Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute
Autumn 2015
Home and away – design in the UK and beyond Crossrail station, Canary Wharf / 30 A new park for the Netherlands / 8 Reviving Bexhill’s seafront / 20
landscapeinstitute.org Landscape Autumn 2015
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DESIGN TANK PHOTO CHARLOTTE SVERDRUP
Enjoying the outdoors since 1947
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Landscape Autumn 2015
vestre.co.uk
Vestre Code & Vestre Looper Design: Johan Verde & Hong Ngo-Aandal
Editorial
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Looking back – or forward?
Photo ©: 1 – Agnese Sanvito
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y ou had a good summer and that you went on holiday somewhere interesting. I did and I am now going to indulge myself in the verbal equivalent of boring you with my holiday pictures – only I hope this won’t be boring. Because my holiday, in Romania, was not only enjoyable but also thought-provoking. We were largely in Transylvania but also in Maramures, the area where agriculture is most traditional. Although compared to the UK, one could say that most Romanian agriculture is traditional. Horses are still used widely for transport and farm work, every scrap of grass is cut for hay – cut with scythes and piled into the kind of haystacks that Monet loved to paint. There is still transhumance, with shepherds taking their own and other people’s flocks into the mountains for the summer, where they make cheese and, with the aid of dogs, protect their charges from marauding bears and wolves.
In Breb, a village where we stayed, there is still a working mill, so scruffy looking that it seems derelict, but used regularly by the villagers to grind their maize into mamaliga, the polenta that is a staple food. Farmers grow and pickle their own vegetables, collect herbs to make delicious tea, distil plum brandy, preserve jams and weave rugs. It feels like a life that hasn’t changed for centuries. That of course is not true, not least because Romania has one of Europe’s most troubled and complex histories. And it is still changing. An Englishman, William Blacker, spent several years in Breb after the fall of Ceaucescu, and wrote a book about his experiences called Along the Enchanted Way. From the start he regrets how fast things are changing, and his book is both charming and a reminder of how easy it is in any period to look back to a fictitious golden age that just preceded our own. Romanian agriculture and traditions will doubtless continue to evolve. But is the country as it is today really so antiquated? It has got a lot of things right in terms of conservation, hanging on to its large carnivores as well as its deer and birds and wild flowers within generous areas of forest. Could there be lessons for the future? Could our countryside actually become more like this, once the cheap fuel and fertilisers run out? Prince Charles is something of a hero to the Romanians, helping to protect forests, supporting conservation efforts on traditional houses and even owning a holiday home in the fading Saxon village of Viscri where he has constructed the country’s first reedbed sewage treatment plant. (In guide books, he claims to have a ‘stake’ in the country as a descendant of Vlad the Impaler). The prince has a reputation, particularly in the architectural world, of being over-wedded to tradition. Perhaps his ideas are a better fit with the Romanians than the Brits? We shouldn’t romanticise a way of life that is tough and in many ways hidebound. But at the very least, Romanian agriculture is an interesting study for those debating the future of our rural landscape – and it also makes for a jolly good holiday.
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Landscape Autumn 2015
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Landscape Contents
The Journal of the Landscape Institute
Editor Ruth Slavid landscape@darkhorsedesign.co.uk Editorial advisory panel Tim Waterman, honorary editor David Buck Joe Clancy Edwin Knighton CMLI Amanda McDermott CMLI Peter Sheard CMLI John Stuart Murray FLI Eleanor Trenfield CMLI Jo Watkins PPLI Jenifer White CMLI Jill White CMLI Landscape Institute president Noel Farrer PLI Landscape Institute CEO Phil Mulligan
Regulars Looking back – or forward?
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Flocks and Pylons
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To comment on any aspect of Landscape Institute communications please contact: Paul Lincoln, deputy CEO paull@landscapeinstitute.org
––– Follow the Landscape Institute on twitter: @talklandscape Advertising, subscription and membership enquiries: www.landscapeinstitute.org/contact ––– The Landscape Institute is the royal chartered institute for landscape architects.
Technical
Loving nature
Technical
Green roof myths
Practice
BIM – getting to level 2
A word
Decant
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The physical boundaries around Máximapark in the Netherlands are not strictly defined, and neither is the role of the public – which is a benefit.
The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and advertisers and not necessarily those of the Landscape Institute, Darkhorse or the Editorial Advisory Panel. While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and validity of the information given in this publication, neither the Institute nor the Publisher accept any responsibility for the subsequent use of this information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it.
Landscape is the official journal of the Landscape Institute, ISSN: 1742–2914 ©2015 Landscape Institute. Landscape is published four times a year by Darkhorse Design.
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Landscape Autumn 2015
Bigger picture
Community effort
As a professional body and educational charity, it works to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit. ––– Landscape is printed on FSC paper obtained from a sustainable and well managed source, using environmentally friendly vegetable oil based ink.
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Editorial
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Features
Photo ©: 1 – Bill Browning 2 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark
Publisher Darkhorse Design Ltd 42 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead Wirral, Merseyside. CH41 5BP T 0151 649 9669 www.darkhorsedesign.co.uk
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A lake reborn
Wenying Lake is providing much-needed leisure facilities for the growing Chinese city of Datong – and also improving its ecosystems.
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Beside the seaside
Photo ©: 3 – HTA 4 – Gillespies 5 – AECOM
The deceptively simple new promenade at Bexhill-on-Sea serves a wide range of functions – including drawing visitors away from a tourist honeypot towards the rest of the town.
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Above its station
The first benefit of Crossrail that Londoners are enjoying is a magnificent garden high above a station.
Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute
Autumn 2015
Home and away – design in the UK and beyond Crossrail station, Canary Wharf / 30 A new park for the Netherlands / 8 Reviving Bexhill’s seafront / 20
landscapeinstitute.org Landscape Autumn 2015
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Cover image – Gillespies garden above the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf. © Gillespies
Landscape Autumn 2015
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Bigger Picture By Ruth Slavid
Flocks and Pylons
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Landscape Autumn 2015
Image ©: – Carry Akroyd
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his serigraph, which is about 1m wide, is by landscape artist Carry Akroyd and shows a well-known line of pylons near her Northamptonshire home, with a flock of starlings flying overhead. ‘All of my work comes from walking about in the landscape,’ she says. ‘I live in an area of very intense agricultural production – it is like a defiance to see the beauty in it.’ She is particularly interested in seeing paths and tracks and traces of old fields and in how animals, and particularly birds, experience the landscape. To make the serigraph, Carry uses torn paper and card in what she describes as ‘a very simple way of working’. The complexity comes from the fact that each colour layer has a different printed element. Finally she hand paints some details on top of the print, which means that although this serigraph is one in a series of five, it is subtly different from all the others and so is a unique piece of work.
Landscape Autumn 2015
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1 – Volunteers play an important role in the park
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Landscape Autumn 2015
Photo ©: 1 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark
Community effort
The physical boundaries around Måximapark in the Netherlands are not strictly defined, and neither is the role of the public – which is a benefit. BY TIM WATERMAN
Landscape Autumn 2015
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Development of new houses along the park’s edge, which West 8 had intended to provide a firm boundary for the park, has thus far failed to materialise, and indeed they may never be built. Geuze believes that the market that created vast stretches of suburbia in the fields and polders around the Randstad, fuelled by the ready availability of mortgages for 120 per cent of the price of a house, will never return. The park’s relationship to the surrounding housing, though, is still profound in a number of ways.
Image ©: 1, 3, 4 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark 2 – West 8
nearly 20 years since West 8 first won the competition to design the Leidsche Rijn Park, in Holland’s Randstad. It is now known as Máximapark, named after the Netherlands’ Argentinian-born queen. Not that it has been under construction that whole time, but rather, as Adriaan Geuze, International ASLA, a founding partner of West 8, tells me, he has approached the process like ‘a surfer waiting for a wave.’ He has watched carefully and, where necessary, guided the development of the political will, the community spirit, and all the other planets that have had to align to create the park. Construction of the park as part of the development of the surrounding neighborhoods at Leidsche Rijn, a large new middle-class suburb west of Utrecht, only began some 10 years after the original designs and was significantly hampered by the massive failure of banking and finance in 2008.
2 – Tracks through the park are popular with both runners and cyclists 3 – Masterplan of the park, which was intended to be surrounded by housing that has not materialised. 4 – The Japanese garden
IT HAS BEEN
Image ©: ? – Name
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5 – Earth has been mounded in one area to create a theatre 6 – Less heavily planned areas can be used for casual recreation 7 – Cyclists use the park frequently, both for races and informally
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Second, the park was cobbled together from various agricultural plots, many once occupied by the giant greenhouses of Dutch industrial agriculture. The heartland of this agriculture is now shifting north to Friesland, where land is cheaper. Today, there is a concentration of former farmhouses and some newly built houses running in a strip right through the centre of the park. What this creates is a park without a clear definition. The approach to Máximapark from the local railway station at Vleuten feels entirely accidental and provisional and begins vaguely in a parking lot. There are pavements beside the railway tracks, but they peter out and the pedestrian is then forced nervously onto either bike paths or the roadway.
