With ever-tightening standards and regulations and the UK seeing population growth, architects must design urban spaces with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. Landscape architecture plays a crucial role, enabling the integration of sustainable, resilient designs.
The UK’s population rose by 755,300 to an estimated 69.3 million people in the year to mid-2024 – its second largest annual numerical increase. The associated increase in industrial activity, energy consumption and vehicles is seeing heightened water, waste and air pollution alongside the urban heat island effect.
Reduced green space and the expansion of cities risking air quality falling below World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines mean architects and specifiers must identify other ways of creating more liveable urban environments through effective landscape design.
AIR QUALITY AND WELLBEING
Urban areas such as Manchester, Birmingham and London are seeing long-term reductions in PM2.5, PM10 and other particulate matter. However, according to reports, many of them still exceed WHO guidelines for air quality.
This exacerbates the importance of considering a biophilic approach during landscape design. In fact, strategically planting and delineating vegetation can help create a green screen between pollution sources, such as busy roads, and people to improve air quality. Trees and vegetation also act as filters, trapping particulate matter from the air and absorbing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the atmosphere. Additionally, well-placed vegetation can have a long-lasting influence on the urban heat island effect. By providing shade and maximising green space to cool nearby surfaces, this can help lower local building air conditioning costs by as much as 50%.
BIODIVERSITY AND HABITATS
Vital in urban or developed areas, the creation of wildlife corridors through landscape edging can enable the easy movement of species and the spread of genetic diversity. Linking up existing woodlands, hedgerows or green spaces can help create interconnected habitat networks.
Acting as a buffer zone, landscape edging offers significant protection for more intensive habitats from fire, pesticide spray drift, wind and even human disturbance. Incorporating sustainable materials into landscape design also plays a critical role in enhancing an urban space’s environmental performance. Aluminium landscape edging and other sustainable materials mitigate issues such as the urban heat island effect, are manufactured with less toxicity and require less energy to produce.
REGULATING LOCAL TEMPERATURES
By defining boundaries of varying landscape elements, landscape design can substantially help regulate temperatures. For example, aluminium landscape edging can maintain defined areas for features such as water and trees – both drivers of cooling through evapotranspiration and shading. Additionally, delineating green spaces and preventing fragmentation can ensure they remain compact and provide more consistent and reliable cooling effects.
Strategic placement of vegetation and garden boundaries can also play a crucial role. The arrangement of plants and other vegetation in wind corridors enables the optimisation of convection efficiency to dissipate heat more effectively.
A GREATER SENSE OF COMMUNITY
The UK’s social and cultural needs are ever-evolving. Consequently, landscape design requires a forward-thinking, holistic approach that integrates biophilic demands and focuses on community. Through multi-functional design, urban spaces can cater for a myriad of activities, from community and recreational events through to urban agriculture. This ensures they remain popular and well-used by local communities.
Designing spaces with accessible and wide paths and incorporating diverse seating options also means green spaces are safe and accessible to every member of the community. This encourages a sense of ownership and pride in the local community and leaves residents and visitors keener to undertake regular maintenance and care to keep the spaces biodiverse, beloved and aesthetically pleasing. www.kinley.co.uk