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Calling out all Landscape Architecture students!
Every summer we take applications for a paid internship position at EDLA for Landscape Architecture students for a week as part of our efforts to Inspire the Next Generation. It’s a valuable hands-on experience for students to work on real world projects. As part of our commitment to the next generation, in addition to paying our work experience people fairly for their time (Living Wage), we also make a financial contribution of £200 towards books or university materials for the year ahead.
If you would be interested in a placement with us, please apply by mid June via office@edla.co.uk with your portfolio (maximum of 10 pages and 10 MB) and one paragraph motivation letter.
Alternatively, fill in the form below to express interest.
Good landscape design is not just about creating visually appealing spaces for developments—it’s a collaborative process aimed at fostering resilience and promoting harmony between people and nature.
The Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation is a strong nudge towards creating rich and varied habitats within our built environment. While some UK developers have been future proofing for the expected BNG regulations for years, with the mandatory 10% BNG requirement as of 12 February 2024, now every development MUST demonstrate biodiversity gain, where richer and more varied habitats must be weaved into projects.
Landscape architecture plays a multifaceted role in achieving this, encompassing a thorough understanding of a site’s environmental complexities, its diverse ecosystems, and responding with innovative solutions to create places where both people and nature thrive.
At EDLA, we have been working closely with our clients and ecologists to not only retain existing biodiversity but also enhance and create new habitats, maximising space for people and nature to coexist in a sustainable way.
Here are 10 of our top tips to achieve BNG requirements for developers:
There are numerous stakeholders to each development project, with BNG in full effect, ecologists bring crucial insights to the table, and we recommend allowing sufficient time and budget within projects to allow for landscape architects and ecologists to work together to undertake early stage scenario testing.
Before embarking on design, conduct thorough ecology and habitat surveys to establish a foundation for informed decision-making. Baseline surveys are critical to understand the existing conditions of a site before any development begins. They provide valuable insights into the site’s ecological features, habitat types, vegetation, topography, and existing land uses. These surveys help identify important ecological resources, ensure compliance with regulations, assess environmental risks, and establish a baseline for monitoring and evaluation. By documenting the site’s current conditions, ecologists and landscape architects can make informed design decisions, protect valuable resources, and track changes over time to achieve sustainable outcomes for development projects.
If you are taking the route of an Outline Application, it’s essential to be mindful of the details that will need to be considered later on. By laying a strong foundation at this stage, you can streamline the planning process and ensure that key considerations are addressed effectively as the project progresses through detailed design, avoiding proposing parameters and habitats that may not actually be feasible.
Recognise that achieving BNG is an iterative process. Work closely with landscape architects and ecologists to streamline workflows and allow for sufficient time in the project programme to test different options and ideas.
Selecting an ecologist based on their experience and skills is a crucial step. Work with ecologists that intimately understand the Metric and have a wealth of experience, whilst their fees may be higher, their expertise will save you time and expense in the long run.
Be prepared to navigate the complexities that may arise between visual mitigation, landscape character enhancement, and green infrastructure design. Embrace these diverse considerations as opportunities for innovation and growth.
BNG is a journey, not a roadside attraction. Landowners are legally responsible for creating or enhancing habitat and managing that habitat for at least 30 years. Work with your landscape architects and ecologists to develop robust management plans to sustain biodiversity enhancements over a minimum of 30 years.
Integrate climate-resilient green infrastructure to create interconnected networks that benefit both wildlife and communities, fostering a deeper connection to nature.
Ensure that what is being proposed within planting plans is widely available, and that the sizes that are being proposed can be sourced in a practical manner. Mature tree stock with large canopies may offer more points within the Metric, but they are logistically challenging to transport to high density urban site locations and are at much higher risk of failure than trees which are younger.
Involve local communities in the development process to garner support and enhance awareness about the significance of biodiversity. Organize workshops, or public forums to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility towards biodiversity conservation. By engaging with stakeholders, including residents, schools, and community groups, you can build a collective commitment to nurturing and protecting biodiversity within the development project and its surrounding areas.