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Image ©: 5, 6, 7 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark
First, of course, is the relationship that the community has with the park. In the project’s early stages, the park’s progress was driven largely by the political will of the local officials, in particular the area’s alderman. In recent stages, the will of the community and of the local Friends of the Park group has taken over the momentum.
8 – Magical areas have been created beside the water 9 – The flatness of the landscape makes it easy to create a sense of enclosure
Next come an underpass and an oblique shunt across a main road on-ramp and then, just past what appears to be a scouts’ clubhouse, there are suddenly people in evidence, a generous raised bicycle path, and a dawning realisation that one is in a park.
Image ©: 8, 9 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark
This doesn’t run counter to the park’s conception, though. Its green infrastructure is meant to flow through the neighbourhoods, and it was not West 8’s intention to programme every bit of the park. Its main functions are concentrated within a compact 50-hectare area called the ‘Binnenhof’ (courtyard) that contains the more focused elements of the park, including an extensive playground, watercourses and gardens. The street of farmhouses passes right through the centre of the Binnenhof. The interpenetration of houses and park spaces curiously and delightfully provides a strong sense that the park is owned and occupied and, above all, safe. The very contingent character of the park – that it has depended upon happenstance, bricolage, and good timing – bestows on it a feeling of warmth and homeliness.
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There is no lack of humor in the park either. Two recurring motifs that serve as emblems for the park are owls and daisies. Daisies appear in the exquisitely finished moulded concrete of the bike-path edges, and in floral exuberance on the pressed aluminium railings of the Hiroshigeinspired bridges that arc above the water like tightly strung bows.
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Both owls and daisies festoon the gables of the pavilion that anchors the centre of the Binnenhof and houses the restaurant Anafora. This playful building is a physical quote from a pavilion designed by Pierre Cuypers (the architect of Amsterdam’s Central Station and the Rijksmuseum) for the Heineken family. Cuypers’ design for a peak-roofed folly is multiplied by four laterally so that its series of peaks plunges downward into three roughly catenary arcs. Pressed aluminium gingerbread climbs the gables toward owls that perch, wings outstretched, at each apex.
10 – Planting is beginning to mature 11 – One of the owl details 12 – The pavilion houses a restaurant
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How appropriate to this sweet architectural confection that I took shelter inside on a blustery day and spoke with a man named Happy Megally, who runs the café in the pavilion. Megally, a Coptic Egyptian by birth though now very much Dutch by affection for and affinity with his community, is an elegant man who runs his business with warm generosity and keen attention to detail. He feels that the pavilion has taken the place that the church might once have had in what is now a very secular community.
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Image ©: 10 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark 11, 12 – West 8
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13 – The path may be informal, but there is a very Dutch sense of order in the avenue of trees 14 – Daisies, the other motif in the park, line the centre of this track
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Image ©: 13, 14 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark
Sitting next to Megally is Johan de Boer, the figurehead of the Friends of the Park. De Boer has given up a Saturday to meet me and show me around the park. I worry that he is missing out on weekend time, but he assures me that he likes ‘nothing better than to talk about the park.’ He confides that if he could quit his job and work full time for the park, he would do so without hesitation. Megally calls him an inspiration, and he glows with modest pleasure. Both of them embody the public spirit that is building the Máximapark. De Boer has been instrumental in raising the money and coordinating volunteer efforts to build the new bridges, install various sculptures around the park, create gardens, and build the first section of what is certainly destined to be the park’s calling card, the Park Pergola. De Boer walks me past plantings of oak and beech with ash and poplars interspersed, many arranged in characteristically Dutch grids.
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The first third of the Park Pergola has now been built, and it will eventually describe the whole boundary of the Binnenhof. It encloses and bounds the space, but its scale and presence are both so unexpected and unprecedented that it frames space in a startling and refreshing way. Its stilted, colonnaded base supports a flexing, honeycombed form that will soon carry vines. Its finish is startling, too. The concrete, like that cast for the edges of the bicycle path, is so perfectly mixed and set that it has a milky translucency like bone or ivory. Its smooth surface demands to be caressed. I can’t help feeling that it’s a shame to cover such a beautiful surface with vines, but West 8’s photomontages of the pergola planted with vines are equally compelling.
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Only one side of the pergola’s skeleton is smooth. The other side is left rough, with a pebbly, pitted finish reminiscent of puffed rice. This will provide habitat for greater biodiversity within the wall and a different surface to provide purchase for climbing plants that need it.
15 – Artists impression, showing the rich biodiversity that is intended to cloak the Park Pergola
An early and much smaller version of the Park Pergola with a simpler hexagonal form was built at Geuze’s second home, in Spain. Images of this structure show how the honeycombs can be filled in with bird boxes, insect hotels, beehives, and such. This is fully the intention for the Park Pergola as it matures. As the vines have already been planted, any temptation to leave the skeleton unclothed hopefully has been averted, and any infill of the pergola for biodiversity will not be hindered by a desire to preserve the structure in architectural purity.
Image ©: 15 – West 8
The grids, the orthogonal watercourses, and the flatness of the landscape conspire, as they do everywhere in this part of Holland, to create a landscape that is experienced as a set of nested frames. This gives a beguiling sense of interiority to exterior spaces. We come over a wooden bridge into another framed space, and there ahead is the ghostly frame of the new concrete pergola. Its parapet hovers over the tops of the young trees like an ethereal and benign battlement.
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As we come to the end of the existing stretch of the Park Pergola, there are a number of volunteers working out of a converted shipping container to prepare beds for planting. This is a garden within the park called the Vlinderhof, in which soil has been mounded to create a theatre. Marc Kikkert, the volunteer who has spearheaded this particular project, shows me the plans and talks about the plantings. The Vlinderhof, he explains, is the first time that two of Holland’s landscape greats have worked together. The plantings for the garden have been designed by Piet Oudolf within Adriaan Geuze’s framework. Geuze, as well, had been eager to point this out to me. The collaboration is clearly a source of pride for all parties.
16 16 – Aerial photograph showing the first phase of the Park Pergola. 17 – A range of habitats is being created in the honeycomb of the pergola. 18 – A bosky corner
Image ©: 16 – Your Captain Luchtfotografie 17, 18 – West 8
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Though Geuze tells me that the pergola ‘wasn’t particularly expensive,’ de Boer points out its costliness. He tells me that when raising the money for the structure he reminded people that Antoni Gaudi’s Park Güell in Barcelona would never have been built if it weren’t for a belief in the necessity of superfluous beauty. Cost is clearly relative, but in this case when the pergola represents the common wealth and mutual pride of the people of Leidsche Rijn, then it’s certainly best to think of it as an extravagance.
Some 15,000 plants should be well rooted in and blooming by this summer [summer 2014]. Parks in the Netherlands receive relatively little funding for either initial construction or ongoing maintenance, so they have traditionally been built in the margins and on a shoestring. Máximapark was built referencing the tradition of Amsterdam’s Bos Park, which was a New Deal-style project to combat unemployment and improve access to nature during the Great Depression, but in this case the employment created was often carved out of the spare time of volunteers. There is an element of old-fashioned anarchistic mutual aid or tactical urbanism, perhaps, though I’m sure the volunteers don’t see themselves as anarchists.
Of course, one wonders whether such a project would be viable in a less affluent community, but it does give hope. The suburbs around Máximapark are neither ostentatious nor wealthy. The Park Pergola stands out all the more because this symbol of affluence is not individual but collective.
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19 – Volunteers play an important role in the park. 20 – The Japanese garden soon after completion.
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This article first appeared in the July 2014 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, the magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects
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20 Project Credits Client / process management: Project Bureau Leidsche Rijn, Nieuwegein, Netherlands Manufacturer ABT, Velp GLD, Netherlands Contractor: Ed Züblin AG Fertigteilwerk, Stuttgart, Germany Wooden moulds: Verhoeven Timmerfabriek Nederland, Venray, Netherlands Foundations and groundwork: Van Wijk Nieuwegein, Nieuwegein, Netherlands Design: West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Image ©: 19 – Johan de Boer Friends of the Máximapark 20 – West 8
By the time I reach the end of the day with Johan de Boer, I’m feeling overstimulated. We’ve covered only about a third of the whole park, but, particularly within the Binnenhof, every element is so rich with story and community involvement – I haven’t even spoken about a whole series of sculptures that inhabits the park – that I find reassurance in the fact that the large areas we haven’t visited are largely unscripted. They’re places for people to fill with individual meaning, places for children to explore. Geuze worries that the surplus of enthusiasm for the park in the community will result in a surfeit of ornament and sculpture and that the park’s good bones will cease to be visible. It’s ironic that this should be the case with a park that was built on a shoestring from the beginning – it’s gone from rags to an embarrassment of riches.
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Beside the seaside The deceptively simple new promenade at Bexhillon-Sea serves a wide range of functions – including drawing visitors away from a tourist honeypot towards the rest of the town. BY RUTH SLAVID
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1 – The new planted strip sits beside a revived promenade.
i s a tricky town. Mention it to anybody with even a passing interest in architecture and they are bound to respond ‘De la Warr pavilion’. One of the few buildings in the UK to which the much over-used epithet ‘iconic’ can reasonably be applied, it is an outstanding piece of early Modernist architecture, a Grade I listed building by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff.
