9 minute read
Housing, health and landscape
The Garden Court at Appleby Blue, London. © Philip Vile
Appleby Blue is a development reimagining the almshouse for 21st-century living. Grant Associates’ Keith French explains the vital role of landscape in the project –and outlines three other schemes that show how the practice incorporates nature into housing environments.
Appleby Blue, a social housing development of 57 almshouses in Bermondsey, south London, recently opened its doors to welcome its first 63 residents. Managed by United St Saviour’s Charity, the building provides independent living with a resident support model for over 65-yearolds in Southwark.
During the early stage of the project, we visited the charity’s existing almshouse community at Hopton’s Almshouses in Southwark, where residents explained to us the role of the garden for them: the importance of seasons and the joy of watching birds and wildlife, space to garden and a sense of a mini oasis while still living in the heart of the city. We were also advised how vital it is for the almshouse experience to feel comfortable for visitors. With loneliness and social isolation on the rise – especially for retired people –the almshouse should also appeal to families with young children seeing their elderly relatives. It was therefore important for us to create inviting social spaces and gardens for the whole family.
From the outset of the project, in close collaboration with Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the landscape and architectural design was developed to create a close fit between the building uses and a distinctive and seasonal landscape across different levels. The landscape was never considered as a cosmetic addition, but rather as an integral part of the overall design, use, atmosphere and wellbeing of the community.
Central to the landscape concept is the idea of time and seasonality which is reflected in the two primary garden spaces. The gardens frame the living environment at different levels, bringing the changing colours, textures, sounds and light of the seasons into the residents’ and local communities’ everyday experience. Conceived as an abstract woodland glade, the Garden Court provides direct and indirect views of the garden spaces as you move through and around the building, with a raised and gently cascading linear water feature running between a grove of gingko trees and an understory of seasonal woodland flora including ferns, sedges, hellebores and foxgloves. The acoustics of the Court, coupled with the sound of the water feature, create a sanctuary space for socialising and relaxing in peace and quiet.
Extensive research studies show how gardening benefits the wellbeing of communities, from reducing stress and lowering disease risk to increasing life satisfaction and promoting learning.
The Garden Court links to a double-height indoor Garden Room. This light-filled area invites the neighbourhood to engage in the array of intergenerational activities in this new community space, including the community kitchen, set to deliver culinary events based on upskilling and nutrition as well as using the herbs and produce grown on the roof terrace. Extensive research studies show how gardening benefits the wellbeing of communities, from reducing stress and lowering disease risk to increasing life satisfaction and promoting learning.¹ We were keen to enable this on the secondfloor roof terrace space, where there is more direct sunlight and residents can enjoy views out. The Productive Garden features a series of interconnecting raised beds for growing herbs and vegetables, as well as a planting mix of herbs, fruits, vegetables and companion planting.
Raised beds, using pre-cast board-marked concrete, have enabled recreational gardening activities to maintain accessibility despite residents’ potential loss of mobility. Some of the beds were left prepared for residents to garden, while others were planted with a mix of fennel, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, marjoram, wild strawberry, rhubarb as well as local apple and pear tree varieties. Adjacent to the raised beds, potting tables and storage spaces for residents’ gardening tools make it comfortable and practical.
Both gardens will be managed by a local gardening group, with United St Saviour’s working alongside Bournemouth University research partners to explore how multigenerational, socially inclusive activities can be co-created with older people around food growing, cooking and meal sharing to improve their health, wellbeing and social connectedness.
The almshouse is designed to encourage residents and non-residents to come together through its open nature and progression of places to share, extending from the busy public high street to the more intimate walkways, to the different garden spaces – cultivating a strong sense of community and reducing loneliness. The Appleby Blue development sets a new benchmark for the provision of older people’s social housing and brings nature into the heart of the living environment. Designed specifically for today’s generation of older people who want to lead an active life in the heart of the inner city, it is creating a community hub for them in central London.
Case Study - Accordia, Cambridge
Accordia in central Cambridge is a large-scale housing project, and a pioneering collaboration between Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects, Macreanor Lavington and Grant Associates.
