Prince's Foundation wins government award for village design

16 March 2009 – Press Release

Ellon - High Street sketch

A plan for the sensitive growth of a Scottish village by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Enviornment and partners, has won a prestigious “Scottish Award for Quality in Planning”. The award was made at a ceremony on 12 March at which Stuart Stevenson MSP and Scotland’s Chief Planner Jim McKinnon were both present.

The award - for Outstanding Performance and Quality in Community Involvement - was made for the urban design of Ellon and its surrounding area in Aberdeenshire by The Prince’s Foundation and partners Urban Design Associates, Scotia Homes, Aberdeenshire Council and crucially, the local community.

Commenting afterwards, Chief Executive Hank Dittmar said: “We and our partners are thrilled to see the Scottish government so positively affirming community involvement in neighbourhood design. The judges commented that Ellon was not a ‘once-off’ but could be adapted for any village. It is only by listening to local wisdom – the stories, traditions and culture of a place - that new development can have a hope of enriching what is already there and flourishing into the future.”

To create the design for Ellon, The Prince’s Foundation team began with intensive local consultation to establish what mattered to local people about the future of the village. The consensus was that people should be able to live, work and spend leisure time locally and that the historic core of the town should have better access and preform better as a centre. Through sketching and watercolours and ultimately a scale model, the local community were helped to visualise how changes would affect the town. Finally, a pattern book which carefully detailed the kind of streets, buildings and public spaces that could be built was presented.

Hank Dittmar continues: “The Prince’s Foundation looks forward to working with the team at Ellon to deliver our first exemplar project in Scotland.”

Watch a video about the Enquiry by Design process that led to the award-winning masterplan for Ellon [2 mins]:

Thanks to The Scottish Government for permission to post the video exerpt.