Decking | 27

WHY YOU SHOULD INSTALL DECKING IN THE WINTER

There are a few good reasons why you shouldn’t wait until spring comes around to consider new decking, as winter can prove the most efficient time to install decking in your garden.

For instance, if you’re conscious about disrupting life in your garden, an installation in the colder months gives plenty of time for wildlife and plants to recover. By the time spring comes around again, your garden will be in great shape for enjoying the best of the season.

It’s also a good time for the decking too, giving it a longer period to settle before the temperature changes again, so long as you include the right gaps when installing your decking. If you are installing your own decking, leave gaps of around 8mm to allow for your deck to expand once it heats up again. This also allows water to drain away easily, and prevents pooling water.

If you are using wood, winter also offers the ideal time to allow your deck to cure at a steady speed, without the adverse impact of the sunshine on this process.

Installation in the winter also means it won’t get in the way of any summer plans, and you can beat the busy period when it comes to having a choice of installers to fit your new deck.

Just because the days are cooler, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your new space. Decked areas can be home to warming fire pits and atmospheric lighting, and outdoor rugs and cushions offer the chance to make a decked seating space cosy through the colder months.

When it comes to rugs, it’s important to choose these carefully, as some materials can cause additional damage. Avoid any metal components, which can scratch and rust, leading to staining. Rugs with latex or rubber backing are also best avoided, as they can leave marks on decking boards. The best choices are fast-woven and vinyl-backed rugs, which are resistant to moulds and mildew. A deck can also nicely complement an outhouse, pergola or other shelters, to let you enjoy being outdoors whilst fending off the worst of the winter weather.

When choosing your deck, there are plenty of considerations on price, garden shape and size, and durability. Composite decking can be a good option during cold and rainy seasons, as, unlike timber decking, composite is more resistant to a whole range of winter climates. For instance, its grooved boards can offer a great non-slip surface, whilst it’s also resistant to moisture build-up that would otherwise cause mould and mildew on traditional timber decking.

That also makes it a great surface to withstand the snow and ice, so long as you follow simple care instructions. Avoid metal shovels, and instead, use plastic with care, or choose a soft bristle brush to sweep leaves or snow from your decking.

ANX FOREGROUNDS COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLNESS AT SAGE GARDENS

ANX / AARON NEUBERT ARCHITECTS

The award-winning Los Angeles based practice, known for creating beautifully crafted and sustainable architecture, takes on the affordable senior housing market.

Addressing California’s urgent need for quality affordable housing, ANX / Aaron Neubert Architects transformed a vacant and topographically nondescript Sacramento site into the prototype for an entirely affordable housing community for the national senior housing developer, CCH. The plans provide for 144 units for seniors to live and thrive in, with their new homes flooded with natural light and integrated with the landscape.

Aimed at developing a tool kit to deploy across multiple jurisdictions and site configurations, ANX created a flexible environment of planned and organic strategies that encourage health through social engagement and communion with nature. The linear low-rise site plan of stacking and interlocking modular units provides all essential support services found in a modern senior living facility, while focusing on ease of living and a fluid connection with the common areas of the site.

Organized around a continuous socially dynamic exercise and circulation path, conjoining housing clusters, community gardens, recreational and amenity facilities, and the social services hub, the looped configuration foregrounds a garden-centric lifestyle tracing daily activities through the droughttolerant landscape. Along the loop, the building massing and programmatic distribution create a series of microclimates, expanding the linear progression of the site into a network of exterior rooms.

To successfully navigate the numerous entitlement, funding, construction budget, and schedule challenges associated with affordable housing, the design team elected to utilize a fully modular construction method. Each residential cluster is achieved through the conjoining of six prefabricated units into one of three configurations. Each configuration is positioned to maximize the effectiveness of solar and environmental controls, and fitted with an array of photovoltaic panels and brise-soleil to reduce heat gain and encourage passive cooling.

Direct access to raised-bed edible roof gardens and shared outdoor spaces emphasizes the primacy of social equity, as well as the physical and mental health of the residents. In further support of the holistic well-being of the community, the project includes a primary social services hub, as well as three related satellite modular structures located along the circulation loop. While the hub houses administration offices, a café, community rooms, and flexible social service/medical rooms, the satellites contain laundry and recreational functions, further encouraging social interaction among the tenants.

The gardens enveloping these structures serve as gathering spaces – a public gesture – encouraging the types of resident and neighborhood interaction often missing in affordable housing.