BEXHILL-ON-SEA
Image ©: 1 – HTA
Now in the hands of a charitable trust, and supported by the Arts Council and by the local Rother District Council, the pavilion is a draw and a success. The problem is that little of that success has spilled out into the rest of Bexhill. Set between the successful resorts of Eastbourne and Hastings, the town touts itself for (of course) the pavilion, and its role as the birthplace of British motor racing. In reality it hasn’t had much going for it, but the council is determined to change this and has been investing heavily, not just in the pavilion but also in the Bexhill Museum, a school and a business centre as well as in the town centre itself. One part of this investment was the seafront planting that HTA Landscape Design carried out, aimed at enticing visitors out from the pavilion, along the seafront and towards the town centre – and of course at providing a more attractive environment for others, whether residents or holidaymakers. Phase 1 of this project, called Next Wave, was highly commended in the 2012 Landscape Institute awards, and both phases are now complete. Landscape Autumn 2015 21
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Colonnade
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Promenade
West Parade
Museum Egerton Park
Metropole De la Warr Lawn Pavilion
Marina
Car park
The first impression is of a scheme which is attractive but simple – of green lawns in front of the pavilion, and a long strip of colourful planting stretching away to one side of it. This simplicity is intentional, but has been achieved through a lot of sophisticated thought – not to mention consultation. Unfortunately footfall was not measured before the project was constructed, so any increase has to be anecdotal. But James Lord, head of landscape design at HTA, says that the front always looks busy now and that the council believes that there has been a tenfold increase.
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3 2 – Masterplan showing the relationship of the new promenade to the town. 3 – Planting was deliberately kept low enough not to obstruct views from the town to the sea.
Images ©: – HTA
The first stage of the work involved creating the linear park, an 800m strip alongside the promenade which had previously only been a neglected grass area. With a budget of only £1.15 million (the cost for the entire project was £5 million), it was essential that the design was done in as economic a way as possible. There were two particular areas where money was saved – by paving over rather than replacing the existing promenade, and by avoiding the need for irrigation.
The new planting is in the area that was previously occupied by the grass. It is not all planted, since HTA treated the area as a series of rooms, with playable elements scattered throughout. The idea was that this should not look like a playground, but that children would recognise it as such. Hard surfaces are mainly timber, providing what James Lord describes as a ‘barefoot trail’, an alternative to the formal beachside promenade which has been retained and enhanced. ‘The barefoot trail has been the most successful element,’ he said. ‘Children and parents love running through quite tall planting and into open areas. There are balance bars, wobble boards, talking tubes... it is an 800mlong playground that doesn’t look like one to the casual observer.’ In addition, near short-term parking spaces there are some entirely empty bays, where people can assemble their windsurfers before taking them to the beach.
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Images ©: – HTA
4 – Holes in the western red cedar walls offer views through to small people 5 – A barefoot trail runs through the planted area 6 – Numbers using the promenade have increased dramatically
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7 – The scheme has been designed to make social interaction as easy as possible. 8 – There are customised benches, both with and without backs. 9 – Low walls protect the most delicate planting from the sea spray.
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Between the planted area and the promenade there are benches, offering the traditional views out to sea. The council originally wanted bespoke benches, but these proved to be beyond the budget. Instead, the designer worked with furniture maker Wales & Wales, adapting an existing bench to suit its specific needs. Some have backs, and others do not, but all have plentiful wide arm rests – not as too often, to provide a deterrent to sleeping, but to act as informal tables from which visitors can eat fish and chips while looking out to sea.
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Images ©: – HTA
James explained, ‘We wanted to have long runs of benches so that groups of people could sit together, but we included some gaps.’ This was so that wheelchair users could slot into the spaces, joining in sociably with their friends.
The plants need to be able to survive the salt spray that will frequently cover them. Most are southern Mediterranean plants, with a few from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The main concern, beyond having plants that would survive, was to have a colourful display that lasted for as long a period as possible, changing with the seasons. This is of course a summer display, not all-year round, but given the seasonal nature of seaside use this was appropriate. ‘We started with early salvias and early-flowering lavender,’ James said. ‘There was a lot of colour through the middle of the summer, which is when the grasses also come into their own, and at the end of the season the red-hot pokers held out well, as did the echinacea and the asters.’
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Images ©: – HTA
10, 11, 12 – The planting has been designed to provide colour and interest through a long season.
HTA worked on the planting with garden designer Noel Kingsbury. It wanted plants that would not need any irrigation either during planting or in use, partly for environmental reasons and partly because of the cost and difficulty of installing and operating irrigation on such a long thin strip. The area is planted with perennials and with some sub-shrubs, such as a lavender, but there are no trees or substantial shrubs. This was partly to preserve views across the planting to the sea and partly in keeping with the seaside aesthetic of displays of brightly coloured flowers.
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Of course HTA has a plant list, but it didn’t have a planting plan. This was not an omission but deliberate. ‘We had a strategy and about 14 different mixes,’ James explained. ‘We wanted repetition but never exactly the same effect.’ The team created mixes which had a combination of plant sizes and flowering times. Some were gold mixes, some blue and some warm colours. The heights were mixed up because this garden is designed to be seen from all sides (and from inside) – the opposite of a traditional long border with its planting stepping up towards a wall. The planting had to be done in the winter, because of the need to avoid irrigation. The first attempt in late 2010 was unsuccessful and had to be halted as there was unseasonably bad weather – snow beside the south coast is virtually unknown, but it happened that year. Early 2011 proved more successful however. Noel Kingsbury spent three days at the site showing how he set out plants. The HTA team continued for another week, in conditions that were fine for the plants, but less so for the people – largely driving rain.
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Images ©: – HTA
In addition to Noel Kingsbury’s expertise, there was another influence on the plant colours. HTA worked with artist Alison Turnbull on the project. As he walked the site with her, James said, ‘We were constantly looking at the landward side, and she was gazing out to sea.’ She created a colour-scape of the water and the reflections in it, and HTA worked with that palette. It influenced the planting but also the choice of other materials, for instance the topping that was placed over the failing tarmac on the promenade. It also influenced the colour choice of the low concrete wall that runs in front of the planting. This wall was constructed to protect the planting against the large stones which the sea regularly throws up during storms. If they fall on the promenade they can be bulldozed away (an indication of just how many there are). The team has also built some low walls from western red cedar among the planting, to protect the most vulnerable plants. None of this of course will cope with the worst-case scenario – the very possible overtopping by the sea in severe weather. But there is nothing that can be done to protect against that.
13, 14, 15 – The colours of materials and plant groupings were influenced by HTA’s collaboration with artist Alison Turnbull
Planting List
Images ©: – HTA
Shrubs Cistus x pulverulentus ‘Sunset’ Cistus x dansereaui ‘Decumbens’ Cistus x purpureus Cotoneaster microphyllus Cytisus ‘Burkwoodii’ Cytisus x kewenensis Euonymus japonicus ‘Microphyllus Aureovarigatus’ Griselinia littoralis Olearia traversii Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Tom Thumb’ Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ & Rosa rugosa ‘Rubra’ Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’ Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’ Herbaceous, Perrenial and sub shrubs Achillea ‘Moonshine’ Agapanthus Headbourne hybrids Artemisia absinthium Artemisia ludoviciana ‘Silver Queen’ Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’ Ballota pseudodictamnus Brachyglottis monroi ‘Brookside’ Bupleurum fruticosum Cistus x argenteus ‘Silver Pink’ Convolvulus cneorum Crambe cordifolia Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora ‘George Davidson’ Dierama pulcherrimum Eryngium bourgatii Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii Euphorbia cyparissias Euphorbia x martini Geranium ‘Orion’ Geranium sanguineum Geranium oxonianum ‘Wargrave Pink’ Hebe albicans Hebe ‘Holywell’ Hebe ‘Marjorie’ Hebe pimeleoides Hebe rakaiensis Hebe ‘Red Edge’ Hebe ‘Blue Gem’ Hebe ‘Youngii’ Hesperantha coccinea Iris sibirica ‘Sparkling Rose’ Kniphofia ‘Alcazar’ Lavandula angustifolia Libertia grandiflora Limonium platyphyllum Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ Origanum vulgare
Osteospermum jucundum var. compactum Ozothamnus ledifolius Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ Phlomis chrysophylla Phlomis fruticosa Phlomis lanata Phlomis russeliana Phygelius x rectus ‘Winchester Fanfare’ Phygelius x rectus ‘Devils Tears’ Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ Salvia nemorosa ‘Ostfriesland’ Salvia officinalis Santolina chamaecyparissus Santolina rosmarinifolia subsp. rosmarinifolia Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’ Sedum telephium ‘Purple Emperor’ Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’ Grasses Anemanthele lessoniana Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ Carex comans bronze-leaved Elymus magellanicus Helictotrichon sempervirens Panicum virgatum Stipa gigantea
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GROSS CAPEX £5.10m PHASE ONE BUDGET £1.15m Programme, Phasing and Contract PHASE ONE JCT Intermediate with Contractor’s design Design team appointed June 2009 Design stage complete November 2009 Public consultation September 2009 Documentation January – March 2010 Commence on site May 2010 Complete on site April 2011
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16 – The second phase of the scheme fronts the De la Warr pavilion 17 – Small shop units accommodate starter businesses 18 – There is a simple dignity to this second phase which sets off the pavilion 19 – Places to sit are of paramount importance 20 – Architect Duggan Morris won an RIBA competition to design shelters
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The other main element of phase 1 is a series of timber shelters designed by architect Duggan Morris. The architect was appointed through an RIBA-run competition but there was good coordination with the HTA team. The landscape architect worked with a different architect, Stanton Williams, on the second phase of the project. This was on the land in front of the De la Warr pavilion, where the architect refurbished the Grade II listed colonnade, creating a restaurant and also some small retail units (‘no bigger than a garage’ James said) to house start-up businesses. HTA’s work here was less intensive, using largely lawns and steps to reinforce and improve the connection between the pavilion and the seafront – and also linking it to the first phase of the work.