The relationship between the homes, the landscape, trees and different kinds of external space was central to the project. The ‘Living in a Garden’ landscape concept inspired different gardens throughout Accordia, each with a function or theme: the ‘Kitchen Garden’, the ‘Long Walk’ and the ‘Central Lawn’. All spaces are linked by a network of paths and clearly defined by walls, hedges and boundaries, featuring mature trees and new planting.
Today, 15 years on, Accordia boasts beautiful public gardens, garden streets and planted mews spaces, food and play gardens, well-connected pedestrian and cycle routes, and discreet, integrated cycle and car parking for all dwellings. The diversity of planting and well-established trees stands as a testament to the thoughtful selection of species, supporting biodiversity and creating an ever-changing tapestry of colour and texture of the public spaces.
What none of the team originally foresaw was Accordia’s dramatic success in generating a sense of real community. We began to observe this anecdotally, but it was interesting to see research by Cambridge University, which focused on the incidence of wellbeing as defined by the New Economics Foundation.
Researcher Jamie Anderson looked at the attitude to neighbourhood life and the use of the community outdoor space provision at Accordia, compared with a similar but more traditional neighbourhood. The 2015 study found that living in a neighbourhood with a higher ratio of communal gardens is associated with higher levels of wellbeing and community.
Case Study - New Islington, Manchester
Grant Associates’ approach to New Islington was always people-centred, planning for an existing and new community of people and incorporating waterways linking the historic navigations between the Rochdale and Ashton Canals to give the new neighbourhood an identity of waterside living and parkland.
Located to the east of Manchester city centre, the vision was to take this unloved, low-density area of the city fringe and transform it into a Copenhagen-inspired dense urban neighbourhood. Today New Islington has transformed the area, with Manchester Evening News calling it an ‘oasis’ for Manchester.
Cotton Field Park, the 1.5ha epicentre of New Islington has established a focus and landscape identity for the neighbourhood, and gives residents a unique relationship with the canal network. The park consists of a new body of water, a landmark grove of Scots pines around an urban beach, with a boardwalk that links together several distinctive islands. The extensive planting includes an orchard island, wetland edges and reed beds, and community gardens. The combination has helped not only appeal to a new population of human residents, but other species too, including the many Canada geese who call Cotton Field Park home.
The 20-year regeneration of New Islington has been transformative – for Urban Splash the developer; for Manchester; and for us as a practice. It gives the UK a great example of urban development done differently and sets a pioneering precedent for the role of green and blue infrastructure, with a neighbourhood filled with green space, water, wetlands, islands wooden sculptures, and a canal marina.
Case Study - Brabazon, Bristol
Brabazon is a new peri-urban neighbourhood for Bristol, bringing the historic 142-hectare Filton Airfield site back into use. The green and connected, low-carbon masterplan sets out a vision for a high-density, sustainable, new district for Bristol.
From the outset, the vision for Brabazon was to be a green, leafy place where pedestrians have priority. Planned on a framework of 15-minute neighbourhoods, the masterplan’s sense of place and identity is very much shaped by its landscape, public spaces and sense of aviation heritage. Two kilometres of pedestrian and cycle routes link a series of linear parks and gardens, as well as a new 6ha destination park and landmark lake adjacent to a potential new entertainment venue at its heart. The site incorporates a Heritage Trail which connects the new districts with the Aerospace Bristol Museum and the historic, listed Hangar 16U, which is set to be a new local, social hub for the community.
The phased growth of Brabazon is linked to key sustainable travel milestones to lower car usage. Car parking is provided off-street, and the streets are at a scale that prioritises pedestrians. The streets – lined with trees and rain-gardens – will offer seating and play space to encourage community and interaction among residents.
A theme in each of these projects is human connections with the environment around them and finding new ways to bring people closer to nature. There’s a sense that if you develop the right environment, you nurture a community of people who like their setting and are therefore more likely to look after it. That’s been an interesting theory that has proved to be very true among these projects that we’ve worked on – all are linked by a strong sense of community and ownership, and a commitment to looking after our collective world together.
