Plymouth Masterplan

Planning policy and strategy

AZ Urban Studio, in collaboration with MBM Arquitectes, completed a masterplan for Plymouth city centre commissioned by Plymouth 2020 Partnership and Plymouth City Council. The brief was to produce a spatial framework to guide the future development of key opportunity areas.

The masterplan strategy was based upon an intensification and diversification of the post-war city centre precinct, and the recovery of the historic relationship between the city and its coastal inlets. Adopted as Interim Planning Guidance, the masterplan represented a fundamental change in direction for the city, and subsequently formed a robust spatial basis for the council’s award-winning Local Development Framework.

AZ was retained by the city council to monitor the quality of development proposals through the operation of a design review panel, a reflection of the surge in demand from developers for opportunities arising from the publication of the masterplan.

A Vision for Plymouth a book documenting the plan and process was published by the University of Plymouth Press in 2004.