Siglion is a joint venture between Carillion and Sunderland City Council to carry out Sunderland’s largest ever regeneration project, creating new jobs and new places to work, live and relax. Their team is totally committed to developing and regenerating five major sites across the city at the Vaux site, Seaburn and Chapel Garth then Farringdon Row and Numbers Garth.
John Seager - the chief executive of Siglion - discusses the impact this regeneration could have ahead of Sunderland's City of Culture bid and what it could mean for our shared culture:
Creating spaces and vibrant places that are fit for the future of a city isn’t a straightforward job, and especially for a city that is changing at the pace Sunderland is.
We know that Sunderland has a rich heritage, and we want to protect that as well as creating a cityscape that is fit for the future, and able to appeal as a place to visit, live and do business for our future generations.
While, in its simplest terms, Siglion is a developer, we are much, much more than that. We do not view our job as being simply to provide the city with new buildings (though that is an important part of what we do!), we see our role as place-makers – developers of healthy, happy communities. Communities that are knitted together by great physical spaces, but principally, by the activities they enable people to participate in; the happy memories they allow people to create; and the way in which they reflect the unique things that make Sunderland the city it is, and the characteristics of those who live here. Put simply, it is about culture.
Culture is mistaken for art; it’s mistaken for music; it’s mistaken for a lot of things – and yes, these things have a place in culture, but it is actually far broader and all-encompassing than that. Culture is about the ideas and traditions of groups of people; it’s about the DNA of a place and its people. That’s what Siglion is all about – the work that we are doing to make a new, bold city is about taking the ideas of local people and communities, understanding their customs and heritage, and marrying all of that together to inspire a brighter future. And that mirrors what Sunderland 2021 is trying to do too.
In December, we held a public consultation event to showcase our plans for The Launch, a symbolic promontory structure that we are proposing for the tip of the Keel Line. The Launch is the product of an Arts Council project, which brought together architects and artists to create a structure that would both mark a brave future for the city, and nod to its rich past. Just like the phase one building we are working on at the Vaux site, which puts a modern twist on our industrial heritage, the Launch would give us another inspirational place – a symbol to help us remember the things we have to be proud of, and a sign of positive change in Sunderland.
An artist’s impression of how the new landmark The Launch could look.
There are many parallels to the work of Sunderland 2021. The City of Culture team is developing a bid that reflects on the city’s past – that understands how our heritage defines who the people of Sunderland are today – but also a bid that moves us on. We know that the city has faced decline, and we have seen many of the industries we held dear stripped away. We are and must remain very proud of what we once were, but the wave of change we are seeing is a chance to look ahead to what we can be.
And I believe that is a City of Culture 2021. A city that is rightly taking its place back in the spotlight, and is ready to shine a light all of its own, for all to see.
John Seager, Chief Executive of Siglion
