Client:
Old Park Lane Management
Location:
London Borough of Islington
20 Ropemaker is a contemporary office building, situated in the London Borough of Islington, near the northern edge of the City of London. The brief required landscape design for the ground floor public realm and roof terraces building levels, at level 9, 14, 19, 20 and 22. The roof terraces comprise 17,000 sq ft, making this the largest roof terrace in Islington and the City of London.
The roof gardens were designed to improve the workplace environment, allowing for social interaction, de-stressing and encourage physical exercise, with a series of outdoor rooms in which to work or relax. These have differing characters, the Meadow, Graphical, Fragrant and Flower Rooms.
The flexible spaces within them allow for a numerous range of activities, from parties and dining to cinema screening and keep fit sessions, with lighting to extend outdoor use and safety. Particular attention was paid to framing the superb views across the city skyline, including the city cluster, the Shard and St Pauls Cathedral.
With over 15,000 plants, varying from multi-stemmed trees to herbaceous, climbing and flowering bulbs, the wide diversity of plants used allows for maximum biodiversity as well as individual characters on each terrace, all with their own intelligent sensory irrigation system to minimise on water used and be more plant palette specific. 50% of these are drought tolerant, 10% native to the UK and 65% pollinator and forager species.
The project uses lightweight soils that have been designed specifically for the use on these roofs. The properties of the soil were developed to aid moisture retention, reducing the reliance on irrigation.
The proposals have been developed with reference to the GRO Green Roof Guide (GRO Code 2021) in line with best practice and as referenced within the Urban Greening Factor guidance.