F E AT U R E By Ian Fisher
1
Heron Street – a model for green capsule street space A collaboration between Manchester School of Architecture and Land Use Consultants has led to innovative thinking in the creation of a small-scale green space Design Process Could a new paradigm of landscape design and procurement emerge as a result of the social and environmental fallout from COVID-19? This small project evidences a collaborative approach in which the community, contractors, suppliers, clients, consultants, academics, students and local community ward managers are working together to achieve project implementation. 32
The project originated from a brief set by tutors in the Master of Landscape Architecture, one of several Masters courses offered by Manchester School of Architecture, Landscape Technology unit. This challenged students to apply their skills and knowledge to create aspirational designs that transformed Heron Street, Hulme, into a shared space for play and socialising. The students envisioned that this would be achieved through the introduction of rain gardens, green walls, traffic
calming measures, interactive social and play spaces, with sustainable materials and an ecologically adaptive vegetation structure. In conjunction with support from Manchester City Council, these aspirational designs were implemented on the street as a temporary ‘Living Exhibition’ in September 2019, using materials and time donated by numerous landscape product suppliers and professionals, including Kier, JA Jones Nursery, GreenBlue Urban, Enviromesh,
1. Indicative view of the public element of the green capsule space. Seating is flexible and planting is practical and ecologically robust. © Land Use Consultants; Manchester Office
