A one-day charrette, an intensive, multi-disciplinary brainstorming workshop where visionary ideas are encouraged, took place on 25 May 2004 at Barnard’s Farm, West Horndon and was attended by leading international practitioners.

This charrette aimed to propose innovative environmental and social ideas for alternative, experimental and visionary activities in the greenbelt.

Introduction
60% of Thurrock is greenbelt, with many historic villages. The future of this area is one of the major issues that Thurrock faces as it develops. The pressure on land for development and the need to ensure good quality open space compete in the greenbelt. Thurrock contains some areas of ecological value, some with varying levels of managed public access, some that are virtually inaccessible along with areas in need of environmental regeneration.

Background research for the Thurrock Community Strategy found that ‘green spaces’ and ‘peace and quiet’ featured highly as the things that residents most value about Thurrock, but few residents of the urban areas participate in or use the greenbelt. Overall, Thurrock’s greenbelt suffers from a poor public perception of its quality and value. Despite the under-use of the greenbelt its psychological significance is great –popular opinion against ‘building on the greenbelt’ is high.

The value of social inclusion through food production and small scale agricultural activity has recently been signposted by Government policy as a highly desirable way of engaging local people with their local environment, (A Greenspace Strategy for Thames Gateway, 2004): “Allotments, community gardens, urban farms, school orchards, commercial smallholdings and market gardens can all contribute to the greenspace network and offer ways for local people to have more direct contact with a supply of healthy food.”

More information on Thurrock’s greenbelt

The Brief
The brief was to examine access and use of the greenbelt, and propose innovative environmental and cultural ideas for new uses. The participants were asked to consider what new types of activities could enhance Thurrock’s existing green landscape and access to it. What activities/initiatives could encourage local residents to use the greenbelt more actively?

Participants were asked to devise a visionary brief responding to the following prompts:

• What are these new visionary social and environmental propositions?
• What do they look like?
• What is the process required to achieve them?

To see the outcomes from this charrette, click here.

To see the overriding principles that emerged from all three charrettes, click here.