The canal system

This week I want to continue writing about how important the canal system is for flood prevention in the countries like Thailand where half of the land is under the flood water at the moment.

Just to remind you that Bangkok was not called ‘The Venice of the East’ for no reason.  In the past Bangkok was filled with many canals. People used to live on water doing their day to day activities while floating on boats. Many of these canals were filled in to make way for new roads and buildings over the past years but even now many of these old canals still remain on the Thonbui side of the Chao Phraya River but not enough…

During this year flood (the worst in 50 years according to the CNN), the remaining canal were not used sufficiently enough, half of them were half empty.  As I am living and working in the UK, all I can compare to is the British canal system.

Across the country astute management of the British canal system has been crucial in containing waters from overflowing rivers. Working with the Environment agency, British Waterways, who recently received a considerable increase in funding, have been able to anticipate the likelihood of flooding well in advance. Water levels can be controlled in canals, sending excess water into non-risk areas further downstream, with each lock forming a single linear reservoir.
One example of the judicious use of canals has been with the Bridgewater/Taunton canal which runs parallel to the River Tone in Somerset.  The canal passes through the unique lowland areas of Somerset, many parts of which have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the diversity of rare birds and plants which thrive in this unique area. They lowered the level of the canal, then, once the river overflowed, the excess water was contained by the canal.

According to British Waterways, the scheme would offer environmental benefits as well as additional income to reinvest in the waterway network.

This is something the Thai government can look into and perhaps, put the money into the right place.

Every little help: Kensington Palace

Ahhhh, I need to spread the news, especially this lovely one.

Just over 2 weeks ago, children from our local school, St Mary Abbots Primary school in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and local community group the Jigsaw Club (West London Action for Children) helped to plant a new wild flower meadow at Kensington Palace as part of the ongoing £12 million project to transform the palace by 26 March 2012.

The children, aged between 18 months and 5 years of age, were given a handful of seeds and under the instruction of Historic Royal Palaces’ Gardens & Estates Manager, Graham Dillamore, helped to sew a mix of wild flower seeds including Betanys, Daisies, Yellow rattles and Ladies bedstraw.  The planting will eventually form part of a new wild flower meadow to the south of the palace, improving and encouraging biodiversity in the area as part of an ongoing partnership with RBKC and Royal Parks.

St Mary Abbots Primary school is Kensington Palace’s official School Partner for this year and the visit formed part of a wider programme linking the palace with the school.  Similarly the Jigsaw Club (West London Action for Children) is a Community Partner of Kensington Palace and is regularly involved in activities with the palace’s Community and Outreach team.

“Working in partnership with schools and community groups within the Royal borough we are able to involve and engage children in the rich history that the palace has to offer.  We were delighted that children from both our schools and community partners were able to help us plant our wild flower meadow as part of our major project to transform the palace and we look forward to seeing the results next year”, said Jenny Wedgbury, Education Officer at Historic Royal Palaces.

Train them young, Great idea. Love, love, love it!

 

Design for flood protection

My beloved country, Thailand is in the news a lot these days for the wrong reason. Half of the country is under the water. To look at it in the most positive way possible, it is a good time to develop and redesign the country by using the land use plan or the guideline produced by the RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects), Designing for Flood Risk. 

The guideline takes a design-led approach to addressing flood risk. It is aimed at practicing and student architects, urban designers and landscape architects, and is equally relevant to clients, planners and other urban professions.

The guideline can be found on the link above. Alternative designs for flood protection have been analysed and practiced around the world, however levee is and will still be one of the most important and widely adapted engineering works in dealing with flooding events. There is an interesting diagram that produced by Donald Watson and Michele Adams in Design for Flooding book which has been designed and adopted in some areas in Japan quite successfully.

The diagram demonstrates how levee alone might not be strong enough to prevent from the high pressure generated by waves during large flooding, and could cracks, be eroded overtime. To deal with this, one concept is to arrange the spatial arrangement of the town and consider the more appropriate Land Use Planning the works with the lie of land.

