Irvine, California-based architecture firm Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo (WATG) has introduced a design for London to become the world’s first National Park City. Led by Demet Karaoglu, the firm’s landscape team has conceived the Green Block as part of a global competition to transform urban spaces to accommodate a greener future. The team crafted the design in collaboration with geographer and explorer Daniel Raven-Ellison.
The maintenance-free, modular design would comprise entirely recyclable materials and living building materials permeated with native wildflower seeds. Designed to establish natural biodiversity in London, the space would also be equipped with its own irrigation reservoir, while existing cafés and storefronts would be clad with additional greenery to filter the city air. Green Block would be linked to existing London parks and appointed with augmented cycling routes and reclaimed expanses of tarmac and space created by less trafficked roads and parking lots.
“Our inspiration was to think about London in the future when there are less cars on the road and fewer car lanes,” says John Goldwyn, vice president of planning and landscape for WATG. “This idea claws back space from the roads and returns it to the people of London.”
The final draft of the Green Block design is expected to be unveiled in early 2018 following the declaration of the National Park City plan by London mayor Sadiq Khan. Adds Goldwyn: “As landscape architects, we’ve been incredibly inspired by Mayor Khan’s commitment to the environment in the capital.”
