Green walls

Bring new life to town centre

The regeneration of Swindon takes another big step forward this week as installers start work on the positioning of one of the UK’s largest living green walls features in the town centre.

Created as part of the Public Realm works, the green walls have been in development for the last nine months and will form a key part of the new-look Canal Walk. They will cover the south side of the bridge that connects the Brunel Plaza with the Brunel Arcade and the north side of the vehicle bridge.

Green walls are living, planted structures that continuously change and evolve as the plants grow and mature within them. This means that large vertical faces on the sides of buildings and other structures become a tapestry of plant communities, providing lush, colourful facades. As well as spectacular visual appeal the walls also offer sound-absorption and carbon reduction benefits, making them a popular ecological counterpoint to modern construction developments. Green walls have been installed at the Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherd’s Bush, west London and are becoming popular additions to offices and private residences.

Aldingbourne Nurseries, the Chichester-based producer of living walls and green roofs, regeneration consultants, Nicholas Pearson Associates and consulting engineers, Arup have worked together to create a design that reflects Canal Walk’s historical use as a waterside landscape. The wall will have an immediate impact as the plants will be fully established prior to installation.

Among the 25 varieties of plants featured are:

tall plants such as Dryopteris

medium height Hosta Hallton,

low growing Vinca Minor ACBA

red and purple flowered Cyrtomium fotunei

medium height, blue and purple flowered Viola Queen Charlotte

As a result, the form, colour and texture of the plant species, which are arranged in naturalistic swathes and patterns, will provide interest every month of the year. Violas, for example, flower in early spring, while the hostas flower in early summer, its leaves remaining colourful throughout autumn. The green walls will also benefit from sustainable rainwater harvesting techniques to keep the plants irrigated all year round.

Cllr Garry Perkins, Swindon Borough Council Deputy Leader said “The green wall is something that is genuinely different and we’re going to have one of the first in the country right in the town centre. There’s a lot of building work going on in the main shopping area at the moment, but things are coming together fast and I have always said that once it’s all finished, people will really like what they see.”

The installation of the green walls is part of the project to rejuvenate the area of Swindon town centre that includes the length of Regent Street from Regent Circus to Jubilee Square and its sidestreets. Already in place are several new recycling bins, new street furniture and the “crumpled wall” water feature, while Regent Street construction is ahead of schedule and due for completion in mid-November.

Editors notes:

Forward Swindon
Forward Swindon, the company charged with delivering the town’s regeneration, inward investment and economic and cultural development.

Forward Swindon encompasses the Economic Development Team of Swindon Borough Council, Swindon Cultural Partnership and The New Swindon Company.

It acts as the interface between the public and private sectors with the objective of attracting private sector investment into Swindon.

Forward Swindon’s relationship with Swindon Borough Council is facilitated by an Investment Partnership, whose role is to broker investment into Swindon. A Shareholder Panel manages the performance of Forward Swindon. Dialogue with the business community is conducted through The Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership.

Arup
Arup, an international engineering consultancy firm, is the Lead Consultant for the design of the improvements for the Canal Walk and Regent Street phases of Forward Swindon’s Public Realm regeneration programme. Arup has the benefit of local knowledge, international experience and a wide range of technical skills.

These skills are demonstrated in the engineering design of the green walls being installed at high level on existing bridge structures above Canal Walk. As these green walls will be among the largest in Britain, Arup specified a lightweight steel structure attached to the existing buildings to support planting modules.

Nicholas Pearson Associates
Nicholas Pearson Associates specialises in environmental planning, landscape architecture and ecological consultancy services. The practice has won numerous awards for the quality and integrated nature of its design schemes.

In addition to its core services, Nicholas Pearson Associates offers specialist advice relating to historic landscapes, digital design and grants and funding. individuals.

More information: www.npaconsult.co.uk

The ANS Modular Vertical Wall Mounting system by Aldingbourne Nurseries
The ANS Modular Vertical Wall Planting system, unique to Aldingbourne Nurseries, is supplied with established planting, thereby creating immediate impact.

A growing number of urban destinations, including the Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherd’s Bush, West London are adopting the system as a colourful and environmentally friendly addition to modern developments.

Design Rationale for the Green Walls at Canal Walk
Green walls are living, planted structures that continuously change and evolve as the plants grow and mature within them. This innovative technology enables large vertical faces on the sides of buildings to become a tapestry of plant communities that provide lush colourful facades within the centres of towns and cities.

The green walls proposed for Canal Walk are considered to be a key component of the design proposals for the project. It was felt to be important to introduce as much planting as possible into the urban environment to provide an interesting visual counterpoint and aesthetic balance to the palette of high quality hard materials proposed as part of the new streetscape. Green walls were also felt to provide an appropriate link to the historical use of the street as a canal side landscape.

The siting of the green walls on either side of the overbridge provides a highly visible and dramatic location for these important elements of the scheme.

The mixture of plant species to be included within the green walls was arrived at in conjunction with Aldingbourne Nurseries who specialise in the production of these types of structures. Plant species have been selected to provide year round interest in terms of form, colour and texture and arranged in naturalistic swathes and patterns to further enhance the visual appeal of these design features.
28/09/2010