LOFTY IDEAS
A new type of vertical greening has been proposed by architect Selim Vural of Vural Studios for a New York skyscraper. Vural’s Lilly design would cover the façade of an energy-efficient apartment building known as a passive tower on the edge of Bryant Park, Manhattan, with an insulating curtain of Asiatic lilies. These would colour the building in shades of red, yellow and orange while the flowers are in bloom and return it to green for the rest of the year. The planting system, which would be irrigated by rainwater and grey water from the building, would be made from lightweight concrete beds supported by a steel frame. Vural’s choice of Asiatic lilies is based on his experience of the lilies thriving on his Brooklyn rooftop for the past 15 years. studiovural.com/lilly-passive-tower
ARTS CENTRE, HOLYHEAD
Planning permission has been granted to create new extensions and a garden designed by Robert Myer Associates for a leading Welsh arts centre on Anglesey. The contemporary extensions to the Ucheldre Centre, which is housed in a former convent chapel in Holyhead, have been designed by De Matos Ryan Architects and will provide separate dance and art studios that look out on to the garden. The garden will provide a series of naturalistic planted spaces that include a sculpture garden outside the café, a garden of wellbeing with a raised vegetable bed, and an orchard garden furnished with beehives and bird boxes. robertmyers-associates.co.uk
SUSSEX WINE ESTATE GARDENS
Biodiverse gardens, designed by Andy Sturgeon Design, which surround the tasting rooms of Ridgeview Wine Estate in East Sussex, are due to open this summer. The new landscape includes three pavilions, with views over the vines, which are framed by a native hedge. A series of multi-stem hawthorns, and clipped domes of yew and beech, which emerge from plantings of native grasses, ferns and perennials such as foxgloves and red campions, anchor the pavilion gardens into their setting at the edge of a woodland. andysturgeon.com
BUILDING WITH NATURE AWARD
A scheme to transform an underused space in Glasgow that was prone to flooding has won a Building with Nature National Award for Scottish Landscape Architecture studio RaeburnFarquharBowen at the Landscape Institute’s 2021 awards. The retrofit around two high-rise apartment blocks creates play spaces, community gardens, food-growing areas and swales that will collect rainwater from the downpipes of each tower block. Green-roofed bike shelters also help to capture rainwater and provide additional wildlife habitats. raeburnfarquharbowen.com
NORFOLK HOSPICE
Construction has begun on a new hospice close to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, which will be surrounded by landscaped grounds designed by James Alexander-Sinclair. Each inpatient room at the Priscilla Bacon Lodge hospice will have its own private garden, with some giving on to the wider landscape, a grassy expanse studded with trees and criss-crossed with winding paths that encircle an informal pond. Other rooms will face the formal gardens, which will include a rose arbour, a herb garden and a water feature. Another £2.5 million is needed to complete the landscaping. priscillabaconhospice.org.uk
ROCHDALE TOWN HALL SQUARE
Landscape architect Gillespies has designed a new public square to complement the Grade I-listed Rochdale Town Hall, which is currently being restored. The design features lawned areas with plants and trees that will boost biodiversity and create an events space in front of the town hall. Paving, inscribed with images that reflect the town’s heritage, including the Lancashire rose, will bisect the lawns and connect the cenotaph and memorial gardens with the town hall entrance. The town hall and the new landscaping are expected to open to the public in 2023. gillespies.co.uk
21ST SERPENTINE PAVILION
This year’s Serpentine Pavilion, Black Chapel, has been designed by Theaster Gates, visual arts professor at the University of Chicago. The temporary summer structure, created with architectural support from Adjaye Associates, will be open on the gallery’s lawns in Kensington Gardens from 10 June to 16 October. Inspired by the pottery kilns of Stokeon-Trent, and made mainly from sustainably sourced timber, the structure is bathed in light from a circular opening in the roof. A bell, from a former church in Chicago, will signal the start of live performances. serpentinegalleries.org