Opening earlier in the year, the Victoria Centre Roof Garden, described as an inspiring “garden in the sky” not only benefits residents of the adjoining Victoria Centre flats, providing a place for relaxation and food production, but also boosts biodiversity, absorbs air pollution, conserves water, and helps keep the city cool.
Nottingham’s strong move towards sustainability scales new heights with an urban ‘garden in the sky’
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has welcomed the latest innovative green space in Nottingham City Centre and hopes that its construction will act as a catalyst to encourage others to be bolder with urban design.
Designed by Hosta Consulting, an award-winning landscape design practice, the needs of wildlife as well as people are at the heart of the Garden concept and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which has been championing city wildlife since for almost 40 years hopes it will help encourage the creation of a network of green roofs throughout the city.
The Garden was funded by Nottingham City Homes through its Decent Neighbourhoods programme in order to transform the existing outdoor roof space of the Intu Victoria Centre into a multi-functional, relaxing green oasis for residents of the Victoria Centre. The garden was designed by the team at Hosta Consulting, an RHS Gold Medal winning landscape design practice based in Nottingham. Hosta Consulting, one of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Guardian business members, collaborated closely with The Trust to incorporate planting schemes designed to attract wildlife into the space. The planting schemes included native trees, buddleia, and sunny and shady borders, in order to attract a variety of birds and insect pollinators to the Garden throughout the year.
Nottingham has a strong track record of leading in the field of environmental sustainability, being named the ‘greenest city’ in the UK in 2017 and ambitious targets for the city to become the UK’s first to become carbon-neutral by 2028 and the Wildlife Trust feels more projects like the roof garden could help put the City on the map as a great place to live.
Holly McCain, Senior Development Officer at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust commented: “Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is delighted to have Hosta Consulting as a Wildlife Guardian business member. Their support helps us create and care for nature rich places that people can enjoy, and wildlife depends on. It’s a pleasure to work with Helen and the team at Hosta Consulting and the new roof garden is a great resource for residents as well as benefitting wildlife and the wider environment for all city residents. With so much new redevelopment taking place across the city this is just the type of innovation we need to ensure we have a green, wildlife rich city in the future.”
Rooftop gardens play a vital role in connecting a fragmented landscape of wildlife-friendly habitats in built environments, providing stepping-stone habitats for wildlife visitors to feed and shelter whilst travelling in between larger urban green spaces such as parks and nature reserves. In addition to biodiversity benefits, installing green roofs enhances human health and urban environmental sustainability. It is hoped that the success of the Victoria Centre Rooftop Garden will trigger the transformation of under-utilised rooftop spaces into a network of green oases across Nottingham, thereby enhancing the health and well-being of city residents and contributing towards the recovery of Nottinghamshire’s wildlife.
Helen Taylor, Director of Hosta Consulting, stated, “We are proud to have been able to assist our client Nottingham City Homes in achieving this fantastic roof garden for residents who have already started to plant some of their own vegetables and herbs. This is an important green roof for Nottingham and we hope it encourages further necessary investment in green infrastructure for the city”.
For more information on the landscape design services offered by Hosta Consulting Ltd., visit hostaconsulting.co.uk. To find out more about 30 Days Wild and the work carried out by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust go to nottinghamshirewildlife.org.