“We have worked with our client, Bristol City Council’s Housing Delivery Team, to ensure that the new development sits comfortably in its leafy context whilst making best use of the available site and meeting the council’s ambitious sustainability goals.”

Emmett Russell Architects

Context sketch credit: Emmett Russell Architects

Along with the detailed design of the external layout of the scheme, Roundfield were tasked with designing a robust, adaptable and multi functional village square capable of acting as both meeting place and market place. The resulting design integrates blue green design principles to support SuDS requirements and legacy tree planting within the framework of a generous square surfaced with local natural stone. The design has been described as an ‘exemplar of rural development in Wales’ by the Design Commission for Wales.

“Our project sets out to challenge the current emphasis on generic ‘one-size fits all’ eco-homes and to offer a new model that responds to local conditions. Our proposal uses local materials, learns from local forms and marries the technology of the zero carbon home with the inherited wisdom of the welsh rural house.

The project is conceived as a series of walled gardens that work with the local limestone and make reference to he remains of the historic walled gardens of Lawrenny Castle. At the heart of the scheme is a new village square that provides a traffic free focus for village life. The project explores ways of reducing carbon emissions and car use in this remote Pembrokeshire village. Generous private gardens, shared gardens and community allotments would allow opportunities for local food production. New workshops and business spaces are designed to support the already thriving local small business community and flexible housing types provide space for home working to reduce commuting.”

Emmett Russell architects

Work is on going.

Visualisation credit: Emmett Russell architects

The proposed communal square forms a welcoming space, characterised by diverse rain gardens and mixed tree planting. Functionally it is designed as a fully integrated system. This incorporates a biodiverse mix of species as well as smaller spaces and features that invite use in a number of ways.

The sustainable drainage system is entirely integral to the central space. Rainwater activates the landscape by first being collected from rainwater pipes and hard surfaces before being directed into central rain gardens which in turn absorb the rainfall into the soil and slowly release the excess to groundwater. Alleviating urban run off and increasing climate resilience.

“It is our responsibility to ensure our designs respond to the complex environmental and social challenges we now face whilst creating innovative and attractive spaces for inhabitants. For the Vassall Centre, this means the delivery of a vibrant community hub as a new home for charities and social enterprises alike.”

David Perkin, Project Director, AWW Architects

On a demanding valley site that is dominated by existing trees, Roundfield have designed a series of walkways and suspended platforms that sit above a dynamic biodiverse landscape, designed to capture and slow rainwater runoff from the housing blocks and hard surfaces.

Visualisation credit: Pentan Architects

The aim is to provide genuinely affordable, high-quality homes that prevent fuel poverty, improve air quality and foster a more bio-diverse and nature-rich environment.

“The site comprises of 12 one bed studio apartments. These will be offered as move on accommodation which will give people who currently live in either temporary or emergency accommodation the ability to move into a more permanent home…..The building design takes a fabric first approach ensuring the walls, roofs, floors and openings are designed to minimise any heat loss. Offsite construction will enable a more efficient construction programme with reduced material waste. Renewable energy from photovoltaics and air source heat pumps will be used to power and heat the homes to achieve zero carbon emissions.”

Tempo Housing

Visualisation credit: AWW

With limited space available for soft landscape on these urban infill sites, proposals have made a strong feature of SuDS which positively influence the landscape character. Water features have been designed to direct roof and paving run off through permeable paving, conveyance channels and bio-retention areas. The conveyance channels create a threshold for residents, with access to front doors provided via simple bridge links. The SuDS elements are planted with wetland and mesic vegetation that provides structure, seasonal colour and a valuable habitat for wildlife.

The three sites are located in the Henbury and Brentry areas of the city, and all were constructed with a timber frame to Passivhaus standards. The schemes were featured in the March 2018 edition of the Architect’s journal, which is very complementary of the landscape design. Read our post:

https://roundfield.co.uk/featured-in-aj-and-shortlisted-for-award/

“The thought that has been fed into the streetscaping of these sites is where they prove particularly impressive in a way that seems almost inverse to their size.” Jon Astbury, Architect’s Journal

“At both developments, this carefully considered idea of sequencing is the result of what seems to have been a fruitful relationship with landscape architect Roundfield, which Russell says pushed ‘incredibly hard’ for nicely landscaped sites ….”

Chandler Court also picked up two architectural awards at the RIBA South West Awards in May 2018 in the general and sustainability categories. In July 2018, the Suffolk Close scheme won an LABC Building Excellence Award: Best Social or Affordable New Housing Development.

The Subscription Rooms is a busy vibrant multi-purpose community arts Centre in the heart of Stroud with first-class facilities hosting year-round arts and entertainment, live music, concerts, dances, comedy, exhibitions, workshops, classes, and markets. Its forecourt is the closest thing Stroud has to a Town Square. It is a central open space flanked by shops on three sides and the Sub Rooms itself on the other. It is a public space that plays a vital role in defining the character of the Town. It is a key area for outdoor events for the town and surrounding area as well as an area for recreation and public activism.

Alongside the town council and Child Sulzmann architects we’ve engaged with the town community and stakeholders to develop a concept design. Work continues….

In 2020 the team were commissioned by the Bournemouth Parks Foundation to support the delivery of the Stour Valley Park. The vision is to create a regional park that utilises around 25km of the lower river Stour from the National Trust property at Kingston Lacy right down to the coast. The initial project aims are to improve access for recreation, to enhance the river for wildlife and to tie this into the health and well-being agenda.

Work began with a community engagement strategy to ensure that this project is driven and shaped by the people who live and work in the Stour Valley. Strategic development work is ongoing, in close collaboration with local residents and stakeholders.

For more information see https://www.stourvalleypark.uk/

“In line with the aims of the council the brief is to create a rich, engaging, playful and resilient landscape with intrinsic ecological value that is inclusive for residents of all ages. In a traditional sense it is a garden as an urban sanctuary but also an exemplar of a contemporary approach to sustainability, climate adaptation and wellness.”

The central courtyard features a pioneering sustainable drainage system. Spatially, it is designed to evoke a feeling of natural enclosure. Taking inspiration from the character of a young pioneer woodland with distinct layers of planting and intimate glade spaces located away from the main pedestrian route. Functionally it is designed as a fully integrated system. This incorporates the planting of fruit, herbs and a biodiverse mix of native species as well as features that invite use in a number of ways. The sustainable drainage system is entirely integral to the central space. Rainwater activates the landscape by first being collected from rainwater pipes into surface channels that lead to central rain gardens which in turn feed into bio retention zones and an underground reservoir beneath the orchard, increasing the climate resilience of the landscape and courtyard as a whole.

We are working closely with the project contractor and the team to realise what we hope will be an exemplar project.

Drawing on Ebenezer Howard’s original vision for Letchworth, our proposal for Letchworth’s new garden city is for a vibrant, economically and environmentally sustainable development which supports and involves a growing community. Our landscape-led masterplan embeds the principles of urban agriculture, landscape maintenance and land management training into the core of the place, celebrating connections to the rural landscape and providing new facilities for the whole town.

A Landscape Led Development

Quote above and building typology images copyright:  Sarah Wigglesworth Architects

http://ribacompetitions.com/letchworthgardencity/shortlist.html