Nightingale Estate – Designing for sustainable communities

A hand-stitched section of Napoleon Road, created by student Ruth Ferguson © Clare Penny

The University of East London design studio for the autumn term this year involved a collaboration with the London Borough of Hackney and the people who live there... addressing issues of isolation and loneliness on the estate.

Clare Penny

The University of East London, based in London’s Docklands, runs three Landscape Institute accredited postgraduate courses in Landscape Architecture – a one-year Post Graduate Diploma, a one-year MA, for students with an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture, and a two-year MA Conversion, for students new to the subject.

UEL’s ethos and approach is rooted in preparing students for professional life. As a careers-focused university, we pride ourselves on our links with industry, providing students with the professional knowledge, skills and attributes required to work as a landscape architect in practice. Students experience live sites as part of their project work, and undertake work experience with landscape practices, enabling them to apply professional skills to their university projects.

Our design studio for the autumn term this year involved a collaboration with the London Borough of Hackney and the people who live there. Residents had asked the council for help in developing the landscape of Napoleon Road, which lies on the edge of the Nightingale Estate, just north of Hackney Downs Park. Community Engagement and Projects Officer at Hackney Council, Alice McCreadie, contacted Clare Penny to ask if UEL students could help come up with ideas for the spaces along Napoleon Road. Alice talked about the issues of isolation and loneliness on the estate, with many elderly residents having no outside spaces to sit and meet people, and with some residents she met having not seen another person since her last visit to them. This is a huge social challenge, and one that can be addressed through the work of landscape architects. Providing welcoming spaces for people can encourage them to interact with others they might not normally see, building strong community connections.

Group collage of urban flora, made from leaves collated on site

© Clare Penny

To develop designs that meet the needs of local people, Hackney Council sent out a questionnaire to residents, asking for their views, and students were given the opportunity to meet residents and members of a local gardening club to find out what their hopes were for the spaces along Napoleon Road. Students then worked in groups to undertake site survey and analysis, focusing upon the sense of place and social and physical history of the Nightingale Estate.

Students met with residents again before beginning the design stage of the project, and then worked individually to develop a design package for Napoleon Road, including an illustrative masterplan, detailed design layout and planting strategy. Students were encouraged to develop both permanent and ‘meanwhile’ uses for the street, so that residents had the chance to construct some smaller elements themselves, without the need to source external funding.

In February, students presented their ideas to Napoleon Road residents and other local people at the Nightingale Estate Community Centre. Residents were incredibly grateful for the hard work students had put into their proposals and now plan to use the ideas to construct some of the ‘meanwhile’ elements themselves, while also seeking funding to implement the permanent elements of the proposals.

Sustainable Communities Project: description of project by student Ruth Ferguson

Napoleon Road is on the ‘edge’ of the Nightingale Estate and faces a railway cutting. It’s also on the edge of the regeneration proposal of Nightingale Estate by Townsend Landscape Architects, while left out of the more dramatic changes to this housing area. The road connects to Hackney Downs Park and had previously been used as a rat-run. Recent vehicle control measures have reduced this problem, but the area remains dominated by parking.

Napoleon Road has a lot of potential for improvement and has many mature trees. The railway is a bat corridor and Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). The site also lies on the edge of proposals made in the Hackney Green Infrastructure Strategy. Two local primary schools lie within 100m of the road, as well as several more schools and nurseries within a kilometre. A gardening club has been started, with residents and local people undertaking guerrilla gardening to improve their local area.

I was interested in the wideranging notion of ‘stitching in’ Napoleon Road to the surrounding area, so that it wasn’t a forgotten edge. It could literally be stitched into the Hackney Green Infrastructure Strategy and the regeneration of the Estate. I took rubbings of the leaves on the street and stitched these into a patchwork blanket section of Napoleon Road, in which I used silver embroidery thread on lightweight cotton and linen to create a section of the road and railway cutting. I added layers of history by stitching on photos from the past, including the tower blocks that were demolished in the 1990s, the pirate radio stations and bicycle clubs, as well as adding current photos.

Amelia Bouquet, PG Diploma student

I really enjoyed researching the rich, layered history of the Nightingale Estate, which formed an important part of our design process.

Speaking with residents gave us valuable insight into how people who lived on the estate during different periods of time had seen it change and develop through the years. Gaining these multigenerational and diverse accounts was integral to the design.

Ultimately, my design was centred around the idea of building strong community foundations through gardening. Many of the residents had expressed an interest in growing their own food. In addition to this, there’s already a keen gardening group established on the estate. My design was inspired by this and is represented through the recurring shape of seeds at different stages of life cycle as a key motif.

Visualisation of proposed garden area by Amelia Bouquet

© Amelia Bouquet

Ruth Ferguson, 2nd year MA Conversion student

As a second year MA student, I found this project on the Nightingale Estate, Hackney, both challenging and inspiring. It was very much rooted in the reality of the isolation felt by many residents, but with the potential to make changes that could reconnect people with each other and with nature. The concept of my design proposal was to create ‘Living Streets’ – which could create opportunities for people to connect and rest, to improve their mental and physical health, to feel a sense of community and connect to nature. The streets would also become more alive with pollinators and birds as a result of improved biodiversity, as well as become more resilient to flash floods and extreme heat in the face of a changing climate.

