Aspect Landscape Planning Ltd’s Post

Optima Meadow and Biodiveristy Net Gain (BNG)...A 'living wall', also known as a green wall or vertical garden, is a structure covered with vegetation or plants that are integrated into the façade of buildings. With the Optima Meadow solution we’ve developed in partnership with alistair law and Vertical Meadow, we’ve taken seeds that you’d typically find in a meadow and put them vertically into a cladding system to create living walls at scale. Specifying Optima Meadow provides a creative way to meet the new requirements of Environment Act 2021, through which the UK government introduced a mandatory biodiversity net gain obligation. BNG is a development strategy aimed at ensuring that wildlife habitats are improved compared to their pre-development state. Developers are required to achieve a BNG of 10%, meaning that the development must result in a net increase in the quantity or quality of natural habitats. To help satisfy this requirement, Vertical Meadow has worked with experts at The Wildlife Trust, Buglife and Professor Nigel Dunnett to ensure the Optima Meadow system delivers on biodiversity. “These ‘vertical meadows’ not only help designers to meet requirements,” said Alistair Law, Founder and CEO of Vertical Meadow, “but also create beautiful focal points for onlookers, maximise the available communal roof space on existing buildings and attract bees and other wildlife back into our cities. "Permanent installations of our solution contribute directly to BREEAM sustainability assessment points, Biodiversity Net Gain and Urban Greening Factors as now stipulated for planning permission. Specifically, our product uses species-rich native grass and wildflower seed mixes to provide a haven for pollinators, insects, birds and butterflies." Click the links below to learn more about Optima Meadow and its applications... Full news story: https://lnkd.in/eU-5ef6Y Optima Meadow system details: https://lnkd.in/eS88vygs #greening #biodiversity #rainscreencladding #architecture #construction #biodiversitynetgain #architects #nature #innovation

What's the most important thing about creating sustainable landscapes? These industry leaders have a lot to say! 🌿 We asked the brightest minds at Cape Cod Landscape Association's LandsCape Cod Conference to share their most important lessons in sustainable landscape design. Their answers paint a powerful picture of why data-driven landscape design matters more than ever. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to share their perspective and explore how we're using pollinator data to transform corporate spaces. The buzz around evidence-based landscape design is real. Let’s continue growing together! Featuring: Renee Gervais, Simran Israni, Landscape America, Van Berkum Nursery, CMS Landscape, and M. Virginia Wood #Biodiversity #SustainableLandscape #CorporateImpact #LandscapeDesign #CCLA

Nature-based solutions focus on using natural features and processes to solve environmental issues while enhancing traditional engineered solutions to be more resilient, biodiverse, and aesthetically pleasing. 🌻🌳♻ Given our role as ecological designers and consultants, it should come as no surprise that nature-based solutions are at the heart of our innovative problem solving. Over the last week we have featured multiple nature-based projects like living shorelines and stormwater parks that our integrated team of landscape architects and ecologists have brought to life. These built projects offer significant ecological and community benefits as habitat and natural resources but are often components of larger efforts like waterfront and urban park restorations and erosion control and shoreline armoring. There are projects though where nature-based solutions are the primary focus of a project aimed at solving one or more site-specific issues. These may include engineered projects like green roofs and treatment wetlands, along with more traditional landscape projects that use unique plant palettes to naturally “clean” contaminated sites, a.k.a. phytoremediation. Great Ecology’s Constructed Treatment Wetland project at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, in collaboration with Fuscoe Engineering, Inc., tackled the challenge of treating stormwater runoff with a nature-based solution that utilized existing available space within the site’s world-famous horse track while maintaining necessary aesthetic value. Learn more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/dki-mspD #WLAM2024 #ThisIsLandscapeArchitecture #NatureBasedSolutions #Resilience #Biodiversity #EcologicalDesign #Ecology #NaturalResources #Wetlands #PhytoRemediation

Urban Green Spaces: A Growing Concern As we move into 2025, recent reports highlight a global decline in urban green spaces, with 75% of cities experiencing reductions. This trend has significant implications for urban biodiversity and public health. At SR Landscape Architecture, we are committed to reversing this decline. Our work focuses on integrating sustainable solutions like biodiversity enhancement, biophilia, and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) into urban landscapes, enhancing both ecological value and community well-being. By prioritising green infrastructure, we aim to create resilient urban environments that support diverse ecosystems and provide essential green spaces for all. We are looking forward to working on our existing and new projects this year. If you have, or know of, a project that we may be able to assist with, please get in touch. studio@sr-la.co.uk Or contact our director Samuel Roberts #UrbanDesign #Sustainability #GreenSpaces #LandscapeArchitecture