Technical sheet

Project Name: Sage Gardens Location: Sacramento, California USA Client: CCH Architect: ANX / Aaron Neubert Architects Structural Engineers: Labib Funk + Associates Civil Engineers: Labib Funk + Associates MEP Engineers: Hariton Engineering Landscape Designer: ANX / Aaron Neubert Architects Code Consultant: Churchill Engineering Project Completion Date: November 2023

NEW TREE-LINED PLAZA WELCOMES NEW ARRIVALS TO BRIDLINGTON

Bridlington is on Yorkshire’s East Coast, sited 15 miles south from Scarborough, and just a mile from the dramatic cliffs of Flamborough Head. Bridlington offers a charming mix of traditional seaside attractions, as well as an incredible 15 miles of stunning golden beach, stretching as far south as Hornsea.

Phase Two of the £13.3m Bridlington Integrated Transport Plan, included a total redesign and transformation of the frontage of Bridlington’s railway station. The new Station Plaza features improved access roads, new short-stay and disabled parking, a taxi rank and coach drop-off point, as well as an inviting pedestrian area with contemporary seating and tree planting, to provide not only shade but also vital storm water attenuation – a green and welcoming first impression for visitors to the seaside town.

Green-tech involvement:

The contracting work was awarded to Hull-based PBS Construction, who are a family business with strong ties to Bridlington. PBS asked Greentech to provide a structural tree pit system that would enable the trees planted within the hard landscaping around the plaza to establish without risk of soil compaction.

A total of twelve trees were planted, eight on the pedestrian plaza area immediately outside of the main entrance, and four sited alongside the taxi rank. To help the trees achieve their full potential, we wanted a good organic topsoil for them to grow in, as well as enough rooting volume. The challenge with planting in any hard landscape is how to use the good stuff underneath the paving, without the paving sinking and compacting the soil. This is where Green-tech’s ArborRaft geo-cellular sub-base replacement system comes into its own.

Rather than using a traditional deep-pit crate system that fills the tree pit down to the base, ArborRaft works on a combined raft/bridging principle, and sits across the top of the tree pit, leaving the rooting area itself completely free of plastic. Not only is this better for the tree, but it also means there is no conflict with underground services such as water, gas, electric or communication lines.

The ArborRaft can take a static vertical loading of 70 tonnes/m2, so can be used under vehicular or pedestrian paving with no concerns about the paving sinking, or the soil underneath becoming compacted. This means that we can use a soft, friable, organic topsoil in the tree pit, rather than a heavily sand-based structural tree soil. The trees were planted in individual tree pits, and over 300 tonnes of Green-tech’s manufactured Greentree soil was delivered to site in stages as required. Green-tech also supplied each tree pit with tree anchors, Mona irrigation rings topped with aluminium Piazza filler inlets, and Fortress tree grilles, which are designed to take paving sets for a flush surface finish with the surrounding paving.

Alasdair Innes, Green-tech’s Specification Advisor comments “This great looking project makes a good impression to anyone arriving at Bridlington by train. Green-tech has worked with PBS Construction since 2006, and it was a pleasure to be able to be part of something so transformative for one of Yorkshire’s favourite seaside resorts. ArborRaft is so easy to lay, and even though it has been tried and tested over ten years or more, it’s always nice to see a finished project with the trees looking so healthy. It is early days but once mature they will give welcome shade for commuters and visitors alike.”

For any further product information or to request a CPD in person or remotely on any of our urban or rural modules please contact alasdairi@green-tech.co.uk or call 01423 332177

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With over 27 years’ experience supplying the industry with everything from soil to stakes and tree shelters to topsoil, Green-tech is proud to work with landscape contractors, designers and architects to create beautiful, sustainable and biodiverse landscape projects. • Over 16,000 products with a robust supply chain • Nationwide, flexible and next day delivery options • A comprehensive programme of CPD seminars and training seminars • Renowned for our professional advice and excellent customer care

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BIOTECTURE LIVING HOARDINGS TRANSFORM

STONECUTTER COURT SITE

Biotecture has designed and installed a green hoarding for repeat client Mace on the construction hoarding of the new Stonecutter Court development in London.

Stonecutter Court, close to Fleet Street and Farringdon, is being re-developed into a flexible, user experience-driven office building.

The new development, designed by Architect, TP Bennett, has strong sustainability credentials and is targeting a BREEAM Excellent rating and WELL Gold standard upon completion.

International construction and consultancy company, Mace, was appointed to develop the project. As sustainability is one of the biggest drivers of the new development, greening the construction hoarding was important for both the end client and the contractor.

Mace had already used the Biotecture PlantBox living hoarding at nearby Farringdon Road and so understood the benefits it can bring to a construction project.

