A Public Inquiry was required to secure the landmark development of Harmondsworth Moor Country Park, west of London, now maturing as a major local amenity. As part of it, 50,000 sq.m of building development in the Green Belt was deemed acceptable because of the overriding public gain from restoring 100 hectares of damaged land to public access. Former and current waste disposal sites were turned into a country park by LUC as the core community benefit of the project.
At the centre of the park, LUC worked with Niels Torp Architects and RHWL to produce a headquarters building for British Airways, now known as British Airways Waterside. Using new techniques and modifying others, a rich and varied landscape was created at relatively low cost. Spaces ranged from the interior planting along the 180m long ‘street’ and the six themed courtyards, all built over basement slabs, to the ecologically diverse and dramatic reclamation of waste tips and gravel pits.
Date active: 1991-1999
Client: British Airways
Landscape architect: LUC
Architect: Niels Torp & RHWL
Project manager: MACE
Engineers: Buro Happold & Halcrow
Quantity surveyor: AYH
This project is part of 'Beyond the Green Belt'
