Pratice Update - Summer 2008
11th August 2008
Summer at Terra Firma saw – appropriately – the unveiling of our Masterplan for Hayling Island seafront. Designed to completely transform Hayling’s rundown coastal area, our scheme was inspired by the area’s proud boast as the birthplace of windsurfing. The scheme is currently undergoing public consultation, but news hot off the press is that we have just been appointed to work alongside architects HGP on the first phase of the project – an exciting new watersports academy.
We continue our waterside theme in another ongoing project – the Masterplan to consider the future of Chichester’s canal basin. Although close to Chichester city centre, the canalside area has never achieved its full potential and is currently outdated and under-used. The new scheme – again undergoing public consultation as we write – aims to create a diverse and lively recreational and living area for the people of Chichester.
Alongside these high-profile projects, we have also been pleased to contribute to a community project – a Creative Partnerships initiative at Admiral Lord Nelson School in Portsmouth. In keeping with the Landscape Institute’s plan to encourage more people to become Landscape Architects, this project asked schoolchildren to consider their school grounds and design their own improvements to it. From an ambitious early plan to use a statue of the headteacher holding a pen as a lightening conductor, Terra Firma and other facilitators took the children through the consultation and design process and have come up with a plan to make a marshy area of the school grounds accessible to all.
The national press have been very interested in another of our projects, Butterfly World in St Albans. The interest was caused not by us in our hard-hats, sadly, but by actress Emilia Fox, who, as a fan of butterflies, was on hand to celebrate the start of work on site. Butterfly World is due to open in 2011.
Our Dubai office has also been busy, most notably working through the concept stages of the Landscape Masterplan for Al Falah, a new town in Abu Dhabi set to house a population of over 50,000. This scheme alone has required the office to undertake a major recruitment drive.
Finally we look ahead to the summer opening of the beautiful and peaceful garden of remembrance at Le Court in Hampshire, a former Leonard Cheshire Disability home. Designed to act as a permanent memorial to Leonard Cheshire, the founder of the charity, the garden offers visitors a haven of peace in which to remember their lost loved ones.
Scheme to transform Hayling Island seafront
Masterplan to consider the future of Chichester’s canal basin
Emilia Fox at Butterfly World
Our Dubai office busy working through the concept stages of the Landscape Masterplan for Al Falah, a new town in Abu Dhabi set to house a population of over 50,000.
Summer opening of the beautiful and peaceful garden of remembrance at Le Court in Hampshire
The garden offers visitors a haven of peace in which to remember their lost loved ones.
