Community – Roundfield

07/03/2023

by bd

Bristol SuDS Courtyard

Roundfield are working alongside Emmett Russell architects and Jubb engineers for Bristol City Council to deliver a robust and multi-functional landscape setting for 16 new low energy homes on the site of a 1950s church in Henbury, Bristol. This includes a biodiverse, rain garden courtyard featuring seating and informal play, fed by bio retention planters taking rainwater from roofs along with run off from parking areas that is filtered through a specialist planting medium. "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...

24/02/2023

by James Hallybone

Bristol Charity Hub

The aim of Bristol Charities is to create a rich, engaging, playful and resilient landscape with intrinsic ecological value that is inclusive for users and residents of all ages. A truly intergenerational, multi functional communal landscape. 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...

18/03/2022

by James Hallybone

Stour Valley Park

Roundfield are working as project partners to Landstory on this exciting project. 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/...

26/02/2021

by James Hallybone

Exeter pioneering blue green communal landscape

Roundfield were appointed by Exeter City Living with a brief to produce an ambitious scheme for a landscape led development of 96 Passivhaus homes in Exeter that incorporates innovation throughout. "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...

18/02/2021

by bd

Re-imagining the garden city

We were thrilled to be shortlisted for the Re-Imagining the Garden City Design Ideas Competition, launched by the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation. Our fantastic team included Sarah Wigglesworth Architects and Etude Sustainability Engineers 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 Key to this masterplan is a strong relationship with the environment. The landscape infrastructure draws on the existing green routes through the site. It extends and connects to the greenway, offering different types of recreational space in Letchworth to attract people from the existing town and surrounding areas. This...

25/06/2018

by bd

Frome’s Missing Cycle Link

We are pleased to be working with Frome’s Missing Links, a charity that began life in 2010 as a campaign for better and safer walking and cycling routes in Frome with better connections to neighbouring towns and villages. The groups goal is to develop traffic-free routes with gentle gradients suitable for all ages and abilities. Having been part of transition initiative Sustainable Frome, Frome’s Missing Links was set up as an independent charitable organisation in 2016 and is working closely with Sustrans. Roundfield have produced feasibility design study with a brief to focus on the most strategically difficult part of the missing link in the cycle route, the safe crossing of the A362 . Extensive reconnaissance of the local area was carried out in order to explore the options available. Once criteria had been established the area of investigation became more focused (e.g. due to topography). Five crossing options were identified...

13/03/2018

by bd

Cwm Irfon Barns

We have the pleasure of working with a stunning site north of the Brecon Beacons, Powys. Currently a field of rough pasture bordered by a stream with a pair of stone barns being converted into an events centre designed by Kin Architects. Our brief is to create a multi-functional productive space that is a place to visit, grow, eat and play. A new orchard planted with local hardy fruit varieties provides the framework for the garden that features dynamic perennial planting, a productive understorey of soft fruit and herbs and a new pond. Construction and planting has begun on site....

09/03/2018

by bd

Nature and Wellbeing Centre

A concept developed in collaboration with Barefoot Architects in response to an open RIBA competition to design a 'Nature and Wellbeing Centre' for Sevenoaks Nature Reserve in Kent The brief required the buildings and the landscape design to "promote learning, wellbeing, curiosity and nature" and "wherever possible it should build the connection with nature and be designed with health outcomes in mind for staff working within the centre and for visitors and centre−users". A thoughtful approach to sustainable construction and function was essential. The scheme takes a holistic approach to landscape design and building that attempts to depart with the often passive experience of visiting a nature reserve in favour of a place that is active and playful, providing opportunity to physically connect with the landscape where ever possible. The layout of the buildings is inspired by the branching of leaves and responds to the existing path network of the site. 'Treading lightly',...

14/09/2017

by Tom Barnsley

Lockleaze Design Study

We worked with Emmett Russell Architects on behalf of Bristol City Council to provide landscape and urban design guidance for the future development of the former Lockleaze School Site (Romney House) that sits between Lockleaze and the new Cheswick Village development. The design and planning brief sets out a future vision for approximately 269 1-4 bed residential units. We developed 3 main street typologies that stitch into the existing street pattern, and allow for a central 'linear green' that extends into the heart of the site from the adjacent listed Stoke Park. The proposed hub creates a high quality shared space that acts as the interface with the linear green, providing an arrival space as well as a focal point. The multifunctional and layered approach to the landscape seeks to incorporate Stockholm tree pits to attenuate storm water, swales, natural play features, wildflower and legacy tree planting. We have recently been appointed to develop the scheme to...

14/09/2017

by Tom Barnsley

Rural Housing

Along with Emmett Russell Architects, Roundfield have recently completed successful planning proposals for a rural housing development in South Gloucestershire. The site previously used as a storage depot for a commercial landscaping company will feature four family houses built to a high ecological standard arranged around a formerly undeveloped paddock. This retained central green space is proposed as a renovated meadow framed by a stone wall that will characterise the whole site with extensive wildflower planting providing a sensory and seasonal show throughout the year. Planted with a central native Oak and local heritage variety fruit trees the meadow is further framed by a SuDS feature that will take run off from roofs as well as paved areas. It is a rich multifunctional landscape that can offer a home to local wildlife as well as a picnic spot for the dwellings within the development and the local village community. Additional image credits:...

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