It was a pleasure to speak with fellow panellists and like-minded professionals on Monday to discuss all that’s important in regenerative spaces. That is, the spaces between our built and natural environments, and how exactly horticulture and landscaping of urban environments can ‘work harder’ for people and planet.

In the opening gambit for the evening, drawing upon Civic’s own Better Queensway masterplan for Swan Housing at Southend-on-sea created with dRMM, we shared how badly the area was plagued with dereliction and decay since the introduction of a network of high rises and highways in the 1970s. Bringing ‘urban circuitry’ thinking to the site would see proposals for integrated, interconnected neighbourhoods, with landscaping and greenery throughout. While not in the brief, the problem of storm water and effluent on the beaches inspired us to repurpose the disused underpasses to create chambers that could hold and attenuate flood water, improving water quality in the area. 

“We need new models to fund maintenance”, corroborated LDA Design’s Sophie Thomspon five minutes later, as she shared her story on the garden paths of Alfred Place Gardens. An example of an ambitious scheme that transformed underused road into the borough’s first new park in 25 years, it achieved resounding engagement – including some guerilla gardening from snackish office workers during their lunch break.

Camden Council helped realise the more visionary elements of the project, enabling the delivery of a park with 2000 plants, 5000 bulbs, a meandering walkway to structure the space and a series of outdoor rooms, featuring play glades, lounging lawns, a woodland, cycle stands and other useful amenities. But, as Sophie added, for these to succeed, we need to ensure models are in place to sustain maintenance for future users.

The baton was passed to Isabella Bhoan and Giulia Pustorino from Weston Williamson + Partners, who discussed Land Information Management. “It can be hard to convince others of horticulture’s worth”, said Giulia. Their framework aims to focus on the benefits of landscaping early on in the design phase, promoting benefits through digital visual aids, facts and figures. Conveying a sense of the granular – for example, specific species and formations of trees, carefully selected to match a site and its needs, had directly attributable benefits, from preventing wind tunnels to promoting biodiversity.

Urban greening consultancy Meristem’s Alex Shipp closed with a statement on their ‘green necklace’ of projects across London, many of which aim to reconnect school children and local communities with nature. Daisy chains are clearly still in-vogue. 

With car ownership dwindling, reclaiming public realm previously occupied by cars gives councils the ability to develop meaningful relationships in boroughs and deliver much needed parkets, greenery and gardens to the people. Lea Bridge library, a RIBA Award winning crown project for Meristem, reimagined what a library could be with additional outdoor space, and since the delivery of its garden, has seen an increase in footfall from 3000 to 12000 a month. 

In all, it was an insightful event that brought together systems thinking with on the ground examples of how urban spaces can be activated and enhanced by greenery. What a breath of fresh air!