Brexiteers have called for London to become a ‘Singapore-on-Thames’ and one aspect of this is very attractive. Singapore has seen itself as a Garden City for many years and it agreed a landscape replacement policy in 2009. LUSH 2.0 is…
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Posts on Green Roofs (+ see introduction to green roofs)
Save Dolphin Square and its wonderful roof garden
Sadly, a US property company Westbrook wants to spoil one of the most significant housing projects in London. Its central importance in the history of residential site planning comes from: Dolphin Square’s use of high residential terraced blocks to create…
The Royal Docks Development is a good example of bad architecture and helpless planning
The file-name of this depressing image is Riverside-day-overall-view-23032017-Final.jpg. The word ‘Final’ is ominous and, as anyone can see, the blocks are beside a disused dock and a busy runway: it is not a ‘riverside’ development. Suing the development team for…
Playing chess on the Stockwell Street University of Greenwich roof garden
Does London have a better place for a game of chess than the University of Greenwich’s Stockwell Street roof garden? If so, please tell me about it. While smelling the sweet scents of spring flowers, you can pick mint, gaze…
Posted in green roofs, landscape architecture
“How Concrete Jungles became Green Cities”
‘‘Concrete jungle’ is the classic criticism of Modernist cities. The phrase was first used in a Billy Wilder movie to describe a sterile leafless view from an apartment in New York City (image, above top). Instead, cities should be richly…
Posted in green living walls, green roofs
Solving London’s urban flood problem – a landscape architecture approach
Tom Turner’s lecture was given to the London Parks and Gardens Trust on 21st June 2017. This post has an edited version of the text Summary, Gentle rain, frightening floods and design of public open space The Woolwich Flood Barrier…
San Francisco threat to green roofs?
The San Francisco Examiner reports that ‘Beginning January [2017], new commercial and residential buildings of up to 10 stories in height will have to install rooftop solar systems for heat or electricity under legislation unanimously approved by the Board of…
Posted in green living walls, green roofs
Crossrail Place Roof Garden London by Gillespies
The Crossrail station at Canary Wharf is topped by a public roof garden. The design for the garden evokes a ship laden with unusual and exotic specimens from around the globe – a nod to its maritime past. Under a…
Ruderal planting at the Tate Modern art gallery
This year’s installation at the Tate Modern is an exercise in geometric natural regeneration. 23 tonnes of soil fill 240 triangular planters made of rough timber on a support of scaffolding poles. The triangles reduce in number to form a…
London can have a Roof Garden City above its two other landscape architectures
London is the European capital with the best claim to being a ‘garden city’. This is because of its extensive parks and the historic norm of every house having a private garden. But London is becoming a city of office…
Posted in green roofs
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