Cambridge City Council - Cambridge City Centre Recovery Project

• Value: £150K

This tender is seeking bespoke designs for three types of furniture (Parklets, Social Pods, Stepped Seating) defined as follows: - 3.8.1 Parklets (City wide) – Catalogue Appendix A General definition - Formerly a small seating area or green space created as a public amenity on or alongside a pavement, especially in a former roadside parking space, this category of public realm provision has come to mean any structure occupying the highway or a pedestrianised area, often providing a temporary location for serving food and beverage, either licenced, i.e. tied to a business premises; or offering a communal (open to all users) rest and eatery space. Parklets can be fully enclosed, semi-enclosed (i.e. partially open sided with a roof, or without a covered roof); and are generally much larger than social pods. Materials usually consist of metal, wood, and Poly (methyl methacrylate) e.g. Perspex, acrylic, Plexiglass. Seasonal features include solarisers to keep those using the parklet warm in winter, or retractable awning which is ideal for warmer months. Range of configurations - Research shows that parklets, though constructed out of basic materials can be, in theory, as sophisticated as one’s aspirations allow for from ‘plein air’ style imported pieces of furniture onto existing hard standing within a demarcated space, requiring some form of boundary on the footway/highway (pedestrianised or trafficked) e.g. platform construction (see 9.1 Appendix Catalogue Example 1 below); to a fully functioning building with automatic opening/closing glazing, solarisers and a retractable roof (see 9.1 Appendix Catalogue Example 4 below). N.B. Suppliers interested in LOT A – Bespoke Street Furniture, please submit at designs showing both an open and closed arrangements in accordance with the Price Schedule (Document 7). 3.8.2 Social Pods (Petty Cury) – Catalogue Appendix B Social pods are designed for outdoor seating with socialising, including eating and drinking. They often consist of a single unit with five closed sides allowing single point of entry. The size of pod can consist of a double-sided picnic bench style arrangement or a one-sided bench. Materials usually consist of metal, wood, and Poly (methyl methacrylate) e.g. Perspex, acrylic, Plexiglass. The location chosen for social pods is Petty Cury (See 4.2.2. below). The mock-up images show a stretch of colonnades, part of the Grand Arcade shopping complex which will allow the construction of seating areas in between the uprights without severely impeding the flow of pedestrian traffic. It is suggested due to the continuing current Covid-19 environment, likely to be in operation until 2022, that both an open and either semi-closed or closed arrangement is also offered as an option in accordance with the Pricing Schedule (Document 7). N.B. Suppliers interested in LOT A – Bespoke Street Furniture, please submit one design for a social pod with an open arrangement, and also an option to adapt the unit to a semi or fully enclosed arrangement. 3.8.3 Raised Benches/ Stepped Bleacher-Style (Kings Parade) – Catalogue Appendix C A relatively niche category of street furniture in the UK, in this instance it refers to bleacher-style seating. Though bleachers are traditionally found at sports grounds as raised/ staged seating, the idea is being introduced (as in certain European countries) for one location in Cambridge. Many bleachers are open to the ground below, so there are only planks to sit and walk on; however some bleachers have vertical panels beneath the benches, either partially or completely blocking the way to the ground, and therefore constitute raised steps, staging or platforms. Utilising the College wall - The city council is looking for raised seating to go ‘alongside’ and ‘over’ a substantial part of the length of Kings College frontage wall and therefore to occupy – to as less a degree as possible - the College lawn. Currently, the wall is adopted as low-lying seating by tourists. Working with Kings College - Kings College (University of Cambridge) have kindly given their permission to explore this idea and will become a close working partner in developing the detail. Several iterations of the design have already been suggested, though these are at a very early stage of conceptualisation and do not preclude other suggestions from being explored. Limit to number of tiers and modular construction - However, it is likely either two or three tiers, maximum, would be practicable; for one reason, not to block out views of the College building. The raised seating ideally will be constructed in modular sections for convenience and ease of implementation. Optional two-sided build - formative ideas to use the College lawn for planned outdoor performances, e.g. for example, a Shakespeare production, are in discussion, and that having the option of staged seating built as an ‘opposite’ side facing the College building (i.e. in effect forming a capital letter ‘A’) would substantially increase the welcome offer. Inclusive tables – a suggested idea is to incorporate integrated single-user sized tables into the raised seating, on some or all tiers. These can provide places to sit at and eat picnic style food in comfort as well as be appropriately spaced apart if Covid-19 measure need to be enforced. N.B. Suppliers interested in LOT A – Bespoke Street Furniture, please submit designs for raised bleacher-style seating in accordance with the Pricing Schedule (Document 7) including: - a one-sided arrangement (facing Kings Parade), - a two-sided arrangement (facing Kings Parade and the College lawn). - the inclusion of single user tables, as shown in Appendix B, example 6.

• Value: £100K

Purpose of lighting installation: • Visually enhance the City Centre Street Locations for evening and night-time economy • Compliment and link installations to the new seating infrastructure • Provide additional lighting resource and visual enhancement for a programme of year-round activity • Increase City centre footfall and indirectly boost the visitor economy and associated retail, hospitality, and cultural sectors 3.9.1. Festoon or Creative Equivalent LED festoon lights or a creative equivalent, have been identified as one measure that can enhance the atmosphere of an area (festive, café culture) and provide additional lighting to support new leisure activity, eating and drinking in areas where there are hospitality businesses. N.B.: For the purposes of this tender, existing fixings and power supplies are to be used, and no hanging from one lamp column to another is to be allowed. 3.9.2 Decorative To enhance the leisure use and festive atmosphere of an area. An example could be a ‘rose’ fixture around a lamp column using power from the column, or small-scale projection pieces onto Peas Hill area using a basic light and gobo effect, power sourced from key buildings. 3.9.3 Architectural To enhance the Cityscape and visitor offer. Up lighting or a creative equivalent of major City buildings. e.g. Central Churches, College Buildings – permission still to be sourced. 3.9.4 Event Installation/ Projection Lighting A bespoke design for a set period in January 2022 and 2023. For example, a proposed site – The Guildhall, projected from the Market infrastructure. Set and animated pieces for evening visitor offer from a secure piece of infrastructure.