Tree Lecture

We are just about to start to work on open spaces around Waterloo and I thought as a preparation for my site which is a street and will almost certainly involve trees it would be good to try to learn more about what you need to consider when designing with trees.
Trees are the new black

Went to one of the breakfast talks at the NLA. The subject was trees and held by Martin Kelly from Lovejoy and Jim Smith from the Forestry commission. Both are involved in the Trees and Design Action Group TDAG. The main points they emphasized were:

Trees need space and need to be managed right.

Right Tree Right Location - to ensure future tree planting in London is appropriate, sustainable, considered and permits the long term survival of those trees planted so that they fulfill their growth potential and make the maximum contribution possible without causing many of the problems traditionally associated with planting trees in urban areas.

The importance of putting an actual value to a tree, to make other professions understand their value

Promoting an understanding of trees

The cost of manging the tree in relation to the value of the tree. A high value tree might cost more to maintain, but there are solutions to avoid and help management issues for the future.

At the moment there are more trees being planted in London than ever before. The problem is that it is not always the right kind of trees and the way and space where they are planted are not right.

Trees are identified as playing a major part in the climate change scenario. Trees can help to decrease the Urban heat island effect. They are also important to health and wellbeing. They provide shade, but you also need to consider where trees are planted in relation to buildings, not to shade too much sun, that is valuable for the building to absorb heat from the sun to heat the buildings. But at the same time you would want the tree to provide shade in the summer to keep the building from getting too hot.

Trees also absorb CO2 from the atmosphere (but CO2 are also released during deforestation). There is also research supporting trees role in absorbing NO2 from the atmosphere to reduce pollution.

The average value of a tree in London is £8000 - £10 000. The total value of all street trees in London are £2.9 billion. And that is not including the parks. The value of a tree is done by the CAVAT system which can be read more about on the London tree officer website.

For me this has left me with a lot of reading and a better understanding of trees and some of the things that you need to consider when consider planting trees in designs especially in an urban site. I think it will be really important to provide management plans for trees in your designs, so that councils know how to look after the trees and to avoid future problems that the trees could occur. But also trying to sort out existing problems and provide solutions, for example root pruning and extension of existing tree grills. Even though you will probably work with a tree officer on your schemes in the real world I think a good understanding of the basics is very important.

Also promoting new developments to include trees in their schemes and to work with architects to change the building foundations to work with trees.

At another level there is also the opportunities of promoting fruit tree orchards to come to the UK, since a lot have disappeared over past years. I would love to have the opportunity to promote an urban orchard to highlight the issue of the future importance of local food production.

London Open City exhibition

View of the courtyard at Somerset House

Somerset House is beautiful and the courtyard is as well. I have been to a concert here during the summer and it is a great place for an outside concert. Next year I am hoping to get to the ice rink which is here during the Christmas period. Since we have been talking a lot about paving and drainage lately in University I couldn't help to look at it. The stone setts are beautiful and probably been here for a long time. I am guessing they are granite, since most of the paving in London is. The drainage is a little bit special. The high point is in the middle of the courtyard. Draining off to the sides, where there is a slot drain placed in an oval. Then there is another slot drain going in another oval between the buildings and the first slot drain. With the levels draining down to it. I think it is good solution to the drainage here. As it keeps the courtyard clean. The middle point is quite high though and possibly there might have been a better solution to the middle.

The proposed new city to sea path

The reason I went to Somerset house was to see the London Open City Exhibition. The exhibition does what the name says, it looks at London and its open spaces. Green and hard spaces. It talks about the challenges London faces as a city at the moment and in the future. The growing population of London and how do you accommodate this growth within the boundaries of London. Talking about the careful planning that this will take, to keep existing open spaces and to create new ones. One solution being higher density developments. Of course all this needs to done at the same time as tackling the issue of Climate change. Making transport efficient and public space a pleasure to use, well managed and easily accessible.

The points about making public space accessible I think is very important. Cause there a lot of areas across London which are missing an important close open space to them.

Design for London who has curated the exhibition also talks about blending new and old, respecting London's heritage and creating places for a diverse population. This is also very important since London is a very multi cultural city and spaces need to support this.

The exhibtion looks at some of the spaces that are either going through a change at the moment or have designs planned for the space. It is concentrating on 4 big ones, the Victoria Embankment - the potential of a great promenade along the waterfront, with less traffic and more pedestrian space - Bankside Urban Forest proposal - by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the proposal aims to highlight the relationship between the less intensively developed urban interior and its active, increasingly corporate, edges - Barking and the Riverside - Potters Field Park by Gross Maxx - which has been done so you can go and check it out.

Some of the people and organisations that shape London's urban fabric.

In the three rooms of the exhibition there are tear off 1 page A3 essays by Alan Powers, Gillian Darley and Edwin Heathcote. Which is a great idea. Sometimes you like to read more around the subject of the exhibition, but no necessarily when you are there and this essays you can take away with you and read on your way home. The essays talk about how London has changed over the years, about greening the grey and a city of surprises. They are all good and worth reading. Some things you will agree with and some not.

I like the greening the grey, talking about simple little things we can do to improve ecology, habitats and local food productions. About blending private and public responsibilities in terms of these areas. Which I think is a very exciting and new possibility, that I might try to investigate in my next project.

The other thing I really take from the exhibition are a few words and sentences. Don't dictate use. Which I find interesting and definitively worth investigating in your designs. It also talks a lot about security streetscape and the need to find other ways to achieve the security that bollards, anti climb paint, skate boards stoppers on street furniture and much more.

It leaves you thinking and it is both exciting and scary to think about the challenges ahead.

New Garden Plan

This is the new garden plan. The basic layout is the same, but there are rectangles of plants filled in. The garden has fencing on both sides and the main concern was to try to cover the fencing, to create a different feel. The planting is placed in flower beds in shapes of rectangles. This to create a contrast between soft planting and hard shape.

All the plants are chosen for their suitability and are all fully hardy. They are all plants that can cope with clay soil. The plants vary in shades of green and the highlighting colours (flowers and berries) range from red to orange to white and black.

Some of the plants were chosen for the smell as well. The climbers will be along the fence behind the seating area and they should give out a slight chocolate smell.

The right side has a wall of bamboos, which will give greenness and structure and dramatic effect blowing in the wind. The left side is a mix of shrubs, grasses and bamboos. Different heights and different feel. Making this an interesting and varying border. All plants are evergreen, but a few of the might be cut down in the autumn if they have had a hard summer.

Next step is trying to source the plants and cost up and count out how many of each plant I need, this will make it a real planting plan.

Existing garden layout

Soil test

View out to the garden
Looking a bit sad at the moment, but getting more and more green.

Views back toward the house.
Here I have started with some planting, but was done without much thought.

Tried to do a soil test to measure Ph level, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash level in the soil. Unfortunalety I don't think it worked very well. There were supposped to develop colour with different strengths... they all look pretty much they same to me. I think that the soil in garden is clay. Which can mean poor drainage. Tomorrow I will do a drainage test and get another soil test.

The colour chart showing what you should have seen, then my tests. As you can see I didn't have much luck.