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Noel Kingsbury has published his first e-book, called Plant Selection: Learning From Nature – A reference for landscape architects and designers. It is produced for MyGardenSchool and available for download from Amazon for £9.95 Images ©: – HTA
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The response from the public has been almost entirely positive, even from people who were mistrustful at consultation phase. Despite HTA having produced visuals that were almost indistinguishable from the design as realised, the naysayers, according to James Lord, complained that nobody told them it would be like this!
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Feature
Above its station The first benefit of Crossrail that Londoners are enjoying is a magnificent garden high above a station.
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Image Š: – Gillespies
BY RUTH SLAVID
1 – The garden sits on top of the station and shopping centre, beneath a timber and ETFE roof 2 – It is a lush oasis in the hectic environment of Canary Wharf
Crossrail is synonymous with FOR MOST LONDONERS massive disruption. There are huge holes in the ground, traffic delays, dust and diversions. We may know that the service will provide much needed amelioration of congestion, which otherwise can only get worse, but at the moment it feels like an almighty nuisance.
This long slender park is contained within a building designed by Foster and Partners with engineering by Arup. Gillespies was the landscape architect, and Armel Mourge, associate partner with Gillespies, explained, ‘We were there from the beginning, defining the structure and looking at the amazing plants brought back from the docks.’
Image ©: – Gillespies
Now however there is one tangible benefit, in the form of the first station to be completed at Canary Wharf in Docklands. The first train will not run until 2018, but the station is there. The retail elements are starting to fill and open but the real joy comes from the park that sits on the top under a magnificent timber roof.
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The new station sits on what was previously a flood plain and the existing water has been put into a channel with flood commutation around it. This was part of Gillespies’ work, as was the design of a new square. But the main effort, and certainly what is grabbing the most attention, is the garden. ‘We thought of it as a Wardian case (the sealed glass cases that early plantsmen used to transport their finds), the kind that was carried in boats to protect the plants,’ Armel said. The analogy is with the protective structure of the roof to the garden, with the timber frame enclosing ETFE panels. At the same time, the form of the building is itself reminiscent of a ship, presumably the ship that brought back the plants. For the idea of the garden, Gillespies, which worked closely throughout the project with planting specialist Growth Industries, drew inspiration from the history of the docks. This means showcasing not only the plants that plant collectors brought in over the centuries, but also commodities such as tea, rum and sugar and the plants that they were derived from.
4 – The densest planting is on the southern side 5, 6 – Gillespies also designed the surrounding area, including a new piazza
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Another influence on the design of the interior reflects the fact that the garden runs roughly north-south. To the south is the intense financial district of Canary Wharf, to the north the residential and less affluent district of Poplar. At lower levels it is possible to pass through the building, but at the top the connection is entirely visual. Tall planting is on the southern edge, so that the northern edge is far more transparent, allowing views both out and in. For users of Canary Wharf this may be a whole new view. For people in Poplar it provides a connection to an area that many of them may previously have seen see as entirely separate from their everyday lives.
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Images ©: – Gillespies
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7 – Visitors to the garden will find it both relaxing and informative 8 – Plan showing the garden, the new piazza, and the waterway in which the new building sits 9 –The planting represents the finds made by plant hunters
But another division is between west and east. Given that the garden represents plants that have come from all over the world and also, a little more fancifully, because of its closeness to the Greenwich meridian, the garden has been divided by hemispheres.
There are large, mature trees in the garden. Some of these had to be craned in before the roof was completed. The heaviest of them have been positioned to sit over structural columns. These plants have the greatest depth of soil, at 1m, while the average across the entire garden is just 0.5m. The tree ferns have the opposite problem. Despite their impressive size, their roots are very shallow,
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typically around 10cm. They at present are supported by temporary structures, which will hold them up for the first few years. In addition, each one has an irrigation pipe running up its length, since they take much of their moisture from above rather than the ground. The irrigation therefore mimics the way that rain comes down to them from the high tree canopy in their natural habitat.
Images ©: – Gillespies
In the western half are plants that come predominantly from the western hemisphere. Most strikingly there is a ‘forest’ of tree ferns, interspersed with liquidambar (sweet gum). The more eastern part of the garden has a large number of temperate bamboos.
Key plants, east end
Key plants, west end
Trees Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ – Japanese maple Albizia julibrissin – Persian silk tree Amelanchier laevis – smooth serviceberry Magnolia kobus – northern Japanese magnolia
Trees Elaeagnus angustifolia – Russian olive Eucryphia x nymansensis ‘Nymansay’ – eucryphia ‘Nymansay’ Liquidambar styraciflua – sweet gum Arbutus unedo – strawberry tree Cornus florida – flowering dogwood Magnolia grandiflora – evergreen magnolia Dicksonia antarctica – soft tree fern Dicksonia fibrosa – golden tree fern Dicksonia squarrosa – brown tree fern
Image ©: – Gillespies
Planting Phyllostachys aurea – golden bamboo Phyllostachys nigra – black bamboo Phyllostachys aureosulcata f. spectabilis – zig-zag bamboo Sasa tessellata – dwarf bamboo Sasa tsuboiana – Japanese bamboo Sasa veitchii – Veitch’s bamboo Carex pendula – Pendulous sedge Deschampsia cespitosa – tussock grass Festuca gautieri – bearskin fescue Hakonechloa macra – hakonechloa Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ – Japanese anemone Astilbe japonica ‘Deutschland’ – astilbe Rodgersia podophylla – Rodger’s flower
Planting Athyrium niponicum var. pictum – Japanese painted fern Matteuccia struthiopteris – ostrich fern Dryopteris filix-mas – male fern Echinacea purpurea – purple coneflower Fatsia japonica – Japanese aralia Kniphofia ‘Alcazar’ – red hot poker Polygonatum x hybridum – common Solomon’s seal
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10 – Construction of the building has narrowed the waterway, and Gillespies has designed flood commutation measures
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Like any garden it will evolve. The final planting plan was, said Armel, less experimental than was envisaged originally. There will be plants that prosper and doubtless some that don’t thrive and will need to be replaced. But it is a generous space, exciting in its calm way, and not what one would expect to find on top of a seven-storey shopping centre – or indeed a new piece of transport infrastructure.
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Credits Landscape architect lead: Gillespies Specialist planting advice: Growth Industry Landscape contractor: Blakedown Landscapes Specialist tree fern: Kelways
Image ©: – Gillespies
There is no heating in the garden but it has, Armel says, its own microclimate and therefore he expects frosts to be infrequent. There are paths winding through the trees, benches (possibly not enough) and lighting bollards (possibly too many). The activities are kept to the ends with amphitheatres that can be used for events and cafés planned although not yet open. This leaves a calmer feeling of repose in the centre, in the garden itself. Gillespies stresses that this is a garden and not a park, and it is true that it has none of the myriad of activities that parks offer – just the plants, the paths, the seating and some rather well-designed information boards.
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Landscape Autumn 2015 37
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1 – Wenying Lake reconnects the expanding city of Datong to its natural environment
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Photo ©: 1 – AECOM
A lake reborn
Wenying Lake is providing much-needed leisure facilities for the growing Chinese city of Datong – and also improving its ecosystems. BY RUTH SLAVID
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To appreciate what has been done at Datong it is necessary to understand what has happened there historically, both in geological terms and in the time frame of the last few decades. Wenying Lake sits on the alluvial plain of the Yu River. In wetter times, centuries ago, the climate was warm and humid and the plain was a large lake. As the climate became drier, only a few areas of wetland remained, including Wenying Lake.
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Images ©: – AECOM
2 – The lake provides a vital amenity 3 – The sight of water, once so common, is now precious
an attractive leisure facility around an existing lake is a laudable thing to do, particularly in the centre of a city where such facilities are in short supply. This is what AECOM has done at Wenying Lake in the Chinese city of Datong in the region of Shanxi and for this it deserves praise. But what makes the project so much more interesting than ‘just’ an attractive piece of landscape is the history of the lake and the way in which its regeneration improves the way of life of Datong residents beyond the pleasure that they can derive from some relaxing evening strolls.
CREATING
4 – The yellow square represents the size of the city in the 1500s. Now it has expanded to engulf the lake. 5 – The walkway is raised and sits between the lake and a wetland reserve 6 – Masterplan – the area to the west will form a new cultural, government and sporting quarter.
