Community and Connectivity in Nature,

Reclaiming the Flyover for Gateshead

Creativity, collaboration and its application for the common good is at the heart of Colour’s values and practice.  We were therefore thrilled and honoured that our young designers’ ideas competition entry for The Farrell Centre at Newcastle University was judged as a winner.

The brief

In December 2024, the Gateshead flyover was suddenly closed after the discovery of structural defects that could have led to its collapse. The closure led to immediate and extensive transport disruption, with traffic diverted to surrounding roads and the Metro suspended. Strengthening work has allowed the Metro to now run safely, but with the flyover unlikely to ever re-open, the disruption looks set to continue, with significant economic effects on local shops and businesses.

This ideas competition looks to explore the possibilities for re-using, re-imagining and re-constituting the Gateshead flyover and what that could offer the city and the region: from the environmental and economic upsides, to the opportunities for supporting health, wellbeing and civic pride by creating a new green space in the heart of Gateshead. The ideas competition is speculative, using the example of Gateshead flyover to explore possibilities for reimagining redundant post-war infrastructure more broadly.