Cumberland Street, Portsmouth

Community engagement using “Planning for Realâ€ convinced Portsmouth City Council that the street layouts of some housing estates were damaging to other social uses of the public realm. They appointed Terra Firma to undertake a wide range of environmental improvements in North Portsea, of which Cumberland Streetwas the first of three projects.

Cumberland Street has benefited from being redesigned as a retrofit Homezone, with traffic calming and realigned parking. As part of a programme of environmental improvements, Terra Firma's design included thinning the trees in the central courtyard to let more light through to high rise properties, and creating a new gathering space alongside a play area, a teen shelter and ball court. The scheme won the 2004 Local Government Street Design Award for Homezones.  The scheme went on to be nominated for ‘Best Street' in the ‘You can do it!' award scheme run by the daily Portsmouth paper ‘The News', and was featured in many articles in the landscape and architectural press over the following years.