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In the 1970s, local authorities took steps to maintain this precious resource in the now extremely dry climate. They built a 10km-long dyke to retain the water, creating a reservoir with its edges raised between 1 and 3m above the surrounding ground, and between 2 and 4m above the water level. But this rather crude intervention was not enough. As Datong city continued to grow, abstraction of ground water led to the continuing shrinkage of the lake. This was exacerbated by the nature of the local industry – the city, which is on the edge of China’s loess plateau and near the border with Mongolia, lies within the country’s coal belt.
Images ©: – AECOM
Salvation came at the start of this century, when the government decided to integrate reservoirs and river systems in the Taihang Mountains area, and channelled water from the Yellow River to refresh the watercourse. (This is part of a massive project in China to divert water from the Yellow River to drought-stricken areas, called the South-North Water Transfer Project. It is in addition to emergency measures that have been taken in drought crises, and is controversial. But for Wenying Lake, the results have definitely been positive).
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But the environment around the lake was also changing. Previously the city sat to one side of the lake, but with growth came a need for expansion and a new district was planned, to the east of the existing development, and with Wenying Lake at its heart. The aim was for the lake, no longer a nearby attraction but now an integral part of the city, to become a major site of leisure and revitalisation.
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The intention was twofold (and sometimes of course these aims can be opposed to each other): to provide a destination for leisure and to restore the eco-system. The task was made more complex by the fact that the lake had to continue to function as a reservoir and its storage capacity had to be guaranteed. It was seen as vital as well in regulating potential flooding in the region, and this was bound to increase with the new city construction and its concomitant growth in hard surfaces.
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The leisure element was essential because, prior to this project, the city, which has a population of more than 1.5 million, had only two exhausted parks providing open space. The result is an area that residents use mostly for strolling and walking and where they enjoy the sight, unusual in this district, of a large body of water. In addition there is a growing interest in fishing and in bird watching.
7 – There is a new public plaza
None of this could happen though without an approach that could guarantee that there is a large, clean, relatively unpolluted body of water which is sustainable in terms both of environmental profile and of volume. AECOM has combined four approaches to achieve this.
Image ©: – AECOM
AECOM therefore, when appointed to design the project, had to look at both the restoration of the lake and at fitting it to cope with the changing circumstances. In its entry to the 2013 Landscape Institute Awards, in which the project was highly commended in the large projects category (pipped to the post by Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay), the AECOM team wrote, ‘The aim of the project was to restore the ecosystem through meticulous planning and design, bringing back to life its waters and natural habitats in order to revive Wenying Lake to is former beauty.’
Wetland purification A large natural wetland was designed on the northern side of the lake, next to the northern embankment. Because of the embankment, this area has to be maintained by pumping water into it from the lake. This has a purifying effect, since the wetland cleans the water which is then pumped back into the lake to improve its water quality.
8, 9 – The park offers a broad range of vistas 10 – Diagram illustrating the water management approach
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Creation of a rain garden The project includes a public square, designed to be the most heavily used area. As a result, there is a risk of pollution emanating from the square and potentially running into the lake. To prevent this, AECOM has created a series of rain gardens around the square, into which run-off will drain and which act as an absorbing and purifying element. Sunken green space AECOM has created a sunken green space on the western side of the lake to compensate for the increase in hard surfaces that has been caused by relatively intense development. This has as its function ‘to regulate and store the rainfall flood in the flood season, facilitate rain infiltration, and improve the potential for flood control and waterlogging of the surrounding land.’
Because the wetland sits between the embankment and the road, in a depressed area, it would be of relatively restricted amenity use, since visitors using this area would be unable to see the lake, the main purpose of their visit. Instead, it can be used as a holding area when water levels are high, ameliorating flooding and helping to maintain the level of the water in the lake at dryer times. The area has a variety of habitats, including a rain garden and a landscape planting pool. In addition to its role in regulating the water level and quality of the lake, it provides an additional habitat for wild fowl. And for pedestrians, walking on a path placed on the embankment, there is an increase in interest since they are seeing the lake on one side and on the other the wetland area, increasing their experience of being near water.
Images ©: – AECOM
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Another important resource is a ‘bird island’ that has been constructed off the east embankment of the lake, which is more than 10 ha in size. Long ago, Wenying Lake was an important habitat which Siberian migratory birds used during their northsouth journeys, and the aim is to re-establish this stopping point. No human access is allowed apart from scheduled maintenance, and the planting is intended to provide food for the migrants. A series of shoals and beach areas have been created around the island, to provide food and shelter for water fowl. However good a habitat is created, its impact will be limited if it is isolated from its surroundings. At Wenying Lake, the design team has recognised this, linking the lake to a green corridor in the grassland north and south of the lake, which in
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11 – Four seasons carnations grow in the waterfront buffering belt 12 – It’s not just nature – sculpture has also been introduced to the park 13 – A welcome respite – this is almost the only open space available to the city.
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turn joins the forest park of Mapu Mountain to the north and the Shilihe Wetland (to the south of the Yu River) This layout defines the future development of Datong providing an environmental buffer to the extension of the city. The approach has worked, with thousands of waterfowl using the bird island and surrounding area, including hundreds of swans. These environmental results have been achieved alongside more conventional ‘parklike’ approaches, such as the creation of a sculpture garden around the main square. The result is a facility that would be welcome anywhere, but that in Datong, with its lack of public space, is twice as valuable.
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Images ©: – AECOM
Planting, habitat and soils Getting the planting and the soil right was essential to this project. The approach had to be appropriate for the dry climate and rapid evaporation in the region, as well as the fact that most of the planted areas would be prone to flooding at some time. The designers used large hybrid particles in the planting soil in order to increase water infiltration, and combined grass, shrubs and trees with the indigenous ground cover. Since most of the area is gently sloping down to water, the majority of the plants are suited to wetland.
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MULTIPLI CITY
™
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Technical By Richard James MacCowan, Joseph Clancy and Allison Hibbs.
Loving nature Landscape architecture has an increasing important role to play in the Living Building Challenge, an American concept not yet fully understood in the UK.
T
h e renowned biologist and town planner Patrick Geddes, said, ‘How many people think twice about a leaf? Yet the leaf is the chief product and phenomenon of Life: this is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent upon the leaves’. This idea of the interconnected nature of life on earth is the key driver of the Living Building Challenge. Its standard, as the current handbook states, ‘defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek.’ The Living Building Challenge, developed by the International Living Building Institute, International Living Future Institute and Cascadia Green Building Council, is ‘a philosophy, certification and advocacy tool for projects to move beyond merely being less bad and to become truly regenerative’. Since its launch in the United States in 2006, the standard
has served as a programme for commending innovative renovations new builds, and landscape infrastructure projects by requiring projects to meet the criteria of 20 imperatives, broken into seven categories, or ‘petals’. To date, there are around 250 registered projects and 26 certified projects across the world, ranging from full ‘living’ status to partial certification in the case of net-zero and ‘petal certified’ projects. To submit a project, the design team must register the project with the International Living Future Institute to enable access to resources and clarification of project outcomes. A final audit is carried out postoccupancy, by a Living Building Challenge assessor, with 12-months’ data to prove that the project is adhering to the standards. A project achieves Living Certification or Living Building Certification by attaining all Imperatives assigned to its typology. All 20 imperatives are required for buildings, 15 for renovations and 17 for
landscape and infrastructure projects. As of 2015, there are no projects in the UK although a number of schemes are in the pipeline. The best known projects are the Bullitt Center, Seattle and the Phipps Centre for Sustainable Landscapes, Pittsburgh. Both of these projects have full Living Building Challenge certification. The design paradigms have the ultimate goal of mimicking selfsustaining ecosystems. To achieve this, the process of the standard calls for connecting to nature (biophilia), learning from nature (biomimicry), and regenerating the natural elements. This process requires designers to consider ecosystem services that benefit not just humankind, but all life on earth. These are important themes that relate to the role of the landscape architect, who may be the most valuable, yet most underused, asset in designing projects aiming for ‘Living’ certification. When the landscape architect plays an integral role in the design process from the start, qualities such as hydrologic best management practices, place-making,
Image ©: 1 – Paul Pod
1 – At Thames Barrier Park, London, the diversity of vegetation allows for the visual properties of seasonality to be displayed, connecting individuals to natural systems (a pattern of biophilic design) and allowing for ‘layers’ of biophilic design to be implemented increasing the design’s robustness
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its processes and life-like forms. It is a design ethic that aims to restore natural stimuli to our built environments. Interaction with nature and immersion in environments where nature is present, or biophilia, has a number of benefits, including: reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and stress; enhanced mood and self esteem; and improved levels of productivity. Biophilic design has an important role in the Living Building Challenge, which up until now has been largely concerned with building structures
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and not with natural processes. This is now changing and there is a larger role for landscape architects. While many may initially misconstrue the standard as a certificate programme aiming to reduce energy, pollution and embodied energy through the use of sustainable materials and renewables, it also aims to modify behaviours of a building’s occupants that contribute to environmental degradation, partly through biophilia. Interaction with nature instills a sense of environmental stewardship among individuals and in turn leads to the adoption of more sustainable habits. Naturally, landscape architecture has a significant role to play in this aspect of the challenge. For instance, creating biophilic environments for interiors usually consists of adopting natural analogues or representational nature – non-living, inorganic shapes, forms and patterns found in nature – where living nature is unfeasible in many cases. However,
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indirect experiences of nature do not elicit as strong a biophilic response as living, direct experiences of nature. This underlines the importance of external biophilic environments, the domain of the landscape architect, (where the choice of feasible, direct experiences of nature is greater and more effective) in creating truly immersive biophilic spaces that make our built environments more liveable. Through landscape architecture,
2 – Landscape is an integral part of the overall design at the Bullitt Center, Seattle, USA. 3 – The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, Pittsburgh, USA produces all its own renewable energy, and treats and reuses all water captured on site, thus demonstrating the benefits of humanity living in harmony with nature. 4 – Tree-lined avenues and the presence of water create a biophilic environment at Eastside City Park, Birmingham.
