ZST Architects: Bright Future
ZST Architects launch the #BrightFuture campaign
Who are ZST Architects? We are a local award winning Architectural and Interior Design practice who are all very passionate about our city’s continual regeneration. We believe in the power of high quality sustainable design to enrich our shared experiences of public spaces. We also recognise the importance of all interventions being able to be sustained by the communities who use them, requiring design to engage with local people and inspire change.
#Bright50 was founded back in April 2016 after we started to identify sites around the city that needed regeneration and noticing an opportunity to offer residence and visitors a platform to share their ideas for change. As supporters of the Brighton Festival we wanted to celebrate its 50th anniversary and invite people to submit ideas via social media on how we can work to make Brighton better using the Bright50 hashtag. The top 50 were then displayed at our end of summer party for our guests to see and comment. We launched the campaign with the aim to continually working with our contacts to try and make these great ideas a reality.
As we move away from 2016 and the festival’s 50th anniversary we are launching #Brightfuture to enable us to continue the conversation into the Future of our city. We fully support the Tourism Strategy which hopes to see the city being a destination where the needs of the visitor, the tourism industry, the community and the environment are in complete synchronicity and consequently will make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life for the local people.
What changes would you like to see?
Our Practice has been established for over three years and we quickly found ourselves deeply involved in the regeneration of the city. We have been active in suggesting the regeneration of sites including Edward Street, The Gasometer & Victoria Gardens, and these have all been identified for potential redevelopment within the council’s Local Plan. Combining our knowledge and expertise with ideas from visitors and residents about how they want to improve in the city, ZST architects are actively engaged in the conversation about Brighton & Hove’s future.
As an example of what has come out of the campaign over the last 6 months we have identified many empty properties and rundown buildings that have the potential to be regenerated and boost the local economy, working on some ourselves and putting developers in touch with others. Locals have highlighted the need for better bins to promote recycling to our visitors and residents to help keep our city and parks clean.
We also have been supporting a need for the Brighton & Hove ‘Rooftop Revolution’. Pushing for these roof tops to be used to support solar and wind energy plants and for the multiple benefits of living roofs to be seen as the preferred alternative to a stark concrete top. Some of our original Bright50 images were from the top of Sussex Heights where we realised the poor utilisation of the citiy’s roofscape and its lack of aesthetic appeal, suggesting solar panels, living roofs and rooftop gardens.
What changes would you like to see? Pictured above, for example, is a CGI of a new rooftop restaurant for Tower Point. View our ideas on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram searching for #Bright50 and put your new ideas forward using the new hash tag #BrightFuture @ZSTaUK.
