With 16 shortlisted schemes, the South Downs National Park Authority celebrated outstanding and innovative design with a 65-strong audience at the heart of the National Park at the South Down Centre in Midhurst, West Sussex.
Every 5 years excellence is the focus and the 2024 round included expert judging panels looking at well over 100 special schemes, which were scrutinised in depth and short-listed to 16. These were arranged into five key themes ranging across residential, non-residential, conservation and landscape, with the People’s Choice making the judging open to residents of the National Park.
Highly recommended in the Landscape Category was the elegant Woolbeding Glasshouse designed by the Heatherwick Studio within the setting of a historic garden owned by the National Trust and known for integrating innovation and modern art – in this case a kinetic structure designed to open and close like a flower – with the surrounding garden telling the fascinating story of key regions along the Silk Route.
The winner of the Landscape Category was the Cockshut Stream Restoration in Lewis. Situated within a SSSI the scheme included a 0.5 mile realignment of a chalk stream, complimented by 6 hectares of wetland and meadow creation. A spoil-neutral scheme ensured the excavations created pools and scrapes as well as circular walks enabling the local community to interact with nature. It is a special habitat for freshwater species and overwintering birds as such coastal areas are rare due to immense development pressures. The scheme is located near the largest town within the National Park and won the coveted People Choice Category.
Winners included more modern but well detailed sustainable designed buildings. The LI President’s personal favourite, the Handlebar Café in Winchester, was conceived by a then 10-year old together with his friends, who were involved in the Hampshire ‘SPUD Youth’ project which aims to create interest in architecture and place-making. As part of their original project work, they set up a train-wagon shaped café positioned adjacent to a disused railway with terraces affording commanding views across the landscape, the flood plain setting of the historic town of Winchester as well as the chalk-grassland of St Catherine’s Hill Nature Reserve. The other nice outcome of the project was that the friends all started to study architecture and design – apparently 15 of them! Now they can celebrate winning the Non-residential category, too. An additional refreshing outcome is that the National Park Authority is now hoping to include a student category in its next award round.
The audience was welcomed by Tim Slaney, The National Park Authority’s Interim CEO, who highlighted the work of the award-winning authority including the benefits of landscape-led design. The park authority, as one of the largest planning authorities in the country, is one of the first to promote it as such and has an outstandingly robust local plan and a ground-breaking design guide. As guest speaker of the event, the LI president raised awareness of the work of the LI and its members, including the benefits of engaging landscape specialists early, landscape-led projects and multi-functional landscape considerations.
LI President Carolin Göhler highlights
‘Developing within any national park is a privilege and the short-listed schemes have shown excellence in design respecting and understanding their special location within the South Down National Park. From diverse buildings to nature restoration schemes, the wining projects demonstrate and help to raise awareness of good design and its impact in improving quality of local environments for people and nature. It is pleasing to see that sensitive integration of fine architecture of the Glasshouse in Woolbeding within a historic garden has been highly commended, whereby the winner – the Cockshut Stream Restoration – showcases how chalk streams can be improved by demonstrating climate resilience by providing a wetland and meadow refuge to overwintering birds as much provide ample enjoyment to local people.’
Landscape architects/professionals present:
- Kim Wilkie FLI
- Robyn Butcher FLI –Terra firma
- Rob Lewton CMLI – Robert Bray Associates
- Grace Ruddick
- Ben Shakespeare CMLI – LUC
- and more…
Images © SDNPA/Sam Moore