Image ©: 2 – Denmarsh Photography Inc 3 – Taomeister 4 – Guy Evans
urban farming, direct experiences of nature, and native plant arrays can best contribute to a successful, ‘living’ site design. One of the major goals of the Living Building Challenge is to reconnect individuals with natural systems, while providing spaces with access to nature that restore and enhance health and wellbeing. This ethic is known as biophilic design. Biophilic design is based upon the concept of biophilia; the innate tendency for humans to associate with nature,
5 – Paley Park in Manhattan, New York, encapsulates all the elements of successful biophilic landscape design.
it is possible to weave biophilia throughout the design process of the standard. Biophilic environments, urban agriculture, water management, equitable access to nature, human space and humane places are all challenge imperatives that can benefit from applications of biophilic design through landscape architecture. For the successful implementation of biophilic design in the standard, to bridge the divide between the natural and built environments, landscape architecture’s role is crucial, due to our profession’s knowledge, skill set and ‘natural’ inclinations. Biomimicry is about looking to nature for inspiration, whether it be in forms, functions, materials, processes or systems, and we can abstract the principles from nature to develop innovative solutions to tackle the challenges we are facing in the 21st century. It is about being more efficient and productive and not maximising, but optimising, our way of life.
Image ©: 5 – Bill Browning / Terrapin Bright Green, LLC
There is no copyright in nature, and there are billions of potential solutions all around us.
This approach to thinking about design is embedded in the standard (and the recently launched Living Community Challenge) and runs through its ethos. A landscape architect can approach the standard by thinking in systems, taking into account the interconnectedness of nature. They can look at the connections and relationships between everything from the eco-regions down to the habitat and consider successful patterns in nature energy
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flows, information exchange, building from small parts, feedback loops, community and evolution. The standard refers to nature as model, mentor and measure throughout. What this means is that during the design process the project should consider how to directly or indirectly mimic nature, take the principles of how life works to create a interconnected design matrix and develop performance tools based on how an ecosystem functions. The real difference in using biomimicry is that the designer can start looking at the billions of examples of biological entities and how they interact with the design in context. It challenges you to really consider how nature functions in the landscape you are designing. The biggest challenge is working with scientists throughout the process to ensure the accuracy of the information abstracted from nature and ensure the design can adhere to a performance standard created by looking at successful ecosystems in the area. There is no copyright in nature, and there are billions of potential solutions all around us. The Living Building Challenge calls for contemporary projects that promote ‘socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative’ communities. Unlike an archetypal sustainable
development, a project that reaches ‘living’ status is actually capable of restoring the site to reflect the natural systems of the pre-developed site. One of the most significant qualities of the standard is that standards require schemes to be ‘net-positive’ rather than merely ‘net-zero’ in relation to water, energy, and ecological regeneration. ‘Regenerative design’ is a concept that exceeds the expectations found in green-washing and many more notorious sustainability certifications. A successful site will mimic the vernacular and native ecologies by implementing a closed-loop system that produces and stores its own food, water and energy, and even heals beyond the site boundary through carbon offsets and contributions to conservation groups. In order to preserve intact ecosystems or agricultural land, the standard limits future development to previously developed sites and sites already surrounded by urban development. Additionally, these grey- and brownfield sites will be restored to become thriving ecosystems. Project teams are required to set aside land easements equal to the size of their developed site or, alternatively, buy habitat exchanges managed by a local land trust or conservation group. Projects must also grow and store Landscape Autumn 2015 49
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6 – The ‘petals’ of the Living Building Challenge.
1. Place Restoring a healthy interrelationship with nature
7. Beauty
2. Water
Celebrating design that uplifts the human spirit
Creating developments that operate within the water balance of a given place and climate
6. Equity
3. Energy
Supporting a just, equitable world
Relying only on current solar income
5. Materials
4. Health & happiness
Endorsing products that are safe for all species through time
Creating environments that optimise physical and psychological health and wellbeing
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new ground. Over time, feedback from a diverse array of stakeholders actively using the standard will shape it, just as the UK collaboration is developing based on UK regulations. The goal is also to keep raising the bar and developing collaborative frameworks, whilst moving forthcoming projects closer to the goal of a regenerative future.
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More information can be found here: Living Building Challenge (v3.0): www.living-future.org/lbc Living Community Challenge: www.living-future.org/lcc Living Building Challenge UK Collaborative: www.livingbuildingchallengeuk. wordpress.com Biomimicry UK: www.biomimicry-uk.org Denmarsh Photography: www.denmarsh.com
Richard James MacCowan is an awardwinning urbanist and director and co-founder of Biomimicry UK, a collaborative social enterprise working on a variety of innovation projects across the globe. He has written extensively on behavioural economics, biomimicry and biophilia, and delivered presentations to a number of leading universities across Europe. Joseph Clancy is a landscape architect specialising in biophilic design. He is the co-author of Terrapin Bright Green’s 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design (2014), has written educational materials on biophilic design for organisations including Green Plants for Green Buildings and has facilitated CPD workshops for built-environment professionals interested in incorporating biophilia into their projects. Allison Hibbs is a landscape architect and urban designer from the United States, and an ambassador for the Living Building Challenge, UK Collaborative. Allison is currently working as an associate of Biomimicry UK on a community-led net-positive project in Scotland.
Image ©: 6 – Allison Hibbs
food on site, proportionate to the developed site floor area. This compels the project team to design a means for producing organic foods and crops which will be regenerative resources in both current and future seasons. Landscape architects may be able to implement creative design solutions such as raised beds or vertical growing, both inside and outside. As part of the ‘beauty’ petal, a project must fulfil two imperatives, ‘beauty and spirit’ and ‘inspiration and education.’ Artistic developments are indispensable to cultural regeneration and placemaking. Generating spaces where people actually want to be can be just as critical to overall well-being as clean air, energy, and organic foods. The Living Building Challenge is more than just a ‘green’ certification scheme, it is about considering how we can learn from nature at the outset and use natural processes in the development of the built environment. The aim is to have an ever-evolving living programme developed by project teams breaking
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Landscape Autumn 2015 51
Technical By Ruth Slavid
Green roof myths There are still misapprehensions about green roofs, as the doyen of their development, Dusty Gedge, has discovered.
