Liverpool Green Lanes - Ryder Architecture

Ryder recently presented Liverpool Green Lanes at the Healthy City Design International Congress 2023 at the Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool. The two day event provided the opportunity to share and discuss the innovative project with a global audience.

The collaborative journey with Urban Place Network led to the development of the Green Lanes provocation project, a visionary initiative aimed at transforming Liverpool into a more vibrant and sustainable city. The ambition for Liverpool Green Lanes is to catalyse large scale greening and promote healthier living, active mobility, place activation, community engagement, and other future interventions to deliver liveable city principles at scale.

During the conference, the Green Lanes proposition was showcased as a large scale masterplan installation. Delegates contributed their thoughts and ideas on post it notes, sparking a valuable exchange of ideas and perspectives. Alongside the installation, conference delegates were taken on a walking tour of the Green Lane route, connecting Paddington Village to the Maritime Museum on the waterfront. This was followed by a presentation on the Green Lanes proposition and a panel discussion exploring how the Green Lanes idea can evolve through wider collaboration and debate on the potential broader impact of the concept for Liverpool and other global cities.

The panel consisted of:
Paul Bell, Ryder Architecture; Cathy Russell, Ryder Architecture; James Rayner, Urban Place Network; Jeremy Salmon, Urban Place Network; Councillor Jane Corbett; Phil Marsh, University of Liverpool; Kevin Riley, WSP; Dr Nathalie Roebbel, World Health Organisation; Graham Marshall, Prosocial Place and Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health.

Ryder was delighted to receive the award for the most innovative idea during the conference close.

Watch the presentation here.

The Liverpool Green Lanes session stimulated discussion on the broader city integration of Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter and illustrated how healthy city principles can be developed and applied in major urban regeneration projects, providing a benchmark for similar projects. The panel discussion gave the team plenty of food for thought as they plan the next steps for the project which will be centred around:

Capturing community wisdom through a participatory approach
Partner engagement
This is a ‘Big Concept’, broader than solely an urban greening proposal
The importance of health and wellbeing data and assessment at the start
Embedding a mobility strategy
Authenticity, sense of place and identity
An economic strategy to underpin the project
International platform for best practice

Following the conference, we are keen to continue the discussion and involve a wider audience. Please provide feedback here or get in touch with us if you’d like to learn more.