Arc was commissioned to prepare a Place Plan for Ryde, providing actions for regeneration across its priority retail & seafront areas & setting the whole within a context that characterises the town. The methodology is a literature review covering the last 15 years, extracting consistent, coherent themes, topics & public opinions that can be applied to place-based regeneration in Ryde.
Ryde's motto AMOENITAS SALUBRITAS URBANITAS dates from 1868. It can certainly be read as meaning, ‘A Healthy, Beautiful Place’, but its phrasing, deliberately ambiguous, allows for another interpretation, ‘A Community That Celebrates A Healthy & Beautiful Way of Living’. This subtle shift between place & person, between the quality & resilience of the town’s architecture & public realm, & the wellbeing of those who inhabit it, seems as pertinent now as it must have done then, at another time of great turmoil. It was an acclamation that demanded inspiring vision, effective partnership & practical action for change.