W
e all know about green roofs now, don’t we? They are a generally good thing, they are enshrined in policy in London and several other cities, and we can all recite the advantages – biodiversity, reduction in temperature variation, ameliorating the urban heat island. Where once pioneers trumpeted the advantages of green roofs, now we all know what there is to know don’t we? Well, no we don’t. At least not according to the doyen of green roofs (and I hope he is chuckling at that description) Dusty Gedge. Currently president of the European Federation of Green Roof Associations (‘from punk to president, what a rise!’ he says), Dusty came to his enthusiasm for green roofs through bird watching and a desire to recreate the rubble habitats that were lost when derelict sites were redeveloped. As a pioneer he was leading tours to Switzerland well over a decade ago to enable architects 52 Landscape Autumn 2015
to see how enlightened planning (and impressive injections of cash) could result in a proliferation of successful, biodiverse and well-loved green roofs. Myth one: green roofs and PV When I went on one of these trips in 2004, one of the high points as far as Dusty was concerned was to demonstrate a roof that combined planting and PV generation. There is evidence closer to hand as well that it can work. In the London Borough of Lewisham, for example, which has been one of the leading proponents of green roofs, some 20% of these roofs house solar panels. Yet there is still, he argues, a myth that the two are incompatible. It is a myth that he is keen to dispel. As a result of these concerns, Dusty has been the driving force behind the formation of the Biosolar Roof project, a consortium of organisations in several European countries with the aim of building accredited training
programmes that will develop workforce skills to install and maintain a green roof that will hold solar panels as well as stimulate pollinators. Dusty explains why this is important. ‘You have constructors who understand green roofs and constructors who understand solar panels,’ he says, ‘but there is a need for constructors to understand both simuitaneously.’ This is not just a question of technology but also of thinking about biodiversity. ‘How could a solar panel make a green roof better for pollinators, for solitary bees and for butterflies?’ he asks. ‘The solar panel creates topography, it creates shade, and it creates structure on a roof which can affect what type of vegetation can grow, in many ways in a positive way.’ In order to get these advantages, he says, it is important to get the balance right between energy generation, biodiversity and the other benefits of green roofs. This means, he says, ‘that you can’t pack a roof with PV.’ A
Image ©: 1 – Stuart Connop
1
1 – The biosolar roof on London’s Olympics Media Centre 2, 3 – A roof beside Lake Zurich, Switzerland
2
Images ©: 2, 3 – Dusty Gedge
typical distance should be around 1m between panels, and also around 1m between rows. Rainwater will drip off the edges of the panels, providing extra moisture to the plants that are near these edges and enhancing biodiversity. And too often, Dusty says, we think about PV and ignore the benefits of solar thermal. ‘Solar thermal,’ he says, ‘can allow rain through and provide shade in times of extended sun – thus allowing for different planting schedules.’ Because there is a complex interrelationship between the different
3
elements, both in terms of biodiversity and of fixing, it is important that one person takes responsibility. And since this is a biodiverse roof that also generates energy, rather than a solar installation that happens to have some planting beneath it, the right person to do this, believes Dusty, is the landscape architect. ‘In many ways,’ he says, ‘the landscape architect needs to take control of the green roof element and the features that the solar panels sit on to ensure that the landscape and solar integration works. Supplying the panels themselves and taking control of the wiring should be the limit of the engineer’s responsibility.’ Myth two: brown roofs If the incompatibility of PV and green roofs is a myth that Dusty has always been ready to dispel, his other myth is more surprising – not least because it is one that he believed in himself for some time. Speaking at an
event at the start of this year organised by SWIG (the Sustainable Water Industry Group) he said that brown roofs don’t really work, at least not in the way that they are conceived in this country. Yet, he admits, ‘I was one of the five people who came up with the brown roof idea’. When you understand where his belief in green roofs comes from it is easy to see why the brown roof was, superficially, so attractive. While certain green roofs – especially intensive roofs with garden-like planting – can provide fantastic amenity, this does not necessarily equate with biodiversity. And it is the biodiversity that is Dusty’s driver, starting in particular from his lifelong interest in birdwatching, and in particular in the fate of the black redstart, the bird that so successfully colonised London’s bombsites. Green roof enthusiasts are keen on recreating those habitats as closely as possible. Sedum mats, while simple Landscape Autumn 2015 53
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Image ©: 4 – Nathalie Baumann
4 – This roof belonging to a company in Switzerland is an excellent example of biodiversity. It uses four different substrates to create a range of habitats.
to apply and creating a reasonable appearance rapidly, are not popular with ecologists either. Instead, why not just put some rubble up on the roof, and let nature take its course? The problem is that this approach, so good in theory, just doesn’t work. What starts as an unappealing-looking collection of brown rubble too often ends up as an unappealing looking collection of brown rubble. Either not much grows, or the wrong things – for example colonisation by that rampaging thug buddleia davidii. And yet it worked so well in Switzerland, that country whose green roof policy all enthusiasts are eager to emulate. Why couldn’t it work here? The reason is geology. Most brown roofs (or rubble roofs) are created by scraping up material from the floor of the construction site and putting it on the roof. And depending on where you are, that can be very different. In Switzerland, especially in cities like Basel, which pioneered much of the green roof development, the ground consists of alluvial gravels. Use these for your brown roof and it has a good chance of prospering. But in London, for instance, you are likely to get a mixture of London clay and old concrete and, experience shows, it doesn’t work. One of the reasons is that it just doesn’t have the water-holding properties that are needed. ‘Substrates and growing mediums need to be able to hold water,’ Dusty says, ‘not only for successful vegetation but also to provide sustainable drainage control.’ The underlying reason behind this is that roofs need to be about replication, not reproduction. You cannot simply reproduce what happened on the ground by lifting off the top surface and putting it on the roof, because it is just not the same. And that is for a reason that is easily understood once you think about it. The soil has a whole structure lying beneath it, of subsoil and underlying rock, which influences the way that the surface behaves in terms of holding nutrients and water. Put that same surface on a roof and instead what it has beneath it is a roofing membrane, some insulation and,
You cannot simply reproduce what happened on the ground by lifting off the top surface and putting it on the roof.
ultimately, a building. So to recreate the habitat that you want, you have to do it by different means. Fortunately, Dusty says, there are good substrates available commercially. ‘A good green roof substrate is in keeping the with the original green roof idea – generally brick-based and provides the right balance to create the type of dry grasslands associated with many brownfield sites.’ By seeding these roofs, you create the biodiversity that you want almost immediately. The roofs look better, and you keep out those brutish invaders, or at least make life more difficult for them. As so often, the ‘natural effect’ is best created by intelligently artificial means. What these two myths reveal is that,
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Landscape Autumn 2015 55
Technical
•
The Biosolar Roof Project The primary aim of this project is to build accredited training programmes that will develop workforce skills to install and maintain a green roof that will hold solar panels as well as stimulate pollinators. It is supported by a consortium that is a mixture of small to large, public and private organisations united in developing an innovative curriculum around sustainable rooftop construction. It offers higher education research and vets providers allied with private construction businesses successfully selling this service in the European marketplace.
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56 Landscape Autumn 2015
5 – The roof of Nomura Bank in London.
The intended outputs are to produce a programme of training for contractors on green roofs that is; • designed to facilitate solar panels • designed to stimulate pollinators • designed to do both the above. For more information see www.biosolarroof.com The European Biosolar Roof Conference will take place in London on 28 September. See http://biosolarroof.eu/
Image ©: 5 – Dusty Gedge
while the principles of green roofs are now generally appreciated, there is still a lot to be learnt about the details of their design and execution. And that is scarcely surprising. As anybody who has experienced a roof failure can attest, we have had conventional roofs for millennia, and we are still learning how to make them better.
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Practice By Mike Shilton
BIM – Getting to Level 2 With the deadline for Level 2 BIM fast approaching, the Landscape Institute’s BIM Working Group can offer timely advice.
O
v er the past year, the Landscape Institute’s BIM Working Group has successfully run a series of masterclass events that have guided LI members through the requirements of BIM at each stage of a project. Discussions at these events showed that there is still some concern about what impact BIM will have on the landscape sector and some uncertainty over what it will mean in practice for landscape professionals. With just a few months to go until the January 2016 deadline for the Government’s mandate that Level 2 BIM must be used on all centrally procured projects, including landscape, it is appropriate that we build on the masterclass events by offering some practical advice on achieving BIM compliance. The first step in making BIM a much simpler process is to change the way that we think about it. Much of the uncertainty and confusion about BIM is caused by thinking of it as a generic software model that applies in the same way to all businesses and all projects. Level 2 BIM requires a minimum of 2D CAD with, where appropriate, managed 3D data that can be held in separate BIM applications with data attached. Information can be exchanged with supporting documentation for collaborative working. Therefore, people often think that this means the solution
to achieving BIM lies in buying new, expensive software and hardware. Don’t make this mistake; BIM is a process not a software solution. At a recent presentation, Richard Lane from the UK BIM Task Group used a great sporting analogy to define BIM and I think this is a really useful starting point for anyone embarking on the BIM process. Trying to engage with BIM is like trying to get fit through sport. We all know we should be doing it and that it is good for us. However, every person’s level of engagement will differ as will their preferred means of getting and keeping fit. Some know that they should do it but don’t. Some treat it is an activity that they do regularly and others train to be gold medallists. For some of us sport can be walking, running, canoeing and for others it can be badminton, football or shot put. In some cases you do this alone and in others as part of a team. You may also take part in different sports with different people. In a similar way, BIM will be different for everyone and will change depending on whether you are working as part of a team and who your partners will be. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or one size fits all approach. What this means for landscape designers, architects and contractors, is that BIM requirements will differ on each project and it is only by sitting down and talking with your clients
and design partners that you will find out what you need to be BIM Level 2 compliant. The following checklist may help you to consider your approach to achieving BIM compliance: 1. Your BIM implementation plan. Rather than assuming you need to be BIM Level 2 compliant, work out if and why you want to be and what benefit it will bring to you as a business. Like any other business decision, it is recommended that you develop your own BIM Implementation Plan (BIP). This is your company’s blueprint for introducing BIM over a period of time. It should align to your three-to-fiveyear business plan. With each project, try to look for new ‘BIM wins’, i.e. a new process, system, procedure, software purchase, training, etc. that can be introduced to move you along your BIM timeline. 2. Talk to your clients and design partners. Find out whether you need to be BIM Level 2 compliant to work with them from January 2016 or in the future and how they will be assessing compliance. Every project is different so ask each client what they mean by BIM and find out what information you will need to deliver. Once you understand the outputs you need to provide, review what changes are required to deliver them. Landscape Autumn 2015 59
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Practice
1 – The essential elements of a BIM Implementation Plan.
3. Review the Employers Information Requirements (EIR). The EIR forms part of the appointment and tender documents on a BIM project. This will define the management processes to be used, and what information needs to be produced at each project stage, including the models and the level of detail and definition required. 4. Resource planning is key. You need to identify project leads, teams and stakeholders at the outset and be clear about their roles and responsibilities at each stage of the project. 5. The BIM Execution Plan. For each project there should be a BIM Execution Plan (BEP). This should be agreed at the outset and defines what BIM means for the project. This will
define the standards being adopted, outputs required, when these should be supplied and in what format, plus any supporting documentation. It may stipulate the software to be used but in most cases this can be accommodated by imports and exports from existing software.
to do with BIM and becomes an important business/ financial decision, i.e. is the project or client so important that you are willing to change your current practices and software? The level of investment is then up to you to decide, based on possible returns and future opportunities.
