our thinking
It is obvious to us that true regeneration must address the issues of people, climate change and the special nature of the place itself. So often in the UK, whilst some progress has been made in the last 20 years in urban living and activity levels, much development is just not good enough. It will not be sustainable and some will be the slums of the future. The UK must learn from the best of other UK and European attempts at regeneration and long term change. We will be guided by failures of the past and inspired by the most successful.
We also believe we must move on from a reliance on so called landmark buildings that are inappropriate to the special nature of the site (that in their own way are creating conformity without self irony). We work hard to achieve design diversity that also respects the unique character of the place we are creating.
We are passionate that waterway regeneration is not about crowding the historic navigation system with chain shops, chain cafes and restaurants with the residents behind their security gates and cars safely parked behind metallic grills abutting the towpaths.
Our philosophy is captured in our Sustainability Charter, the objective of which is to unlock the unique potential of waterside regeneration sites, adding to the quality of life of their users, visitors and neighbours whilst ensuring that the natural systems, resources and diversity upon which they depend are enhanced for both current and future generations. Putting our sustainability approach into practice, a Project Sustainability Plan (PSP) is developed for all ISIS projects. It is reviewed periodically as an iterative project management tool for the design development process, and out of it is produced a Project Sustainability Action Plan, which provides direction and focus to the team.
