SLA

Join us today at the World Early Childhood Development (WED) Forum in Abu Dhabi, where SLA Design Principal & Partner Rasmus Astrup will deliver a masterclass together with Reham Zia of the The Jane Goodall Institute as part of the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Week. In their masterclass, Rasmus and Reham will highlight nature's positive impact on children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development and show how SLA designs public spaces that integrate nature into the urban fabric with the special aim of improving children’s quality of life and community well-being. The session’s closing remarks will be provided by HE Sheikh Dr. Majid Al Qassimi. The #WEDForum is part of the World Early Childhood Development Movement/WED Movement ECD, chaired by HE Reem Al Hashimy and organized by the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority. #WEDWeek #AbuDhabiECA #WEDMovement Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots UAE

Join SLA partners Mette Skjold and Rasmus Grandelag at this week’s Building Green DK conference in Copenhagen where they will feature in two sessions highlighting the importance of incorporating nature into our cities, our buildings – and our hearts. Wednesday 30, Mette Skjold will participate in the session ‘Nature in the City 2050’ organized by idverde DK – mixing research, science fiction, and debate to outline sustainable scenarios for our cities in the year 2050. Thursday 31, Rasmus Grandelag will deliver the specialist talk ‘The Wildest Urban Landscapes’ together with Per Malmos of Malmos - en del af idverde on the challenges and potentials of adding nature to buildings, metro stations, parking lots – even a combined ski slope / waste-to-energy plant. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/d8wvjrv

Nurturing the seeds of the future 🌱 As our district starts to come to life, we’ve kicked off the transformation of the Sister site by bringing in new nature-led outdoor spaces. 🌳  Our newly planted tree and plant nurseries, set alongside the Renold Innovation Hub, provide on-site growing space for over 140 new trees that will be replanted across Sister in the years to come as future phases of the site take shape.   In the meantime, these lovely new green spaces provide an opportunity for the public and our Sister customers to connect with nature in the heart of the city. Ideas flourish when people come together and we’re excited to introduce new elements of nature into the vibrant environment we’re creating at Sister. Thank you to SLA, Layer.studio and all our partners who’ve helped bring the unique design of this inaugural green space to life! #Sister #Manchester #GreenSpace #TreeNursery #Nature #Community

Today we cut the first sod for phase one of the development of Thyborøn – one’s of Denmark’s largest active fishing harbors characterized by its windswept, hardy natural environment. The project THYBORØN 2.0 - THE MARITIME FORCE aims to strengthen the connection between attractions, the harbor, and the city center in Thyborøn by enhancing the existing outdoor spaces, creating a new harbour square, and by prioritizing cyclists and pedestrians. "By incorporating Thyborøn's sand dunes, shrubs, and stones as design elements in the new squares, streets, and pathways, we reinforce the local identity for both visitors and residents, while also creating a stronger connection between Thyborøn and its water," says SLA Project Director Tobias Theil Konishi. Read more here: https://bit.ly/thySLA The project is made for Lemvig Kommune, Fonden Thyborøn, Realdania, and Danmarks Erhvervsfremmebestyrelse with NIRAS and Kaj Bech A/S.

“Less concrete, more jungle: the £10 billion EARLS COURT vision.” The Architects’ Journal’s Richard Waite has taken an in-depth design dive into the EARLS COURT OUTLINE PLAN, which we recently submitted for approval together with our client The Earls Court Development Company and masterplanners Hawkins\Brown and Studio Egret West. Describing the project’s ambition of leaving a positive long-term legacy for people and planet, the article highlights EARLS COURT's landscape-led approach resulting in 60 percent open spaces, water-neutral management strategy, ecological corridors for all life, and natural flows throughout the site. Read the AJ’s feature here: https://bit.ly/EarlsAJ And learn more about EARLS COURT here: https://bit.ly/EarlsSLA Places for London Hoare Lea #earlscourt #discoverwonder

This week, a team of SLA biologists and planting designers commenced a deep-dive ecology baseline survey for one of our (as yet undisclosed) major nature-led development projects in the UAE. Working at night and in the early morning hours, Senior Planting Designer Simone van de Wiel, Ecologist Anna Douglas, and Biologist Nico Pantaleoni studied our 100,000 m2 site for insects, bats, birds, reptiles, mammals, and local plant species. After several nights of on-site fieldwork, the survey aims to provide a comprehensive ecological baseline that will provide qualitative design parameters and guidelines for maximizing the natural values of the site throughout the development process. All to ensure that our design creates the best possible place for our client and end-users and the optimal living conditions - for all life. #biodiversity #fieldwork #ecology #slaarchitects

STORM SURGE PROTECTION IN AN AGE OF UNCERTAINTY How can we protect our landscapes and coastal cities from storm surges in an uncertain future? And how is a nature-led approach pivotal to finding a new balance between humans, cities, and water? Explore our new #SLAPerspectives with Project Architect and Water Change Expert Kristine C. V. Holten-Andersen where she argues for a water-centric, nature-led, and value-based design approach to our coastal landscapes: "Our goal is to design coastal zones that provide new blue-green values, habitats, experiences, and bonds between humans and nature. And to create responsive storm surge designs that do not fortify against the unknown climate realities - but adapt to them and celebrate them." Read more here: https://bit.ly/stormSLA

It’s time to act on biodiversity! We are proud to be part of the publication ‘From Biodiversity Commitments to Concrete Action’, which is launched today by the Danish Biodiversity Partnership at the #BiodiversityCOP16 in Cali, Colombia. Featuring a series of tangible recommendations on how to act on biodiversity, the publication highlights our work together with PensionDanmark and Aaen Engineering to create Denmark’s most ambitious biodiversity strategy for real estate investments: INVESTMENTS FOR LIFE. INVESTMENTS FOR LIFE is the first strategy to cover the entire real estate value chain from plot acquisition, project development, and design to construction, maintenance, and evaluation - all aiming for a nature-positive impact by 2030. Read more about INVESTMENTS FOR LIFE here: https://bit.ly/PenDKSLA The publication is made by State of Green Denmark and Miljø- og Ligestillingsministeriet. #BiodiversityAction #COP16 #PeaceWithNature #BiodiversityCOP

Join us tomorrow at AZURE Media’s HUMAN/NATURE conference in Toronto and meet up with SLA Design Principal and Senior Partner Rasmus Astrup. At the conference, Rasmus will participate in two sessions covering key topics of climate change mitigation in architecture and design today: From extreme heat to the positive potentials of City Nature to create climate resilience, well-being, and unique placemaking – exemplified in our multi-award-winning DOWNSVIEW FRAMEWORK PLAN. In his sessions, Rasmus will draw on SLA’s many award-winning projects across the globe and show how it is possible to design places with living ecosystems that help create robust cities, better environments for humans as well as biodiversity, and a higher quality of life – for all life.

Last week, a great bunch of students from the local Danvik Skole joined us to plant flower bulbs in a lush new corner of TANGENKAIA HARBOR in Drammen, Norway. The long-term plan for TANGENKAIA is to become a 10-hectare new neighborhood with housing, culture, and local production — all closely aligned with local needs and resources. To illuminate these, our team has been facilitating a series of events and workshops with local residents and stakeholders since 2022. We have also co-created ‘test landscapes’ using recycled materials from the area — something we look forward to sharing more about. We are excited to develop this project for Tangenkaia Eiendom in collaboration with our partners at DRMA Arkitekter, Add arkitekter AS, Ramboll, Urban Creators, and LÉVA Urban Design AS. Photos: SLA / Inger Margit Bondevik Grimm