F E AT U R E By Oliver Lee and Ian Rudolph
Staying in the city Recent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have suggested a flight from the city to the suburbs and beyond. A landscape architect from The Landscape Partnership and an architect from Marks Barfield Architects outline reasons to be optimistic.
1. Surrey Canal Linear Park in Lewisham – connects communities, provides doorstep opportunities for play, contact with nature and accessible open space. © The Landscape Partnership
Oliver Lee
The impact of COVID-19 has brought about many changes in the way we are currently living, working, and moving about our towns, cities, and the world. These may be temporary, but hopefully some of the changes and opportunities for living differently will bring about a better way of life and response to the climate and biodiversity challenges we face. At the Landscape Partnership, we have been working with Marks Barfield Architects (MBA) on a mixeduse scheme, Stephenson House in the London Borough of Camden since before the current pandemic crisis. Here, we had already started to consider new ways of working, providing people greater contact with plants, nature and outdoor space, with a series of accessible roof terraces across several floors. Looking forward to the next ten years, we have started to consider how the new demands created by the pandemic might change the workspaces we are creating. To ensure they remain a safe and attractive environment to collaborate and meet people, they will perhaps require more space, including outdoor space, and need to be spatially flexible and
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