Portico

Cheshire West and Chester Council and Chester Renaissance have appointed two specialist consultants to prepare and develop design proposals for the Portico project investment for the City Walls Towers.

Architects Donald Insall Associates have been appointed to work on the Portico brief for an ultra lightweight construction pilot. They will also be working with Gifford Consulting Engineers who they have sub-contracted for their expertise on this exciting project.

A proportion of the budget will go towards a feasibility study to investigate the potential use of innovative construction techniques and ultra light building methodologies. A critical element of this study involves research to better understand the condition of the towers, their construction, historical usage and development.

The Investment will bring about repairs, restoration and refurbishment of the City Walls Towers involving the appropriate use of ultra light weight building techniques and materials which in turn will be promoted and replicated across Europe as exemplars of archaeological good practice.

Interpretive Design Consultants Imagemakers have been appointed to provide an interpretation plan that will specify how to create new interpretation for the city walls and towers, which will also include testing out a virtual Towers through Time idea. The interpretation plan will take into account other investments being funded as part of the European Portico project. 

Imagemakers have come to know Chester well through their development of Chester’s Heritage Interpretation Masterplan and are currently involved in the interpretation of other sites in Chester, including the Amphitheatre.

Chester's City Walls and Towers are amongst the City's greatest assets, visited by over 3 million people annually. The Portico European partners are studying the impacts of investing in cultural heritage and sharing their findings. Chester has built a strong reputation through a number of past European partnerships; Portico is another opportunity to work with experts across Europe to improve and protect our attractions for residents and visitors.

Portico gives an excellent opportunity to improve the City Walls and Towers. Donald Insall Associates and Imagemakers will be working closely together and holding a number of consultation workshops over the coming weeks with various stakeholders and representative groups.

This is also your opportunity to let them know your opinion on how the Walls and Towers could be improved. Please send your answers for the following questions to: chesterrenaissance@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

• How would you like to see access to our City Walls improved?
• How could we use or improve the City Walls Towers?
• What facilities would you like to see on or near the City Walls?
• How would you like to see the story of the City Walls and Towers told?

Portico is a cooperative project of the cities of Chester (United Kingdom), Gent (Belgium), Köln (Germany), Utrecht (the Netherlands) and the Initiatief Domplein foundation in Utrecht. The project's goal is to make the archaeological heritage of the partner cities more visible by developing new methods, techniques and ways of thinking about urban development - above and below ground. The project runs until mid 2012.