Green Arteries | Bell Phillips Architects, Spacehub and AECOM | 1 of 20 shortlisted designs
A High Line for London design competition launched by the Landscape Institute, Mayor of London and Garden Museum has announced the finalists shortlist of 20 designs selected from over 170 entries. Inspired by the success of New York’s High Line, an urban park which has transcended the commonly accepted role of an urban park, the competition has inspired a shortlist of ideas that range from massive city-wide strategies, like using the empty space on top of buses, trams and trains to create mobile gardens, to small-scale community projects, like miniature urban woodlands in London’s forgotten spaces. The winners will be announced at the Landscape Institute’s Green Infrastructure day.
TV Gardener Charlie Dimmock helping local children with planting
The first of 4,000 new semi-mature trees are taking root in the London’s Olympic Park with around 100 ash, cherry and hazel trees, grown in Hampshire, already planted. The first of 300,000 wetland plants, grown in Norfolk and Wales for the UK’s largest ever urban river and wetland planting, were laid on the river banks today by Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson, TV Gardener Charlie Dimmock, Olympic Gold medal winner Jonathan Edwards, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Chairman John Armitt and children from the Olympic Park construction crew.
The new reed beds are being created in a large wetland bowl in the north of the Olympic Park, formerly a 100 year old landfill site, where visitors during the Games will be able to relax and watch the action in 2012 on live screens. In legacy the riverside area will be a tranquil space for people and wildlife which will also help protect 5,000 properties in the area from flooding.
Over 30 species of native reeds, rushes, grasses, sedges, wet wildflowers and irises have been grown initially by Salix in its nursery on the Gower peninsular in Wales with around a third grown from cuttings and seeds collected in and around the Olympic Park before construction started in 2008.
You can watch the park turn from brown to green with two new webcams
Atkins Middle East has worked with Abu Dhabi based Al Maabar to develop the masterplan for the Al Waha development in Libya. The masterplan was unveiled yesterday and is expected to cost AED 1,400 billion (US$ 375 million) .
The development took inspiration form Libya’s rich cultural heritage including the oasis town of Ghadamis. The development covers 65,000 square metres(699,650 sq feet) and will have a floor space of 265,000 square metres. The development will include 31 storey luxurious hotel, 100 serviced apartments, a 28-storey office tower, 11 mid-rise residential buildings, a health club and a shopping mall that will include a supermarket, food court and a five screen cinema.
The country’s biggest employer of architects has set its sights on wresting design-led work away from “complacent” signature practices by recruiting more creative designers……..
A team led by Atkins recently beat five others, including Frank Gehry, to land a £300 million new college campus in Glasgow……
Architect/ Landscape Architect
