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Kings College Hospital NHS Trust , Camberwell, LONDON SE5 Site KCH lies in a densely populated area of London and is one of the largest and busiest hospitals in the UK. Background As part of a massive redevelopment programme now taking place the green environment was seen to be an important factor. With very little landscape extant two years ago, a programme was started where all unused available space would be considered for the conversion of what were familiar concrete blight zones into utilized pocket gardens. Each garden would have to be designed to become easily accessible to hospital staff, visitors and patients. The design The area consists of a 150metre strip (varying from 4-5metres wide) that runs between a service road at the rear of the hospital and eight Hospital Wards Wings. The long strip was a concrete road when the hospital was built in 1912 and being below the level of the present service road has been covered over with hoggin and used as an unofficial car park and repository for building materials. Paved fire escapes were laid from the back of each ward across the site on to the road. The design brief was as follows:
a) present a garden view from the wards The design scheme proposed was based on segments of a circle. This allowed for simple connecting physical links Between each ward's garden area and visual unity with the furniture features. The landscape was principally grass With borders of gravel which would be used as paths and match the colour palette of yellow, grey, black and purple.
Construction The first major job was to bring in an excavator and remove the paths and 150mm thick concrete. The process was Only able to proceed one garden at a time due to ongoing building works but as soon as the road kerb was laid and the brick edging was put in, the pattern and border retention were defined and the levels established. Due to the tightness of the design materials needed to be delivered in strict order. Once the paving and concreting were completed and the brick-edging put in the Breedon gravel used for the paths could be eventually laid. This would then be consolidated for future pedestrian use once the topsoiling and tree planting had been carried out. The Breedon gravel was chosen partly because of its pleasing golden yellow colour and partly because in lieu of steps it can be laid on fairly sharp gradients. Also in a garden context its 'soft' ness makes Breedon gravel generally a more agreeable material than the more commonly used bitumen asphalt. The furniture that was best suited to the quadrant theme of the new landscape could be supplied by a French company, which also could supply in the required texture finishes to match building and other design features. The other design features included the large ball bollards that would serve as a barrier to the road. These turned Out in fact to have a very bold presence in the scheme given the whole project a feeling of fun. For planting the beds we used colour blocks of ground cover roses (which would keep low enough not to become a possible obstruction) and the small round evergreen Hebe Dome as a border. The huge concrete planters were filled Lavender Hidcote With the pink swords of Phormium Sunset shooting Up in the center. For additional Summer colour the front Of each planter was planted with the bronze flowered Russian wallflower. White limestone chippings were added as mulch and also to give added alkalinity to the planting compost for the benefit of the lavenders. Finally a staggered line of elegant weeping Birches was planted.
The whole scheme is being carried out in five stages. Three stages are now complete. The next stage involves extending the layout to make a roof garden over the engineers' workshop underneath and will be included in the New year's diary. |  |
