Sulby Riverside
We are pleased to report that the Sulby Riverside Planning application on the Isle of Man has been submitted. The £40m scheme will provide a ‘major boost’ to Ramsey town centre and will include 205 new homes, retail units, business workspace, three public parks, and a riverside gastro-pub with function rooms.
In 2019, at the ICAADE (Internal Conference on Amphibious Architecture, Design, and Engineering) in Warsaw, Richard Coutts, Director of Baca Architects, presented “Blue Drempel – a thesis on urban flood-resilient design,” which built on the earlier philosophies developed with funding from Defra for Baca’s LifE Project. The masterplan at Sulby Riverside demonstrates proof of concept of this approach and was developed in partnership with hydrologists and flood modellers JBA and HR Wallingfords.
“Blue Drempel” or Blue Thresholds is a non-defensive planning strategy that locates architectural housing types according to flood risk: floating within the river; amphibious; elevated; resilient (dry proof and wet proof) to traditional to correspond with diminishing flood risk. It connects these with the least amount of road and servicing infrastructure to allow as much space for natural landscaping. This landscaping is multi-functional, accommodating places for play and sustainable urban drainage designed to anticipate flooding. It keeps water away from housing for as long as possible during a flood event. In the event of the landscaping being breached during an extreme flood event, the resilient and adaptable measures of each architectural housing type help keep occupants dry and safe.
Detailed modelling was carried out to demonstrate that the scheme poses no risks to the river’s flow, either upstream or downstream.
“At its heart, Sulby Riverside is about place-making,” says Richard Coutts. “These proposals are about opening a site that has been unavailable to the public for many years and organizing a new residential community around open spaces, public footpaths and trails, and the riverside walk. It’s a progressive approach to flood mitigation that can unlock strategic sites.”
Key features of the proposals include:
- A new riverside walk
- Three new parks and play areas
- A new spine road linking Poyll Dooey Road with Gardener’s Lane
- Ample car parking, with extensive provision of electric charging points
- Low-energy design features throughout all homes
- Significant job-creating investment, including a new riverside gastro pub
- A new parade of shops
- A cluster of kiosks next to a new riverside nature trail, for seasonal use
As published on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-61711140
#architecture #planning #climatechange #resilience #urbandesign #flood #amphibious
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