The Future of UK Green Space Design
20 years ago, (2001), I believed I was a commercially aware Landscape Architect, having then 13 years working for top house builders, but ‘you don’t know what you don’t know!’
Establishing the OASIS Landscape Management company (2011) means, I now have to pay for the maintenance work myself, which was a light-bulb moment ref. designing cost-effective green spaces.
We now design open spaces more naturally: i.e. Like Richmond Park – Not Hyde Park: Big savings are achieved from 7 key design factors, – the devil is in the detail. Visiting a LAP in Dereham 20 years on – was a game changer: It dawned that standard design approaches; (the path, seat, bin, hedge, kneerail, amenity grass, tree & shrub bed) just was not sustainable, serving no-one long term: A more natural scheme (native plants & wildflower meadow & lawn margin), would’ve been sustainable, 90% lower cost to build, 100% more biodiverse, massively more value to residents & prettier too. Therefore the maintenance legacy informed a new way to design such spaces – & suggested a step change was needed: Add to that the burning issues of climate change, Biodiversity Net Gain & a need to maintain margins, & you have 3 more compelling reasons to embrace a new greener approach. #biodiversity You need the right steward – who knows the process to deliver these savings…Call us to help you save money, make more profit by saving the planet and achieving biodiversity net gain: Let’s create greener open spaces that become habitats, carbon sinks and refuges for wildlife and the pollinators of our future food crops, maintained in a low cost regime, free from pesticides: That is why development is potentially a positive conservation partner: We just have to awaken to the possibilities and opportunities, commercially, sustainably and for our mutual health and wellbeing, now and in future generations.
