news archive

December 2005

Season’s greetings, it’s Dorchester in China!

Halcrow planner Steve Pharoah has inspired officials in China to develop a recreation of Dorchester after sending Christmas cards featuring Dorset’s county to town to Chinese friends and clients.

They were so impressed with what they saw that they asked Halcrow to design a concept for a new Chinese town, based on the architecture and layout of Dorchester’s famous high street.

Steve Pharoah, who lives in Dorchester with his wife and children, has worked for Halcrow in China for five years and has been involved in a range of regeneration and expansion projects including a new park to help boost the world's dwindling giant panda population.

He said he was very excited about being involved in the market town scheme, which features streets named after Dorset towns and villages.

"It all started by me sending my Chinese friends in Chengdu a Christmas card last year from Dorchester - the classic image looking down High East Street. This inspired the imagination of the client and we have just completed the concept.

"The Chinese love the English way of life, and now that China is more open and the Chinese are more travelled and educated in other cultures and becoming more affluent, they aspire to recreate the beauty of settlements like Dorchester.

"I have even got involved in naming streets - there is a Dorchester High Street, a Poole Promenade, a Bournemouth Boulevard. All named after Dorset towns and villages."

Mr Pharoah added: "The real design challenge though is adapting these concepts of 'Englishness' to a very different scale of development - rather than two and three storeys it is typically six to 20 storeys.

"This is a very special project for me as it means that a small part of this vast country will forever be Dorset."

further images of the project are available in our downloads section here


for further information please contact:

Garry Whitaker, communications manager
Halcrow Group Ltd
Burderop Park
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN4 0QD

Tel: 01793 816253
Fax: 01793 815636

Mobile: 07803 123202

Alternatively, E-mail me

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