A New Year's Revolution for Hounslow residents

Posted on January 3, 2012

White Design is pleased to be working alongside Sustrans in delivering the first concept designs for Chinchilla Drive, and looks forward to taking the design through to the next stage.

Working with Places for People, Hounslow Borough Council and the residents of Hounslow, White Design has created a plan for the re-design of their neighbourhood streets, under the Sustrans DIY Streets initiative.

Our initial design incorporates coloured road markings, taking inspiration from mosaics made by the residents, to emphasise the unique character of the area, and establish Chinchilla Drive as a residential community street space.

The plan also extends the existing nature play features - boulders, wildflowers and logs along Chinchilla Drive and highlights entrance 'gateways' into the neighbourhood through the use of structures such as carved wooden totem poles, which could be designed by the community. Cycle racks, planters and benches help make this a more user friendly, shared space.

DIY Streets is a Sustrans project that brings communities together to help them redesign their streets, putting people at their heart and making them safer and more attractive places to live. It is an affordable, community-led approach to creating affordable home zone type areas. White Design, with Sustrans, worked with the community of Hounslow to develop low- cost capital works to make their streets safer and more attractive, aiming to find simple interventions and materials which can be both effective and durable.

The desired outcomes of the DIY Streets initiative are:

• Safer streets through reducing traffic speeds and returning priority to pedestrians and cyclists.
• Enabling all residents and stakeholders, irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, disability, age or sexual orientation, to participate fully in the process of reclaiming their streets.
• More attractive streets through landscaping, planting or street furniture leading to a greater sense of community as residential streets are turned into valued social spaces.
• Increased community capacity as people work together to change their streets and increased skills as they are trained and supported to run consultation and design processes.
• Increased opportunities for physical activity by encouraging active travel modes and creating space for safe play by children.
• Local, regional and national policy-makers and practitioners informed about the impacts of the pilots.
• Local communities more aware of sustainable travel options and sustainable living in general and aware of what they can do to make their streets safer and more attractive for walking and cycling.