The ecological crisis facing our planet is multifaceted, stemming from the rapid urbanisation and industrialization that have taken a toll on natural landscapes and biodiversity. This crisis is characterised by the depletion of natural resources, extensive damage to ecosystems, and irreversible changes to the environment. At IMK Architects, our approach to landscape design emphasises resilience as a key strategy. By designing landscapes that can withstand environmental stresses and support biodiversity, we try to contribute to the broader goal of addressing the ecological crisis and building a more sustainable future. Resilient landscapes are designed to adapt to changing environmental conditions and recover from disruptions, such as climate change-induced events like droughts, floods, and rising temperatures. By incorporating resilience into landscape design, we can mitigate the negative impacts of environmental challenges. This approach involves practical and feasible solutions that can be implemented gradually over time, allowing landscapes to evolve and thrive despite ongoing environmental changes. #IMKArchitects #LandscapeDesign #EcologicalLandscape #ResilientLandscape #Sustainability

Biodiversity Net Gain is now mandatory under The Environment Act. In urban environments ecological communities and habitats are evolving to become similar over time leading to a loss in biodiversity, BNG aims to reverse this trend and halt species decline by 2030. This is a key challenge for clients. GRID Architects believes that this issue needs to be considered from an early stage. It’s hard to achieve the 10% improvement when it is left to the end of the planning process.  At GRID we address BNG at site planning stage before clients have even engaged ecologists and landscape architects. Our Brook House project is a small and complex site (0.19ha), and yet we achieved double the minimum 10% net gain improvement. This was driven by a desire, not simply to tick a planning box, but to create a natural and regenerative landscape for the future residents of the development. We took a previous proposal for the site and halved its footprint to avoid a sewer crossing the site, and to retain more existing trees. Our solution was a taller building, generating a better (and cheaper) solution for the site where over half the site area was set aside for landscape gardens. The biodiversity of the site was further developed working in collaboration with ecologists from Greengage Environmental Ltd and Landscape design by LUC incorporating native species and varied habitats in both vertical and horizontal layers with an aim to connect fragmented ecological networks in the area. We see the Mandatory BNG requirement as an opportunity to create better developments with more integrated landscape design…. if thought about early enough. L&Q Women's Pioneer Housing #ecologist #landscapearchitecture Drawing below by LUC

World Biodiversity Day celebrates the beautiful variety of living things that inhabit the Earth. The theme for 2024 is “Be part of the Plan,” a call to action to halt biodiversity loss and preserve the conditions for life on earth. At Living Roofs, Inc., we take this charge seriously and believe rooftops are a smart way to infuse biodiversity into our cities and communities. Green roofs provide habitat for many kinds of insects and birds—species that don’t ask for much yet deliver a ton! We also believe this green roof is a magnificent example of how biodiversity is beautiful. Architecture by PLATT #worldbiodivesityday #BiodiversityDay #PartOfThePlan #ForNature #biodiversity #landscapeonstructure #LRIdesign #LRIconstruction #LRIcare #livingroofs #livingroofsinc #vegetatedroof #greenroofs #naturalinfrastructure

Come with me to do a Built Green water model! 🌳🌾 🏡 Water models help builders understand how efficient (or not) their project handles water By using their landscape plan I can identify where trees, shrubs, and groundcover are, and how much water they use annually. Definitely one of the favorite parts of my day 👨🏽💻🤓 #sustainablebuildings #greenbuilding #builtgreen #wateruse #sustainability #watermodel #landscape #landscapearchitecture #builtenvironment

Congratulations on Mareterra Monaco! From the story below: "A key feature of Mareterra is its construction on water. The project expands Monaco’s coastline using underwater caissons (large concrete boxes) which not only provide land space but also serve as marine habitats to support biodiversity. This engineering method was specifically developed in consultation with marine biologists to minimize ecological disruption. Additionally, measures were taken to relocate and monitor native species like Posidonia seagrass and red coral. Anti-turbidity screens were also installed to protect nearby marine reserves. In line with Monaco’s carbon neutrality goals for 2050, the project integrates several energy-efficient systems. Solar panels supply 40% of the district’s energy, and a seawater thalasso-thermal loop provides heating and cooling, reducing energy consumption. Rainwater is harvested for irrigation, plus green roofs (along with over 1,000 trees) help mitigate urban heat. Notably, a 1-hectare (2.47-acre) pine forest has been established, offering both environmental and recreational benefits to residents." Read "Monaco unveils its groundbreaking €2 billion floating eco-district" on SmartNews:

In the city of Randers, in the Central Denmark Region, on the Jutland Peninsula, in Denmark, an 893,000sqft park by C.F. Møller Architects, looks to combat climate change by getting ahead of it. This climate adaptation project, converts a nature area into a public nature park. This adaptation, creates public spaces alongside wetlands to better absorb storm water and wastewater. The newly engineered system, takes excess rainwater from the city, channeling it towards rainwater purification collection basins in the park, and then leads the water out into the wetland meadow area. The winding trains throughout the wetlands allow spots for visitors to interact with and view the natural environment. Acting as a nature preserve, educational experience, and serving a practical purpose with forward thinking objectives, this project showcases the ability for us to prepare in advance for climate change. The unfortunate reality is that climate change will continue to effect our planet, and besides trying to combat and slow these changes, we must also be preparing for the eventuality that it will have major effects on the way we live. We’re all in this together #sustainability #sustainabledesign #sustainablearchitecture #architecturaldesign #adaptation #adaptivereuse #environmentaldesign #cityplanning #urbandesign #urbanplanning #wetlands #watermanagement