Platinum Jubilee Park
Providing connections for people to water, cliffs and natural landscape.
Services: Landscape Architecture
Location: Ebbsfleet Garden City, Kent
Date: 2018-2022
Client: Camland
Deliverables: RIBA 1-5, Planning Drawings- Construction
Platinum Jubilee Park, Castle Hill is the first landscape that we designed in detail in Ebbsfleet. The proposals reinforced our masterplanning work for the wider residential area of Castle Hill South. Both had the same simple message: To create views and a connection to the cliffs and lake to the south.
We shaped the residential masterplan to maximise views out to the water, creating an opening in the built form that would become the park. We then designed the park to enhance these views through terracing, waterfront plaza and tree vistas.
Concept
The park was designed to create an opening on to the lake and cliffs maximising human connection to the water.
There are two large cycling bridges spanning out across the water, and two jetties that provide a place to stop and stare. The bridges have been detailed in corten steel to reflect the site’s industrial heritage. The designs were created to encompass the angles found in old machinery, but utilising modernist forms.
The planting and materials chosen reflect the re-emergence of nature and the former industrial quarried landscape – whilst using a range of native species that enhance the site’s wildlife, we have also developed a planting mix that will have a striking plethora of seasonal interest.
At the lower part of the site there is a large play area (which we designed in conjunction with TimberPlay UK). The design provides a wide range of play opportunities for all ages and abilities as well as utilising natural boundaries with level changes rather than fences.
Ebbsfleet Fusion Festival 2022
The park was opened to the public in 2022 and was given the name to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of the same year. The first event to be held in the park was the Fusion Arts Festival, organised by Cohesion Plus and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation. Seeing our design built and used by the local community was a huge achievement and made all the hard work worth while.
Photograph copyright Cohesion Plus
Photograph copyright Cohesion Plus
Photograph copyright Cohesion Plus
Photograph copyright Cohesion Plus
Project Team
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Joe Gerrard
DIRECTOR
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Alex Agnew
ASSOCIATE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
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Nathan Beirne
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT