Context

“Well-designed new development is integrated into its wider surroundings, physically, socially and visually.”
– The National Design Guide

VISION

Design in Kent’s built environment will celebrate and respect our past, and help define and enrich our future. Good design will be recognisably ‘right’ for its surroundings, enhancing what’s already good about a place, and improving things where required and appropriate.

Our county’s long, colourful history will inform designs to create new and varied places that sit easily with their local communities, landscape and heritage. Designs will also anticipate the future and adapt easily to emerging challenges presented by a changing climate, evolving work styles or new transport priorities.

KEEP IT SPECIFIC

Your design should fit with its particular Kent context. There is no one-size-fits all approach: your design process should identify, then respond to, a place’s specific character, features and attributes. A site in a historic town like Faversham is entirely different from a project in the Kent Downs AONB. As well as drawing inspiration from the existing built environment, you should reference and remember the lives and land-use of the area’s former occupiers, from Roman remains in Lullingstone and military and shipbuilding activities in Margate and Dover to industry and quarrying in Ebbsfleet and coal-mining in Betteshanger.

TAKE CUES FROM THE SURROUNDINGS

We want to see designs that understand and fit with the site’s features and surrounding context. Kent is the Garden of England, and its distinctive landscape, wildlife and history can all provide context. Using local materials, such as timber and stone within the High Weald AONB, or Kentish Ragstone from Maidstone and Malling, contributes to good design and supports the local economy.

ADD CULTURAL VALUE

Heritage adds value to places. Experience of regeneration in Kent’s coastal towns, notably Ramsgate, and elsewhere shows that early inward investors are attracted to authentic places with a rich built environment. Consider retaining and repurposing post-industrial sites to provide workspace for the creative industries; this can drive economic growth and boost your development’s reputation.

RETAIN WHAT WORKS

You should undertake meaningful consultation with existing residents and communities to understand how the existing place works, and ensure your new design meets the area’s specific needs. The essence of what a place is now and has been in the past should not be compromised by new development. When extending existing settlements into open countryside, you should consider the location’s agricultural history and consider how people interact and identify with the local wildlife and landscape. Use existing landscape features such as ditches, trees and field boundaries to shape the layout wherever possible.

TAKE KENT FORWARD

Good design takes what’s best about a place and moves it into the future, so be innovative in how you reflect context. In particular, you should demonstrate your understanding of the local economy, lifestyles and work patterns, and changes in how people access services. Kent is seeing rapid growth in remote and virtual working, car-sharing and mobility hubs and reduced individual car dependence in response to climate change and moves to reduce carbon emissions. Your design needs to enable and encourage these behavioural and cultural shifts.

CREATE REAL BENEFITS FOR PEOPLE

Use context positively. Your design should be more than just attractive, inviting and sympathetic: it should deliver real social, economic and well-being benefits for local residents. These could include providing much-needed local infrastructure, diversifying the types of homes on offer, or encouraging wildlife. You could also address specific environmental risks such as fluvial and surface-water flooding. By identifying an area’s specific needs and responding to them appropriately, your design will improve the lives of the people who live there and help Kent meet its challenges in the future.

Please avoid:
Looking only at local buildings and ignoring the non-built environment: we want to see you’ve taken a holistic view
Seeing context as a constraint rather than an opportunity
Shying away from being part of the bigger contextual picture, especially in terms of community

Further Guidance and Best Practice:

Historic England – Heritage and the Economy 2019 – Heritage Counts

Historic England – Carbon in the built historic environment – There’s no place like old homes

Sustainability Checklist:

This characteristic is particularly important for Natural Capital, Climate Resilience, and Biodiversity.

VISION

KEEP IT SPECIFIC

TAKE CUES FROM THE SURROUNDINGS

ADD CULTURAL VALUE

RETAIN WHAT WORKS

TAKE KENT FORWARD

CREATE REAL BENEFITS FOR PEOPLE

Further Guidance and Best Practice:

Sustainability Checklist:

Characteristic Links:

Context

Public Spaces

Identity

Community Uses

Built Form

Homes & Buildings

Movement & Connectivity

Resources

Nature

Lifespan