Landscape Design

The South Quay Plaza site itself went through significant changes in recent history, resulting in a fragmented piece of public realm with a large vacant plot closed off to the public since the 1996 Docklands bombing and an underused section of the DLR undercroft. Acting as both a visual and physical barrier to movement, while terminating poorly the views on the axis of Millharbour the site called for a radical and far-reaching design approach. Contrasting the urban intensification of Canary Wharf and the surrounding Marsh Wall and Isle of Dogs, the South Quay Plaza masterplan introduces 3 acres of much needed public greenspace associated with three new residential buildings on a site of 4.5 acres, rescuing a vacant plot that has been closed to the public since for over 20 years and renovating public realm associated with existing buildings beyond the development’s ‘red line’.

We have been involved in the project since 2015, taking the landscape design from planning to completion. The masterplan was designed to create much needed public greenspace at the base of three new tall residential buildings. The design strategies of slender building footprints and locating all vehicular servicing in the basement combine to release over two thirds of the site as public realm. The design opens walking and cycling connections and provides high levels of walkability to the wider area responding to diagonal desire lines connecting the water’s edge to South Quay Station and Marsh Wall. The majority of the park sits atop a two-storey basement that houses servicing and parking

The project has been a success in the following ways: In contrast to the densely developed surroundings, the new high-quality public realm offers residents and the wider community valuable amenity and a range of recreation opportunities in the form of play, eating, strolling, or resting, encouraging and facilitating a thriving and vibrant public life at the base of the buildings.

Creating climate resilience and increasing biodiversity are key drivers for the design of the public realm. Contrasting the impressive height of the buildings, the public realm consists of a series of tranquil gardens, framed by large trees, that create a green envelope from the buildings and provide visual interest, high levels of amenity and play for children. A total of 320 mature new trees will be planted across the development including 14m tall, mature Dawn Redwoods that help to manage the micro climate by emulating a closed canopy woodland promoting shade for cooling and reducing wind effects, whilst creating an attractive and useable parkland from day one.

Bold swathes of colourful wildlife attracting perennials create a naturalistic landscape that changes with the seasons and maximises amenity value for residents and workers. The planting contributes significantly to local nature recovery with the new greenspaces delivering a biodiversity net gain of over 500% in area-based habitats due to the ecologically poor value of baseline consisting of buildings and paving. The park is constructed on a two-storey basement housing parking, servicing, plant and an energy centre. Complex landscape engineering and earth sculpting seamlessly integrates all ventilation requirements for the basement. 400mm linear metres of seating benches conceal the ventilation and act as retaining edges for soil build-ups required to sustain the tree planting.

The landscape strategy includes the previously vacant site to the south of South Quay Square and the public realm underneat the DLR. The site is strategically located at the intersection of two key routes; Millharbour and Marsh Wall. There were a number of barriers that affect orientation and movement through the site including an existing site hoarding covering the majority of the site, change in levels as a result of the the steps leading to the previous DLR Station and building extract vents. The existing public realm beneath the Docklands Light Railway offers limited amenity, and suffers from poor overlooking. Significant views on the axis of Mill harbour, a primary route for the area, terminate poorly on the site hoarding.