Designing for the Environment and Communities
Sport, the Environment and our Communities
One of the great things about natural turf is that, depending on how you manage it and given only a little time, it can be transformed into a wide range of different surfaces. From a sporting perspective, simply by changing the mowing regime and line markings, a cricket outfield can become a rugby or football pitch, it can provide an athletics track and infield, rounders diamonds, training grids etc. The list is more or less endless because, of course, when most sports were invented they were intended to be played on grassed surfaces. In a way, natural turf may be said to provide the ultimate Multi Use Games Area (MUGA)!
But, in addition to providing first class playing surfaces to meet your present and anticipated sporting needs, we consider the environmental and sociological aspects of sports facility design to be of equal importance. Many of the sites we work on, particularly those owned by local authorities, represent public open space. As such we believe they should serve the needs of the entire community, not just those of sporting organisations. Their design should maintain and enhance the natural environment as far as possible, providing, where possible and in addition to the sports facilities, a range of habitats for wildlife and opportunities to enhance biodiversity.
Such 'features' serve the community not only by providing those environmental benefits associated with natural landscapes generally, (carbon fixing, oxygen production, particulate reduction and so on) but also create opportunities for exploration and discovery of the natural world by users of the site. It is widely recognised that children especially benefit in very many ways from encounters with nature. In urban areas especially, we believe we have an obligation to make such encounters as likely (and as safe) as possible.
What we call 'habitat features' also add to the aesthetic appeal of a site, another factor we try to incorporate into all of our designs.
But, in addition to providing first class playing surfaces to meet your present and anticipated sporting needs, we consider the environmental and sociological aspects of sports facility design to be of equal importance. Many of the sites we work on, particularly those owned by local authorities, represent public open space. As such we believe they should serve the needs of the entire community, not just those of sporting organisations. Their design should maintain and enhance the natural environment as far as possible, providing, where possible and in addition to the sports facilities, a range of habitats for wildlife and opportunities to enhance biodiversity.
Such 'features' serve the community not only by providing those environmental benefits associated with natural landscapes generally, (carbon fixing, oxygen production, particulate reduction and so on) but also create opportunities for exploration and discovery of the natural world by users of the site. It is widely recognised that children especially benefit in very many ways from encounters with nature. In urban areas especially, we believe we have an obligation to make such encounters as likely (and as safe) as possible.
What we call 'habitat features' also add to the aesthetic appeal of a site, another factor we try to incorporate into all of our designs.
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)
Another, increasingly important, aspect of natural (and artificial) sports landscapes is their role in flood management and avoidance. Such areas can themselves provide some capacity for short term storage of storm water transferred from nearby developments but the overall system needs to be designed very carefully to avoid the primary purpose of the areas being unduly affected. To some extent, constructed and managed outdoor sports facilities, and certainly artificial ones, will accelerate surface runoff and so could lead to increased flood risk downstream. Although the extent to which natural turf surfaces will do this is often exaggerated (and always much less than artificial surfaces), it is a factor that we incorporate into our designs. In relation to artificial pitches, the management of runoff is a critical aspect about which planners usually require detailed analysis and interpretation. In view of this, we have developed a very great deal of expertise and experience in the design of all forms of outdoor sports facilities in relation to these 'sustainable drainage' (SuDS) factors. In fact this now constitutes a substantial component of all our work. Read more about this here.