As well as showcasing the client and contractor’s green credentials, the living hoarding will improve the appearance of the construction, and help improve air quality thanks to the removal of dust, dangerous particulates and harmful pollutants from the air by the plants. This creates a healthier environment for those working on site as well as those living and working in the surrounding area.

PlantBox living hoardings offer a far more sustainable choice than signage, artificial plastic greenery, or photographic panels of foliage, whilst avoiding issues with graffiti.

The principal requirement on this project was that the living hoarding had to be deployed in a relatively short timeframe to avoid disruption to those living, working and commuting in this busy part of London.

The PlantBox system is quick and easy to deploy principally because it is a free-standing system with no structural load on the hoardings. It only requires restraint fixings to the hoarding.

Another criterion was that the living hoarding had to be easy to maintain and continue to look its best for the duration of this 18 month project. The 2.4m standard height PlantBox system is fitted with a Hozelock connected irrigation system that allows the site team to easily carry our manual watering.

As the system is modular, on completion of the project, the PlantBox living hoarding can be simply moved to the next development or gifted to the local community as part of your CSR outreach, depending on the client preferences.

Biotecture is the UK’s leading living wall and living hoarding company, and this year is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

CULTIVATION OF URBAN LANDSCAPE THEATERISM

Commercial Landscape Winner at the 2022 AMP Awards

The Suzhou Longfor Paradise Walk has won the 2022 AMP Award in the Commercial Landscape category. In the pursuit of creating animated public life, the design imagines a series of moon-themed narrative spaces that are integrated with the configuration of theater typologies, reconceptualizing multiplicity of public realm that elevates human participation and experiences.

Cultural Relationship with the Moon

The project is a community-based commercial complex located on the banks of Yangcheng Lake in China. The retail development is divided by a waterway, with a larger west block and a central courtyard plaza facing towards it. The east block is long and narrow, serving as a children’s activity center. Yangcheng Lake is famous for its long-standing culture of crab-eating during Chinese Mid-autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival. It is a time of year in Chinese culture for appreciating the moon and for celebrating family, with families and friends gathering together during the mid-autumn festival to observe the moon. The fast-paced world of Chinese development calls for a modern interpretation of the reminiscence of traditions, which inspired the design team to articulate the landscape that focuses on a reinterpretation of the moon.

Stage-Audience Relationship

Appreciation of the moon is fundamentally a stage-audience relationship, just like the essence in every successful public realm that encourages interaction and participation in its celebration of public life. Through spatial studies, the design team found an intriguing correlation with theater typology and the commercial public realm, where both seek to celebrate formal and informal interactions through the design of spatial configurations and carefully articulated sightlines and views.

The celebration of public life is built upon ensuring inclusion and diversity, and the design hopes to contribute to that by acknowledging shared experiences of local traditions, while also integrating a series of multi-functional and inter-relational spaces that encourage people to socialize, play, observe, and rest.

Repertoire of the Moon in Theaterism Approach

The moon becomes the theme which the design team begins to cultivate onto the canvas. Through spatial abstractions of theater studies, moon-themed typologies are incorporated into appropriate locations suited to the characteristics of the program, weaving unique and culturally relevant inter-relationships together. The iteration of the moon concept seeks to express a dynamic landscape that appears to be constantly changing, just like the amount of moon that we see over the course of the month during different lunar phases. The changes of lunar phases becomes an integral design of the moon plaza stage, which is the focal theater at the center of the project. The dry fountain is programmed to have multiple scenarios of interaction according to different lunar phases - full moon, crescents, and eclipses create a highly participatory stage that is popular among children and families during weekends. At different times of the month, it can also be transformed into other flexible uses for temporary pop-up stores or stage performances. Due to the attraction of the moon, tides of the earth come and go consistently with the lunar cycle. The design team incorporates the tidal language into the design of the waterfront, activating uses of the outdoor landscape and forming a series of unique theatrical ministages along the waterway. While visitors stroll along the bankside, they are always actively engaged with these pocket mini-stages. Close to the heart of the project, a stepping theater provides informal performance stage along the bankside. Seating steps integrated with planting also become a popular

recreation area for local residents. There are also a series of other narrow stages along the rest of the waterfront. The tides are articulated into dynamic landscape furnishings with an undulating composition. The spatiality of the composition allows multiplicity of unprescribed opportunities for leaning, sitting, observing, and informal play. Next to the children’s activity center, there is also a designated area for child activities. The design takes advantage of the grading change to create topographical mounds for staged play, where children can climb, run, slide, and interact freely within the integrated playscape.