this week.
Will, George and David are Lewes Phoenix Rising's design team, LPR is a community development company set up to ensure that the imminent redevelopment of the North Street/Phoenix area of Lewes by developers Santon and Lewes District Council meets the real needs of the town.
Their presentation to the SDNPA’s design review panel (which included Cambridge alumni Graham Morrison) was the culmination of a year’s design-led activism. This practice involved an arsenal of tactics: a 5 day travelling Localism Roadshow, an alternative masterplan available for download, a public debate chaired by David Dimbleby, fundraising parties, submission of representations to the Local Plan, a listing and community right to bid application and a final exhibition of the LPR strategy in October 2015. The story of the Phoenix Estate, LPR’s vision and design alternatives was published last weekend in the Independent on Sunday: