Category Archives: Sustainability

City designers bringing urban spaces back to life

Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, using tidal power to generate renewable electricity
Swansea Bay tidal lagoon, using tidal power to generate renewable electricity
Croydon’s historic Wandle Park, restored
Croydon’s historic Wandle Park, restored
London’s Burgess Park, where the transformation included a 3,000 square metre play area
London’s Burgess Park, where the transformation included a 3,000 square metre play area
City Park, Birmingham, from semi-derelict area into a busy urban space
City Park, Birmingham, from semi-derelict area into a busy urban space

Swansea and Croydon – not places usually synonymous with cutting edge design and urban rejuvenation, but both have just been named as among the most forward-thinking places for landscape design.

Among the big projects worth picturing here is the first tidal lagoon – the world’s largest power-generating lagoon – in Swansea Bay and the regenerated Wandle Park in Croydon, south London.

Both are among the winners in the annual Landscape Institute awards, announced yesterday. The awards are granted to outstanding examples of work by the landscape architects. Full details are here.

Making social impact integral to business

When women in Haiti added fruit flavouring to purified water and sold it to their peers, an impromptu community business was born. While the main aim was a health-related one – the women used purifying sachets distributed after the 2010 earthquake to clean the water – the unforeseen knock-on effect involved women educating their peers about not drinking contaminated water and running their own mini-enterprise. Read the rest of my piece on the Guardian Sustainable Business network.