URF Resources

Folkestone Urban Analysis

Folkestone Urban Analysis: an ‘Urban Analysis’ is often carried out before undertaking a master plan for larger developments. It analyses the urban environment through the perspective of geography and history — any ‘place’ is composed of geography and history (its material shape and the stories told about it). Folkestone Triennial commissioned Diane Dever and John Letherland to compile an Urban Analysis of Folkestone, initially to help artists research their commissions for the Triennial, but also as a ‘foundation document’ for Urban Room Folkestone.

 

An Urban Analysis can never be complete, because the environment keeps changing its shape along with the stories that are told about it. Urban Room Folkestone invited Steven Smith of Urban Narratives to hold five walking workshops, summarised in the downloadable documents below, between March and June 2017. The walks were planned to engage local residents and visitors in an exploration of the urban form of Folkestone by following a series of paths following the historic patterns of movement from edge to centre that have shaped the town. Each walk started towards the edge of the town, following meandering paths through streets, side paths, steps and parks before eventually arriving at the Urban Room. Each walk produced a small folio of imaginative drawings and diagrams, which provided the agenda for lively and passionate discussions between the participants.