£140m design fund up for grabs

Regional shortlists are being drawn up for design teams across the UK pitching for a slice of a £140m National Lottery Fund to ‘transform, revitalise and regenerate’ their communities.

The project is called the Living Landmarks programme and is backed by the Big Lottery Fund. Launched last year, it aims to encourage creative teams to submit architectural, environmental and regeneration design ideas for consideration.

A total of 29 projects have been shortlisted for the scheme, from regions all over the UK. Six of those projects will receive large funding grants of between £25m and £50m each. A further 23 potential schemes will battle it out for a number of smaller grants from the fund; each of those has already been awarded £5000 to allow the development of ideas for the next stage of the selection process in May.

Landmark Wales is one of the regional teams involved in the programme and is bidding for funding for three potential schemes. Fifteen creative teams have been shortlisted and handed development grants to go for a bigger slice of the pie. The final decision will be made in September this year, although it is not yet known how many projects will be selected.

The 15 contenders for the Wales project are developing ideas for one of three areas: the Severn Crossing, Holyhead Harbour and the Flintshire Border. One winner will be selected for each project at the end of May and then go on for final selection in September.