Biodiversity Net Gain offers a transformative opportunity to create landscapes where both people and nature thrive. As EDLA landscape architects, we stand as an experienced partner to create viable projects that contribute to a more sustainable and biodiverse future for generations to come.
Ready to start creating sustainable and biodiverse landscapes for your development projects?
Contact us today to discuss how our experienced team at EDLA can help you achieve your Biodiversity Net Gain goals and bring your project to life!
By Eleanor Trenfield
Founder and Director, EDLA Landscape Architects
Achieving 10% Biodiversity Net Gain within development became mandatory on the 12th of February, however this is not a new concept to the industry, and many of our clients have been working towards this (and in some cases a self-imposed 20% BNG) for years. So, we offer extensive experience to draw from, working closely with the ecologist and client.
Biodiversity Net Gain offers a transformative opportunity to create landscapes where both people and nature thrive. It is an environmental game changer, or at least it has the potential to be. The notion is simple; retain existing habitats as far as possible, enhance, and / or create new habitats so that overall, there is a net improvement to biodiversity of 10%. We fully support the concept of BNG, however, the Metric in its current iteration is highly complex and resulting in some questionable outcomes. It is also penalising ambition. It is calculated through a comprehensive spreadsheet, requiring inputs from experienced and competent ecologists.
So how do landscape architects fit into this?
Good landscape design is not just about creating visually appealing spaces for developments—it’s a collaborative process aimed at fostering resilience and promoting harmony between people and nature.
As landscape architects, we stand as an experienced partner to create viable projects that contribute to a more sustainable and biodiverse future for generations to come. We model scenarios with the ecologist, inputting at an early stage into the appropriateness (or not) of particular habitats from a design and placemaking perspective, and ensuring that the required areas are accommodated into the design. We also create or input into the Landscape and Biodiversity Management Plans (the management period required is 30 years).
BNG is adding to the myriad of uncertainties and complexities in projects, and our team is attending conferences and seminars regularly to discuss the many questions are clients and design teams are faced with. Natural England recently said in a seminar we attended that ‘BNG should be used to guide to design, not dictate design’, but is this a realistic position if it is a mandatory requirement in Planning?
We are seeing that strategic and larger sites are achieving BNG relatively easily in many cases, however, smaller sites (under 50 units) are finding this far more challenging. The smaller sites are also unlikely to have allocated budgets to do the early scenario testing that we would recommend. Developers are increasingly looking to land banks which add to the costs of a scheme significantly, and may not have been factored in when looking into viabilities, or they are being advised to reduce unit numbers, which may also result in the scheme becoming unviable.
Where BNG is being incorporated on site, there is an obvious pressure to achieve maximum points, where we see some (not all) ecologists proposing habitats that would be inappropriate for the location, or equally unfortunate, fencing them off to achieve maximum condition, effectively preventing people from accessing the landscape and interacting with nature within these habitats. ‘Irreplaceable habitats’ such as Ancient Woodlands which could benefit from long term management as part of a planning application are being excluded from red line boundaries as it is too difficult to achieve 10% BNG within an irreplaceable habitat, despite the significant obvious benefits to nature that a long term management plan would bring. Many of the ecologists we are working with are equally frustrated that design quality is being reduced to a paint by numbers approach where the most appropriate habitats are not the ones that score highest. And we are seeing a tension between what would achieve maximum points from a BNG perspective, versus what would be appropriate from a landscape / visual mitigation perspective / green infrastructure planning. For example the project may benefit from a new area of woodland for visual mitigation, however in order to achieve BNG, the area is required to be categorised as grassland with scattered trees, which may not suitably address visual impact.
Despite the frustrations we have with the Metric tool in these early days, we are in no doubt that Biodiversity Net Gain will be immensely positive and transformative for our industry and the landscape. We just need to iron out some of the glitches in the Metric…
To aid our clients, we have put together 10 Top Tips for Harnessing Landscape Architecture in Development Projects. From cultivating collaboration between ecologists and landscape architects to championing connectivity and community engagement, our top tips offer practical guidance for developers seeking to enhance biodiversity within their projects.
Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss your proposals.
Every year our directors Eleanor and Donald are invited to the University of Creative Arts to support Architecture 3rd year students at SuperStudios. We review their proposals from a landscape perspective, supporting them to ground their proposals in place with a sensitivity to context and nature.
This year their site is a former industrial site in Milan in a part of the city earmarked for the Winter Olympics 2026. Part of the challenge with this site is addressing 2 streets, the neighbours and helping the students to navigate through how to create public space and what that space is ultimately used for. Proposals varied from a gaming conference centre to theatres, to archives for the winter Olympics to recycling plants. We are looking forward to seeing the final proposals at the #UCASummerShow later in the year.
In March, our team members, engaged in a thought-provoking discussion during the ‘Mastering the Art of Planting Plans’ training by Softscape Matters. The sessions served as an integral part of our continued professional development, providing a platform to exchange insights with fellow professionals on pressing topics such as carbon footprint and whip planting strategies.
The training served as a great refresher into various planting typologies, empowering us to create resilient and manageable softscapes. By enhancing our understanding of these typologies, we aspire to improve the success rates of tree planting efforts, thereby making significant contributions to climate mitigation.
We are thrilled to announce that the plans for an inland surf lagoon in Deal, Kent have received planning approval. It was a pleasure to work on the landscape architecture of this innovative project. Soon, the community in Kent of all abilities will be able to ride the waves all year long.
At EDLA, we believe in connecting people to nature. As stewards of both community and environment, we’re committed to ensuring that this project not only provides an unparalleled surfing experience but also enhances the surrounding area and preserves natural resources.
As Betteshanger Park is home to valuable habitats and important native species such as the Lizard Orchid, ecology is incorporated into the plans from the onset.
11 hectares of the country park, furthest away from the hub activity and the car park, have been set aside for ecological purposes as well as appointing an ecological warden for the park. 🌱
From innovative water management systems to native species landscaping, we are dedicated to minimising the environmental footprint while maximising the positive environmental impact.
Click here for more info on the project.
Director Eleanor Trenfield presented at a Biodiversity Net Gain Seminar hosted by Fieldfisher Law alongside experts Christopher Stanwell, Ben Kite, and Lisa Bulmer from legal, ecology, and offsetting fields.
During the conference, Eleanor shed light on the recent guidance and looked at moving beyond the metrics to benefit people as well as nature. She highlighted some unintended consequences that are emerging as a result of the BNG metric, based on the fact that scores are weighted to simpler habitats, with a pressure to achieve maximum scores.
She also stressed the pressure for large areas of habitat to be fenced off to obtain maximum condition scores and how this is not always an appropriate design solution. This pressure effectively divorces people from nature and reduces available space for features like drainage basins which therefore need to become deeper and more engineered with safety fencing encircling them.
At EDLA, the focus remains on fostering connections between people and nature. Our landscape architects advocate for a balanced, green infrastructure-led approach that prioritizes both human well-being and nature conservation.
In February, the EDLA team embarked on a meaningful run/walk/cycle challenge, collectively covering a significant distance of 636 miles. This effort led to a donation of £636 to Dandelion Time, a worthy nature-based charity dedicated to providing essential support to children who have faced traumatic experiences like domestic abuse and neglect.
Dandelion Time plays a pivotal role in helping these children navigate through their emotional and behavioural challenges, fostering their self-esteem, confidence, and resilience. By offering therapeutic interventions in serene natural settings across various locations including West Farleigh – Maidstone, Woodchurch – Ashford, and on the outskirts of Shorne Woods County Park, Dandelion Time empowers these children to thrive not only at home and in school but also in all aspects of their lives.
Through our contribution, we are honoured to play a part in supporting the invaluable work of Dandelion Time and in making a tangible difference in the lives of vulnerable children within our community.
Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels
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