external areas
Making biophilic design effective in this Key points
• Create a landscape management plan for the site to include a vision along with short medium and long term aims and objectives and budgets
• Be realistic with plans and factor in ongoing maintenance costs.
• Where external space is lacking consider living walls and living roofs. High quality interior planting is also known to have a positive impact on student and staff mental health and wellbeing.
• Improving the green and outside space isn’t just a about beautification. You should consider improvements that will increase the biodiversity and value of your site as well as looking at elements such as trees, living walls and living roofs that help reduce the urban heat island affect and harvesting grey water and reducing flood risk.
• Health and wellbeing should be a priority for all educational facilities. Well maintained and cleverly designed green spaces will offer significant physical benefits and can help reduce obesity in children.
• Take a multifunctional approach to the space that is available and look at the potential that landscapes provide for learning and the national curriculum (including maths and science).
• Introducing nature is important. Create spaces to encourage habitat creation and conservation.
• Consider areas for growing food. Engagement with the school community is also crucial.
way – as well as overcoming the limitations of locations – is a matter of ingenuity. Many educational facilities are introducing innovative schemes, such as retro-fitted monoculture systems. These might include the likes of dynamic landscape features such as urban wild flower meadows, which provide colour and interest, while attracting pollinators and wildlife. In areas where external space is lacking, some sites are creating features such as living walls and roofs, or looking to make the most of internal spaces and plant species.
green spaces should be approached as a lifetime asset
During the recent period of austerity, we
have seen ongoing budget cuts in public and private sectors, which have resulted in many educational facilities looking to reduce spends and save money on non- essential areas. Green and open spaces often fall into this category, which has meant a decline in the quality of landscape asset that we have access to. Yet even on a purely financial basis, it is possible to reverse this direction of travel, but doing so involves a step change in how we think about green spaces. Those responsible for the management of educational facilities need to consider green spaces in the same way as the building itself; they should be approached as a lifetime asset, rather
than an area that requires constant maintenance – which comes at a cost. In order to secure more funds and
resources, site managers need to put forward proposals that highlight what benefits a dynamic green space has to health and wellbeing, as well as the ecological improvements that can be achieved such as increased biodiversity, improved air flow, and reduced flood risk through grey water harvesting and management. But beyond this, it is also important to take a longer, more strategic view that can help demonstrate that the benefits of biophilic design needn’t come at a greater cost at all. It’s natural to assume a greater level of
ambition comes with a corresponding price tag. However, the reality is that retrofitting landscapes to improve biodiversity can be implemented with no increased budget or investment. Indeed, this can often be delivered as a cost neutral benefit in line with a landscape management and maintenance plan or over an agreed period of time. For example, planting a wildflower meadow in place of lawn may involve some initial investment, but it will ultimately require far less ongoing maintenance than a lawn that has to be frequently mowed. In this example, the cost impact of adopting a different, more strategic approach to the landscape is neutral despite the improvement in both appearance and biodiversity. Adam Ralph is a director at facilities
management firm, GRITIT Grounds Maintenance.
www.gritit.com
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