PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Project: Hodgkin Park, Newcastle. www.artinarchitecture.co.uk/

Client: Newcastle City Council.

Date of Project: November 2005 – May 2006

Budget:£11000 fee.

Project description: Hodgkin Park is situated in the west end of the City of Newcastle. It is a Victorian park, which has been allowed to fall into total disrepair to the extent that the local residents to the park feel it has become unsafe and therefore unusable as a park.

In the recent past there have been several proposals put forward both from within the City of Newcastle departments of Regeneration and Parks and Leisure and outside consultants, these have all had considerable community consultation, none of the outcomes have been implemented thus the community now have the idea that nothing is going to happen.

AiA Art in Architecture were approached by Matthew Lennon, Public Arts Officer within the West-End Regeneration team to take another look at the possibilities for the park. There was to be no actual brief and nothing was to be seen as impossible.

AiA undertook extensive site analysis both historical and physical from the beginning and through a series of community consultations, with local interest groups and primary children were able to define a brief for themselves to work to. Design workshops were held on site at a local shopping parade where the brief was expanded and people were given the opportunity of translating there ideas into model form and possible drawings.

It was apparent from the workshops and consultations that something radical had to be proposed and that just fixing problems around the edges was not going to be enough to satisfy the expectations of the local community.

In its past the park had served as an events space for both physical exercise, tennis, bowls, football etc to more cerebral and quieter pursuits of just strolling and sitting listening to the band playing at the bandstand.

How and what could a 21st century “events park” be?

The starting premise is that “nothing is impossible and that everything is possible”.

The proposals put the park as a central theme in the regeneration of the whole of the West-End of the City of Newcastle. Gateshead to the south of the park and across the river Tyne is now famous for many cultural interventions and Newcastle seems to have missed out on “iconic” status. The proposal addresses this issue at the urban level by introducing a communications tower with public cable car establishing a new link across the river Tyne to the Metro Centre something, which was high on the wish agenda of the Hodgkin Park local residents.

The park is subdivided into two parks by a major roadway; although in the future it will be down graded it will still be a major public transport route. The need to connect the two parts is vital and a bridge is proposed.

The division of the park allows different uses to be grouped together which have similar needs and which deliver specific functions to specific groups, it allows the separation of uses which might not sit comfortably well together.

The northern park, which sits on the high side of the hill, has more affinity to the youthful users of the park. An education centre at the northern entrance introduces visitors to the park and the first allotment gardens where children can learn of the benefits of growing their own produce. Coming down the hill the visitor begins to encounter various play areas with a skateboard play area carved into the new spiraling mound. Underneath the mound there are various commercial units, which could be a café and a crèche, and units that the local community could inhabit.

Coming across the road the visitor has a more path-orientated park where walking and relaxing are to be done, a café is situated beside the bulb fields. A major inclusion here is the open theatre set into the natural landscape. It will be equipped to be a state of the art outdoor performance space.

A major part of the lower park is given over to a forest of real trees and sculptural trees with opportunities within it for art projects to act as picnic areas, a diagonal pathway will become a market space at certain times of the year. From the top of the park this forest will look like a green tabletop.

To the east the city edge is defined by a inhabited wall, this will house several functions including art studios or similar, and act as a billboard to advertise the park with, an elevated walkway to the tower and cable-car, which will cross the Tyne, at the most southeastern corner of the park. Adjacent to the tower there is the opportunity for revenue fund raising with a possible hotel/apartment block. The western edge, which is defined by a dell with stream running through it, will become a winter garden with glazed roof.

The project has been presented to the City and the local population, it has been well received, and avenues of funding for the continuation of the project are actively being pursued by AiA and the city together.

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