- 15 Dec 2020
Congratulations to our landscape architecture, urban design and ecology teams, having recently received an accolade award in response to the Landscape Institute’s international competition ‘Transforming The Urban Landscape.
The competition brief, which attracted 160 professional and student entries from China, Thailand, Israel, Turkey, Denmark, Spain and the UK sought ideas to generate new thinking in response to COVID-19; to acknowledge the history of public health and landscape initiatives; and to debate the future of public spaces.
Urban Green's competition entry - Car Parks
The first national lockdown saw a 73% drop in vehicle use. As a ‘new normal’ emerged, home working combined with local restrictions, has maintained vehicle use at low levels. As a consequence, many multi-storey car parks are under optimum occupancy. In Manchester city centre, the total area of car park roof decks is approximately 42,500m2. This figure is a comparable to the area of existing accessible green space within the same radius.
The competition entry; Car Parks vision aimed to transform these spaces by utilising their accessibility, adaptability and structural strength to create a series of ecocentric and sustainable rooftop parks, habitats and community green spaces. Creating valuable pandemic resilient community assets that promote social cohesion and health and wellbeing for the growing city centre population, and make significant contributions to increasing biodiversity and carbon positivity.
“I love the concept and it would be fascinating to see something like this picked up on and utilised. It’s a great idea and something very achievable. ”
Warren Heaton, Senior Manager, Ground Control
“Many thanks to Ground Control for selecting Urban Green's entry for their sponsors 'accolade' in the Landscape Institute 'Transforming the urban landscape' competition. Our Landscape, urban design, and ecology teams found it quite a challenge to summarise in 250 words all the positives that a scheme like this would provide. Congratulations to the overall student and professional winners!”
Ste Allan, Senior Landscape Architect, Urban Green
Urban Green's competition entry - Car Parks