Enhancing the landscape
We worked closely with our infrastructure engineers to ensure the existing and proposed utilities and requirements for the landscape concept proposals were robust and functional for the public realm. Underpinned by the Healthy Streets agenda, which focuses on people and their health as central to design, our streetscape proposals ensure a series of inclusive pedestrian priority routes to promote and encourage active travel across the site.
The carefully selected palette of trees, plants, street furniture and lighting were designed to enhance the character of the different spaces within the neighbourhood and to reflect Bermondsey’s rich industrial heritage. These green interventions will provide at least 22,000m2 of greening at ground and roof levels - 41% of the entire site, in the form of rain gardens, mixed shrub and perennial planting beds, tree planting, vertical greening, amenity lawns and intensive, extensive and biodiverse roofs.
This significant increase in greening will create a network of green corridors and provide benefits, including enhancing local biodiversity and minimising heat concentration within the development, also known as the urban heat island effect. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in the form of rain gardens will help manage storm water runoff whilst providing an attractive green backdrop and valuable contact with nature. These interventions met Grosvenor’s sustainability targets and exceeded those within the 2019 Draft new London Plan, demonstrating a resilient approach to the design of the public spaces while responding to the challenges of climate change.