The picture above shows the levee that has been used along the riverfront in Japan.

The new Land Use design should demonstrate a sensible zoning for the city by locating the critical facilities, such as emergency hospitals, should ideally be located in areas where they will not flood and can operate during a flood event.  The vulnerability of occupants to flooding. Aged care and disabled facilities should generally be located in areas where they can be readily evacuated to dry land.  The vulnerability of buildings and contents. Homes and their contents are generally more vulnerable to flooding than industrial and commercial buildings and therefore should be located in less vulnerable areas. (see below).

On the individual building design, One possible way  is to elevate an existing building, or build a new one with an elevated first floor.   The Floating House in Lake Huron, Ontario Canada by MOS LCC Architects is one example.

Adapting to the constant, dynamic change of the tide, the house floats atop a structure of steel pontoons, allowing it to fluctuate along with the river-tide.

Thailand has never put a serious consideration into Land Use Planning, even less in the rural area outside the main city, judging from the overwhelming traffic in Bangkok itself, and the number of department stores that located next to each other in the city.

Perhaps, this is a good time to redo, rebuild and redesign this beautiful country that has so much potential.

Front gardens design

Front gardens should be practical and functional.  Simple design with some eye catching focal points (can be more than one – depends on the size of the area). Front gardens can be fabulous places that welcome visitors, set the mood for the house and give pleasure to passers-by.  Most importantly, it should guide people to the main entrance.

For the commercial schemes, the signage strategy should be clear and well lid.  For the residential schemes, the man entrance should not be obstructed or hidden by any objects.

It seems logical but sadly, they can all too often be neglected spaces, missed opportunities where the main focal point is the rubbish bin or simply misguided the visitors especially on the large projects where you have to drive around a few times trying to find parking space or have difficulties finding the entrance to the building.

The area immediately around and leading up to the front door should be attractive and welcoming. They form the first impression of your home for you, visitors and even the potential buyers.

We  were commissioned to design an unusual front garden with new approach road and entrance to the 1920’s country house.  The area has dramatic change of levels, the existing road was almost unsafe to drive on and there were a lot of overgrown bushes and trees that simply block the view of the car drivers and the view out from the house.

The design response for this hilly front garden is to create a simple yet elegant approach road with clear signage.  The design intend is to enhance the already beautiful front garden with handsome trees and create an easy pathway whilst remain the existing privacy to the house.

The overall scheme has been developed with an intention of creating a natural front garden with widen approach road and separate entrance from what has been a share access road.  Natural pavings and entrance statement will create an elegant yet welcoming area to the visitors.  Privacy for the glass atrium is the main priority of this design as well as maximise the use of the front garden.

Using the contrast of paving materials that leads eyes up to the building’s entrance is the key for this project.

Remember, less can be more — a simple evergreen hedge with plain concrete paving; a low white wall and a row of planters might just be enough.

Keep to a simple colour scheme.  And don’t over complicate the design.

Modern garden furniture

I will let you in on my secret. Whenever my clients ask me for furniture advice, The Modern Garden Company (www.moderngarden.co.uk) is my first point of reference.

They are a very ‘urban’ exterior furniture company, very modern, very chic and very simple. Perhaps the price is a bit on the expensive side but it does some magic to your garden.  The quality and treatment of the materials used are very suitable for the external usage and tolerate most weather conditions.  So in summery, you don’t need to keep moving the furniture into the house when it rains like my mother insists on doing every single time.

I particularly love the barstool, ‘the Net’, the galvanised steel frame with powder coated finish. They come in various colours. Yellow is my pick though, I like adding vivid colures into the garden when possible.

And for a small and relaxing garden, I like the ever so practical and space saver, ‘The DoNuts’, Inflatable nylon seating ring with fibre reinforced polyester table.

