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Dover

In 2006 51% stu­dios received a spe­cial com­men­da­tion for this entry to the Kent County Coun­cil urban com­pe­ti­tion imag­in­ing a new future for the city of Dover.

Many roads to cross but I can’t seem to find my way over / Wan­der­ing I am lost as I travel along the white cliffs of Dover [from ‘Too many rivers to cross’, the Harder they Come, with apolo­gies to Jimmy Cliff]

Por­tus Dubris is a town denied its sea frontage, its beach and cliffs and ports — a town thrilling to arrive at by sea, car or truck, but mis­er­able to be in on foot. Yet Dover is also uniquely sit­u­ated to once again blos­som into a first class town — it has his­tory, char­ac­ter, iden­tity and nat­ural endow­ment in spoonfuls.

This ‘mas­ter dia­gram’ seeks to recon­nect the town and its sea frontage by bring­ing the coun­try­side into the heart of the town and sup­press­ing the relent­less traf­fic thun­der­ing along the A20 by bury­ing it between Snar­gate Street and Marine Parade. The space above the road will be a new car free land­scaped pub­lic space.

Along with the pro­posed quay­side quar­ters this rep­re­sents an oppor­tu­nity to cre­ate a sus­tain­able city to rival any­where in the world, so that over time our per­cep­tion of Dover will be first of green and then of white.

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