A visit to Elderberry Walk - Bristol
Recently, we took a team outing to visit a new exemplar housing development, Elderberry Walk a mixed development of private and affordable housing in Bristol, the event was organised by the Landscape Institute Southwest branch for whom Rachael is the Gloucestershire Rep.
Clare van Someren and Rachel Stephenson of Churchman Thornhill Finch the landscape architects who designed Elderberry Walk, guided us around the development. Southmead is in an area of significant flood risk; a big issue that needed to be addressed, it is this issue that influenced the design of the sustainable urban drainage system (SuDS) and is the reason that the funding was in place to address this. Bristol City Design Team created the brief for the project and the planning authority were on the design steering committee. Stakeholder consultation; workshops with residents, was not over prescriptive, but establishing basic standards and principles on densities and basic layouts. In total, there are 161 homes of mixed tenure 4, 3, and 2 bedroomed, mixed terrace and detached houses.
Elderberry Walk has strong green infrastructure and planted SuDS features, combining play along the way seesaws and climbing frames, encouraging social cohesion and connection with nature.
Quality street trees and links through the site including a green lane with swales, part of the rain water collection system connect the housing with the local park, enhanced with new heritage apple orchard planting.
Benches made especially for the scheme, using reclaimed wood from a local dock, fabricated by a local maker. People's private spaces, thresholds and balconies, were left as an opportunity for residents to plant their own gardens and spaces rather than being prescribed by the designers.
Green roofs have been successful and the green lanes, planted with edible species including elderberry, apple and hawthorn are full of birdsong and bees.
The parking strategy was guided by a social, on street model so you can chat to your neighbours, rather than parking at the rear or in a parking court, this also created space for trees, bringing nature into the streets.
Once a housing development has been built, there is always the question of who will look after and maintain the streets and planting, including the rain gardens. Often, the highways authority adopts and therefore takes on the maintenance and this development like all others are still negotiating who will do what.
We enjoyed our visit to an urban development, and if nothing else it reminded us how fortunate we are to be working rurally, immersed in nature; something made more precious when surrounded by the city.
