The town centre side of Backwater Channel in Poole, Dorset is changing. A masterplan is in place for the future expansion of the Port and the various development sites along West Street and West Quay Road are starting to be planned and delivered. In time these sites will provide thousands of new homes, leisure opportunities and new jobs for local people. The aspiration is that this area will be a pleasant and inviting place that people want to use.

— Lot 1: Gateway Artist — Production of 2 major artworks,

— Lot 2: Wayfinding Artist — Production of bespoke street furniture and signage.

The Borough of Poole (BoP), wishes to engage an experienced artist / studio to produce 2 major, ‘gateway’ artworks, to create a sense of arrival and departure at the South-Eat and North-West points of the Townside Access site in Poole.

An experienced artist / creative collaboration is sought, to produce two major, imaginative and site-specific artworks for the public realm, within a contemporary and traditional architectural setting, appealing equally to pedestrians, cyclists and vehicle users.

The works produced will create a sense of arrival and departure at the southern and northern tips of the Townside Access site and will need to be sensitively lit during the hours of darkness. The work will celebrate the priority themes of the town’s heritage, as identified by Poole’s community (see ‘Community involvement’ section below). Ideally, the interventions will be as integrated as possible into the surrounding hard and soft landscaping, whilst still enjoying a high level of visibility for a wide audience.

It is anticipated that this commission will contribute to the aesthetic ‘narrative’ of the site, and sit comfortably with the outputs of a parallel artist’s commission (the subject of a separate brief), to enhance pedestrian way-finding and design street furniture across the Townside Access site.

BoP seeks an experienced artist / studio or creative collaboration for this dual commission, leading to the creation of imaginative, site-specific interventions. The first part of this brief has a strong socially-engaged component and focuses on enhanced way-finding around the Townside Access site in Poole. The second part of this commission seeks to secure designs for street furniture across the site, which also contains a community involvement element.

The town centre side of Backwater Channel in Poole, Dorset is changing. A masterplan is in place for the future expansion of the Port and the various development sites along West Street and West Quay Road are starting to be planned and delivered. In time these sites will provide thousands of new homes, leisure opportunities and new jobs for local people. The aspiration is that this area will be a pleasant and inviting place that people want to use.

The road network for this area was approved in 2015 and the Borough of Poole team of engineers has already made some changes focused on pedestrian and cyclist improvements on West Street and West Quay Road; including new, safer pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes. Now, to support the strategic nature of the area further, we will be improving access to the port and town centre to help ‘unlock’ the development sites for regeneration. To enable this to happen BoP successfully secured 11 700 000 GBP from Dorset local enterprise partnership, through the Dorset growth deal, to help provide this. The funding also provides a unique opportunity to create attractive public spaces to enhance the quality of life for local people.

The Townside Access scheme is intended to promote smooth movement and access throughout the site, whether travelling by foot, bike or motorised vehicle. It is important for enhanced pedestrian access from the town centre to the ‘Back Water’ of Poole. This will be especially important as the key residential and leisure developments — which sit either side and to the east of the Twin Sails lifting bridge — begin to take shape in coming years.