Of course, they have all those modular design products too, but these two already stole my heart.

Autumn: Time to tidy up your garden

We have had quite a wet summer this year.  And wet summer combines with relatively warm September means one thing in gardening terms, powdery mildew will be a problem this autumn.  So if you see powdery splotches of white or gray, on the leaves and stems of plants like I did in my garden, then you are a little late in the game and your plants are under attack.  The cause of action is to remove and destroy all infected plant parts and improve air circulation by thinning and pruning.

You need to do a bit of tidying up soon even though everything looks very lush and green at the moment. Garden hygiene is more important than ever this year because of the soggy summer and you could be storing up problems for the future unless you tackle things now.  Almost no type of plant is immune; however some are more susceptible than others. Lilacs, crab apples, squash and cucumbers are all likely targets for powdery mildew.  So if you have them in your garden, you might to go out and have a little look.

In short, Autumn is all about pruning, cutting, moving, covering and trimming.  In general you need to do some hardwood cuttings of shrubs, moving trees and plants, covering the pond and trimming hedges. Basically getting ready for the frost and the may be a bitterly cold winter, judging from the previous one.

This is  also a good time of year to plant spring bulbs, such as daffodils and tulips, and new perennials – the soil is still warm but moisture levels are increasing.

I know, I know it seems like hard works and all you want to do is wrapping yourself warm and dry and stay safely inside the house.  But all these hard works will pay off, trust me.

Hugh Johnson once said ‘No two gardens are the same.  No two days are the same in one garden.’ , quite true.

Enjoy your garden.

Autumn: Time to tidy up your garden

Autumn: Time to tidy up your garden.

London Landscape, a blog for Space Creation Design company. A garden design company by chartered landscape architects in the UK.

www.spacecreationdesign.co.uk

Roof garden for the listed buildings.

We were commissioned to design a roof garden for a listed terrace building in Kensington. The brief was to create a child-friendly garden on a tight schedule. I will tell you the reason later on.

The design was dictated by Planning and Listed Buildings constraints. Care had to be taken to ensure that the garden would not present any risk to the original fabric of the Listed  building, so careful weight and loading calculations were undertaken, and the building was closely monitored for any signs of stress during the construction phase. Happily, there were none.

As part of the strategy, a low maintenance planting scheme was developed to accommodate the idea of enclosed seating area at the end of the garden. Lawn has been placed to create a soft focal point and an abstract form.

Giant planters are used to create a semi screen where needed. The planters are filled with a mixture of lightweight compost, specifically designed for roof gardens, and Perlite, a lightweight material which keeps the compost open and free-draining, similar to grit in a normal compost mixture.

Other materials used include deep Indian wood, black natural slabs and limestone paving to indicate the use of each space.  Additional weep-holes and drainage pipes were inserted in the base of the planters to ensure that they would not become waterlogged. Under the grassed and shrub areas are various layers of material designed to allow natural drainage down to a lower sub-surface drainage layer.

This garden took us a whole two weeks; the plan was to get the garden ready for the new comer who was eagerly to come out. So even though we have lots of experience in designing roof garden, we have never prayed so hard for the project to finish in time.

And our wish came true.  A fine time was had by all.

One of our country house projects

This is the re-design of a large private residence in Kent.  We were appointed as Landscape Architects and Design consultants to work with Architects and Engineers in renovating and modernising a 1920s property and surrounding grounds. The brief called for the inclusion of eye-catching sculptural and lighting elements as well as maximising the use of landscape.

An outdoor entertaining area has been designed using a contrast of modern and traditional materials such as smooth concrete walls with old reclaimed brick structures. Illuminated glass panels designed
by Andrew Moor Associates (www.andrewmoor.com) have been designed and integrated within a retaining wall wrapped around the swimming pool to create a refective space.

As well as bespoke seating, sculptures at the end of the garden are hidden underneath a shelter of Silver Birches. Lighting has been designed to create mood and ambience.