6. Can you deliver these requirements? Starting with the BIM Execution Plan, work back and review whether you can deliver your clients’ requirements through your existing software, processes and people or whether change or investment is required. Try to work with what you know and do already.
8. Use the pillars of BIM to signpost you in the right direction. The Government has outlined seven main elements of BIM, often referred to as the pillars of BIM. These provide the standards, processes and protocols that should be considered when working on a BIM Level 2 project and will point you in the right direction. The pillars are: PAS1192-2, PAS1192-3, PAS1192-4, Building Information Modelling Protocol, Government Soft Landings, Digital Plan of Work (NBS BIM Toolkit) and Classification (in preparation).
7. Is it worth the investment? If change is required, for example training, outsourcing, new software or data security systems, this has less
Talk to your clients Talk to your employees
Invest in training
Set realistic targets
Your BIM implementation plan
Identify suitable projects
1
Landscape Autumn 2015 61
62 Landscape Autumn 2015
Practice
Design and construction BIM checklist Project name: 2 – Example of a checklist that you could use on a BIM project.
1.Project Initiation
2.Project Management
Project lead identified
Project brief agreed with client
Employer’s Information requirements defined
BIM execution plan created in response to client brief
Project coordinator identified
Stakeholders engaged including facility manager
Appropriate design partners engaged
Systemic ownership of design / construction data, and when agreed
Information and interface managers identified
Roles and responsibilities defined for each stage of the project
Common data environment agreed
Agree plan of works, level of detail and data drops agreed at each stage
BIM toolkit digital plan of works to be used
Federated model methodology defined
Virtual design reviews, clash testing standards, timings and protocol agreed
Informal data drops and data sharing between design teams agreed
3.Client Engagement 4.Process Defined
Soft landing (handover) strategy agreed
5.Contractor Engagement Main contractor engaged and information requirements agreed
Project exchange formats, software(s) protocols and standards agreed
Supplier
Manufacturers’ / suppliers’ information requirements defined
6.Deliverable Key Sub-contractor(s) engaged and information requirements agreed
Required Handover to client
Contract obligations fulfilled
Mark if required Complete
The above is a guide to the main activities that should be considered when implementing a ‘BIM project’ at the design construction (Capex) phase only. It is not a timeline that must be adhered to nor does it provide a definitive list of activities that are appropriate to all projects. 2
Landscape Autumn 2015 63
Practice
(PAS1192-5 should be approved at the time of this publication and will offer guidance for security-minded BIM projects.) 9. Make the most of free tools. The free-to-use NBS BIM toolkit has been developed to make it easy to define who is doing what on a BIM project. It provides step-by-step help to define, manage and validate responsibility for information development and delivery at each stage of the asset lifecycle. It provides a digital plan of works that sets out the levels of detail and information required at all stages – see https://toolkit.thenbs.com/ 10. Embrace change. Building a case for BIM is getting easier as more and more organisations assess the impact that BIM has had on project delivery. Testimonials from organisations that have embraced BIM reflect the positive long-term benefits and lessons learned. Use these to support the case for BIM within your organisation, participate in networking and events to learn from others and don’t be afraid to ask questions and seek out those who are practiced in BIM.
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For more information, guidance and support with BIM compliance, visit www.landscapeinstitute.co.uk/bim. The Landscape Institute is running two masterclasses on BIM, on Wednesday 23 September in Bristol and on Thursday 29 October at a Scottish venue. Find details and book here www.landscapeinstitute.org/events/ training.php For your free BIM guide, checklist and jargon buster, visit www.keysoftsolutions.com/bim
Mike Shilton is chair of the Landscape Institute’s BIM Working Group and is a product director at landscape design software developer Keysoft Solutions.
64 Landscape Autumn 2015
BIM FAQ Do I have to be BIM Level 2 compliant? Yes, if you want to work on landscape projects that are funded by central government. For other projects it will vary according to the client, type of project and the type and nature of work your business is targeting. It essentially becomes a business decision, i.e. is the value of the anticipated work you could win worth the investment you will need to make? It is anticipated that many local authorities will start to require BIM as prequalification criteria for tenders and it is already a prerequisite for many large design-and-build projects in the construction sector. Not being BIM-compliant may restrict the type of projects you can target in future. Do I need to buy software? Not necessarily; it depends on the project and client requirements. People mistakenly believe the solution to achieving BIM lies in buying new expensive software and hardware. You can’t buy ‘BIM in a Box’ as it is a process. Once the BIM Execution Plan (BEP) is agreed, assess your own software and hardware and work with the project team to assess whether what you need to deliver can be achieved with the software and processes you already use. For example, if you are already using Keysoft solutions or similar landscape design software, it is already proprietary BIM Level 2 compliant. What about security? How do I ensure data remains both available and secure? You need to discuss data security requirements with your client at the initial stages as part of the project and build these into you BEP. There are cloud storage services which are free, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, but these only offer a low level of security. If data security is a critical aspect of the project, you will need to invest in more secure systems. The cost of this depends on the project, client and the sensitivity of the data. What are Product Data Templates? Product Data Templates (PDTs) will define a standard format for exchanging and comparing product information and allows suppliers and manufacturers to engage with BIM. The LI BIM Working Group has currently created 17 of the 65 planned landscape-based PDTs with the rest planned for the end of the year. The issued PDTs are available to download and use from the LI website and more information on PDTs can be found on the BIMTalk website. What is COBie and do I need to use it? The Government has identified the Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie) as the leading method of data exchange for BIM. It is essentially a data set which can be edited in a spreadsheet. A good way to think of it is, if you have all the BIM information for your landscape project and want to put it in a suitcase and take it somewhere else, then COBie is the suitcase that allows you to transfer the data from one place to another. COBie is basically an exchange format to help share information upstream with facilities managers and the rest of the project team. Clients may have their own operations management processes and software so COBie may not be required as a deliverable on all BIM projects.
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Landscape Autumn 2015 65
A Word By Tim Waterman
‘Decant’ is symbolic in a host of ways. A silver chalice of it can represent the blood of a historic martyr. A cellar full of aged vintages represents private family wealth and educated taste. A table with wine at the centre at any income level represents conviviality, togetherness, sharing, family and community. In France and Spain, for example, where wine is central to culture, it represents a wealth of heritage that is shared across all classes and which undergirds a whole national identity.
WINE
The great comfort such symbols and rituals afford us (not to mention the tipsiness following what Auden called ‘the cloop of corks’) points to the incredible importance of establishing place, whether around the table or in the spaces of communities, and of human association in rooms and landscapes that accrue significance when they are filled with love and laughter. Thus it is with sinister irony that some bright spark thought it fit to use the term ‘decant’ to describe the process whereby, in one council’s ‘Decant Policy’, ‘residents are compelled to move from their homes because either their landlord or an authority with compulsory purchase powers has redevelopment plans for their home.’ Oh yes, let’s examine this irony. What happens when a wine is decanted? Usually a wine to be decanted is a vintage one. It is gently aerated by the process, and most importantly the good, clear wine is separated from the bitter dregs at the bottom of the bottle. It is an easy step from here to determine just what the dregs represent. These are the urban poor to be discarded and rinsed away. Who knows where the drain leads. Who cares? 66 Landscape Autumn 2015
Here, however, is where the symbolism of ‘decanting’ people ends in its similarity to that of wine. Wine gains from a long association with place, whether this is where the vines are rooted, a cellar rested in, or a culinary culture that has developed over time. The French call this ‘terroir’: deep place, deep time, deep satisfaction. Decanting people treats a building as a simple vessel, empty of association built up over time, and of context. Finally, we have come to glorify the winemaker. Face wrinkled and baked like the stony soil. Dirt under the fingernails. Not so the urban poor. They have no right to the fruits of their labour or to a deep connection with place and community. What trump their rights are the processes in which developers, aided by a weakened planning system and the exodus of capable designers and planners from the public sector, present ‘viability assessments’ which protect their profits while pruning away any planning gain that might provide homes for low-income people. Those low-income people have a right to landscape and a right to the city, but these rights are bulldozed by a de facto ‘right to profit’ of the developers. It’s not just the urban poor, but us – landscape professionals who have struggled through the recent recession – who know one thing for certain: there is no ‘right to profit’. So let’s not ‘decant’ people. Let’s be honest about the fact that they are being forced from their homes rather than dressing the process up in pseudogracious language. Then both we and they will be more clear-sighted about the whole debacle. And then in the good times we can decant a little bit of clear, vintage wine together with clear consciences.
•
Image ©: – Agnese Sanvito
Such strong symbolism of the beverage itself naturally spills over into the associations we have with the actions and paraphernalia that are part of the rituals associated with wine. From wine-making to storing, to presenting, serving, and drinking, every layer of dust, every glistening glint of crystal, every red drop soaking gently into a crisp white napkin has great significance.
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