Holdrens Green
A sustainably built urban Pocket Park
Project Type
Landscape, Wellbeing, Play, Sustainability
Client
Peckham Festival
Location
Peckham, London, UK
Status
Completed
Holdrens Green has been created in a formerly empty yard outside of Copeland Gallery, through the transformation and upcycling of on-site waste material. Campbell Cadey have turned an unloved space and unused materials into a new, green, pocket park for this bustling creative community in the heart of Peckham. The space has been turned into a verdant oasis bursting with life and greenery in which one can really bathe in nature.
The space aims to encourage different types of interaction, and to ensure people have the ability to feel comfortable regardless of their personal circumstances. This flexibility is facilitated by allowing users to personalise the space — all items are movable, so the level of privacy, exposure and openness can be altered for individual users or groups depending how they want to interact within Holdrons Green.
The design of the garden itself has been carefully considered, and after a thorough audit of materials, we decided that we should use a shipping palette as a base for the containers. Their structural integrity allowed us to provide a solid structure for the planters. This was then built up to varying heights for different types of planters, allowing a diversity in the amount and type of planting that we were able to install in the garden. We wanted to create a layered scene that would change the view as you move through the space, thereby transforming the blank canvas of Holdrons Yard into a complex space with different degrees of privacy, potential for engagement with others, and spaces to be tranquil or sit alone. The heights of the planters allow for this separation, as does the positioning of the benches. All these elements are movable, allowing the user to change their surroundings if they need something different from them.