Landscape Architecture
LANDSCAPE MASTERPLANNING
Client: The Trustees of the Barker Mill Estate
Background: Our client owns the important rural gateway site at Adanac Park on the northern fringe of Southampton, which is allocated in the Test Valley Borough Local Plan for development of high quality office, research and manufacturing uses set in its own extensively landscaped grounds. Landmark was commissioned firstly to manage and oversee the EIA to inform a hybrid planning application, comprising a detailed application for the Ordnance Survey to relocate its headquarters from Southampton, and an outline application for the balance of the site, and secondly to prepare the landscape masterplan for the entire site.
Description: A key landscape masterplanning challenge was the need to respect and enhance the existing landscape framework and to safeguard and enhance biodiversity interest, whilst creating a high quality gateway to Southampton with settings appropriate to prestigious headquarters buildings.
Principles of landscape ecology underpinned the masterplan approach. Wildlife corridors were designed to separate development plots and form the site framework, which links with existing networks in the wider countryside. Sustainable Urban Drainage Strategy (SUDS) measures were incorporated into the landscape framework, using drainage features, ranging from swales and storm cells to wildlife ponds and ornamental ponds, as key structural elements. The result is an attractive, accessible and sustainable working environment that enables flexible and cost effective management.
Client Benefits : Co-ordination of the EIA with the emerging landscape and development masterplans allowed many potentially unacceptable impacts to be ‘designed out’ as they were identified, avoiding abortive design work and potential programme over-run, and saving client costs. The outcome was an exceedingly high quality development masterplan. Subject to planning approval, Ordnance Survey and future users of Adanac Park will enjoy a prestigious gateway location, based on sustainable principles and with minimum environmental impact.
