TEP was engaged to review the Mercers’ Company’s Covent Garden estate to identify opportunities for urban greening.
This complex urban site along Long Acre, close to Covent Garden is made up of three urban blocks, including a range of historic and new buildings and a full mix of uses including shops, restaurants, offices, and apartments. Narrow streets frame the blocks with public laneways and courtyards running through them.
TEP Landscape Architects and Ecologists worked with drainage engineers at Pluviam Environmental to explore opportunities across the site including ground level, external walls and roof spaces with the aim to increase plant cover, maximise biodiversity, reduce reliance on mains water, reduce site drainage volumes and enhance visitor experience. These opportunities included:
🌿 New green and blue roofs, to increase plant cover, introduce valuable habitats for invertebrates and birds and, to capture rainwater. The opportunity to integrate solar panels on green roofs was also explored on a number of roofs.
🌿 New green walls to increase plant cover and provides habitats for invertebrates
🌿 Improved diversity of plant species to existing planters and green walls to maximise their ecological benefit.
🌿 New rainwater harvesting features to collect and store rainwater from existing downpipes. These will reduce the amount and speed of water draining directly into the mains sewer and provide a water source for irrigation.
🌿 New planted rainwater rills within the courtyards to introduce planting at ground level and capture rainwater.
These features were designed to highlight the urban greening benefits they bring to provide educational value to visitors of the estate. The study is being evaluated by The Mercers to determine which projects are most suitable to take forward for implementation.
