PURCELL
in collaboration with ARUP, Tonkin Liu, Bare Leaning & Bare (Synergy LLP) and Fletcher Teckman Consulting Ltd.
Canterbury Cathedral is the embodiment of vibrant and evolving communities, pilgrims, clergy, artisans, scholars, tourists, and citizens of Canterbury. The landscape of the Cathedral Precinct should reflect this spirit. We propose a long-term strategy for the landscape that reaches out to the outer communities, mirroring the Cathedral's plan - where aisles and chapels encourage and capture the flow of people.
There are three main design components: the Pilgrims' Steps, the Cathedral Meadow and the Garden Ambulatory. The Pilgrims' Steps are a set of crafted stone strips that form a direct route to the Cathedral door, inscribed with spiritual and secular stories. The Cathedral Meadow evokes a collective, timeless English landscape. The Garden Ambulatory creates a sequence of individual, intimate gardens, lined by an arboretum of flowering Kent trees. These gardens and paths will encourage activities in all of the communities connected to the Cathedral, for a multitude of reasons and from a multitude of directions, expressing the diversity of the Cathedral's public and cultural life.
