Swindon Triangle’s green space boosts its value by £500,000
The landscape at the Swindon Triangle residential development by Studio Engleback has added almost half a million pounds in value to the project...
The HTA’s PlantforLife and Greening the UK campaigns arrived at the figure using the Green Infrastructure Valuation toolkit, which allows planners and developers to determine the value of green space to their projects.
The toolkit was developed by a steering group of organisations including Natural Economy Northwest, CABE and Defra. It consists of a user guide, including step-by-step instructions and case studies, and a calculator comprising 11 spreadsheets designed to determine the value of green assets, from flood mitigation to social cohesion.
In the case of the Swindon Triangle development, harvest from fruit trees and bushes (worth between £14,000 and £25,000) and enhanced property values (worth between £190,000 and £400,000) all contributed to the total financial boost from its green spaces.
Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs and founder of development company Hab, which helped to develop the project, said: “The Swindon Triangle is a great example of designing a quality landscape to deliver a sustainable development. The Triangle enables residents to grow their own food, coexist with natural habitats and wildlife, and, above all, foster social cohesion.
“I welcome the efforts to capture the true economic value of the social and environmental benefits of this project, and encourage other developers and project managers to adopt similar principles in their own work.”
Read more about the Swindon Triangle and Studio Engleback's work on the project here
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Why not mention the landscape architect responsible? That’s Luke Engleback I believe
This has now been updated. For more information on Studio Engleback’s work on the Swindon Triangle, visit http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/news/index.php/news_articles/view/kevin_mccloud_and_the_future_of_social_housing
I really fail to see the espoused quality of the landscape imput for this scheme and from the photographs the triangle itself seems both lacking in soft spaces and dominated by the necessity of car to door paving and hard surfaces, a retrograde proximity…....Glenn Howells retake on the terraced house and its sustainable agenda is an innovatve turn for the terrace model but the site planning seems retrograde and exageratedly emphasised as something innovative…......surely the model is RDCC type village green, hardly rocket science and in most cases done better elsewhere.
McClouds inroad into rental council or ‘ordinary people’s housing’, is laudable but I fail to see the improvement over much of say 60’s housing.Ordinary is also a difficult concept to define and maybe its a reflection on the present downturn that the ‘ordinary’ receives awards.
We do indeed live in difficult times!
Knowing he is doing furthur larger scale estate layouts I look foward to seeing how the site is handled and comment more.
Those involved may have had good intentions, but compare the gardens visible in the aerial photo (October 2011 photos) with those of the older housing over the fence - they are pitifully small for a project emphasizing green space - and those on the north side would be in shade 11 months of the year.
How’s your knowledge on say Apple trees? Here’s the speed learning version
Young trees don’t start producing until they are 5 to 7 years old, and they’ll start out giving you 30-50 apples the first year, and increase each year as they grow and can support more. These excuses for fruit trees [what are they by the by eh?} have been in place 6 months..and there’s about 20 ..thats right..20 !!
So at an average wholesale price of say 15per apple{who did you sell the 166,000+ apples to then eh..Tescos?} that works out at 166,667 apples to secure £25,000 revenue
Let’s be generous and say 50 apples per tree ...even although they’ll not be ready for 5 years do the maths….....
Required number of trees: 3,300 - actual 20 and NO FRUIT
Required ground space per tree: Av distance between plants/trees 20 ft {info from the apple tree growing society}...........do we really need to do the maths…..
Do really think anybody believes this shite..? wait to the BBC get a hold of this ....