Looking at the history of the area, I became interested in the ‘lost river’ of Hackney Brook in the nearby park Hackney Downs, which was covered up underground in the 19th century for sanitation (the source of the brook is still visible in the ponds at Clissold Park, Hackney). I wanted to create a street that offered opportunities to meander, as the river did, and offer a source of life through a series of design interventions such as SuDS planting, informal play, new trees, reduced traffic, community kitchen estate for some of their work. gardens, cycle parking and nature trails. These could all be replicated throughout Hackney after successful implementation on Napoleon Road. Ultimately, a ‘living street’ is an opportunity for people to rest, connect and feel alive.

Concept visual for Ruth's Living Streets idea.

© Ruth Ferguson

Tree identification using leaves gathered on site.

© Ruth Ferguson

Khaled Hadi, 2nd year MA Conversion student

When I started digging deep into the Nightingale Estate, I discovered that it is rich in history, such as pirate radio stations in the early 1990s, and that it was a location for the BBC television show, Top Gear, which used the estate for some of their work.

After conducting a desktop survey, I was very excited to meet the residents the following week. Their commitment to improving the estate really inspired me. I spoke with the Garden Club, who gave us a lot of information and ideas about what they wanted to achieve on Napoleon Road. Plants, birds, pollinators and biodiversity came to mind as the best theme for them.

What surprised me, too, was that Hackney Council’s policies have a strong emphasis on pollinators and biodiversity, and encourage developers to use meadows instead of grass. This served as the foundation for my project, which I called the Nightingale Bee Walk.

I designed my project to create a space for people and bees to live side by side and show how we can share our city with a range of different species. My thoughts turned to the educational system, as the surrounding area has more than six schools and nurseries that could benefit from the design, allowing children to go on local trips to learn more about bees.

The challenges we face as humans around the world are increasing, with climate change destroying thousands of homes for birds and insects and affecting human lifestyles, from temperature changes to food crisis. As a landscape student, I’ve always viewed cities as a shared space between humans and all other living species, where we complement one another in the biological life cycle.

Khaled's Nightingale Bee Walk concept, inspired by London Borough of Hackney's biodiversity and climate emergency policies

© Khaled Hadi

Having the opportunity to speak directly to those we were designing for was essential for creating a meaningful space, which would really benefit the community.

Joe White, 2nd year MA Conversion student

Flying around AutoCAD or Revit, it’s easy to get caught up in a world of imagined realities. After hours of offsetting, edge surfing and purging, I often forget that what we do has very real material impacts on the everyday lives of people. Although it is, of course, important to have a strong concept and cohesive story to bring a design together, this project reminded me that simple things are as important as lofty narratives.

So many of the residents reported feeling lonely and isolated, because of old age or having a limited support network of family and friends. And for a number of elderly residents – particularly since the pandemic – a short lap of the estate or a trip to pick up a pension is all the time outside they get. Even this is too much for some, with no seats to break a journey and with pavements cluttered by superfluous bollards and orphaned gateposts. The number of residents struggling with a poor quality of life and lack of social connections was sobering.

It is not an exaggeration to say that a well-considered, yet simple, redesign of streets like Napoleon Road can completely transform therefore, should accommodate a wide range of needs. Having the opportunity to speak directly to those we were designing for was essential for creating a meaningful space, which would really benefit the community it was designed for, while also helping to forge a stronger sense of identity for the place. lives. Small changes, like places to sit and interact with others, or to sit quietly alone, surrounded by greenery, would have a huge positive impact. Better signage, more bins, measures to reduce traffic, more places to park bikes, community growing space – these are all basic things that residents would like. But although the street feels forgotten and disconnected, it’s inspiring to see community groups taking matters into their own hands.

Joe’s design for Napoleon Road.

© Joe White

Lucy Williams, 1st year MA Conversion student

The community engagement element to the project was a really inspiring way of approaching the design. Outdoor spaces, particularly streets like this one, are experienced by a large number of people and, therefore, should accommodate a wide range of needs. Having the opportunity to speak directly to those we were designing for was essential for creating a meaningful space, which would really benefit the community it was designed for, while also helping to forge a stronger sense of identity for the place.

My design incorporated temporary ‘DIY’ elements, which could later be adapted to more permanent uses, allowing residents of the estate and wider community to take control of this space and directly engage with their landscape.

Lucy’s concept of Rebellion reflected the community of the Nightingale Estate and their strength to overcome challenges.

© Lucy Williams

Lucy’s Planting Strategy built upon the concept of Rebellion, proposing planting that would inhabit every crack and crevice of her design for Napoleon Road.

© Lucy Williams

Clare Penny MA CMLI FHEA is Course Leader for Landscape Architecture at the University of East London