Our SuDs Guidance commission for TfL led by Jo Gibbons builds on the groundswell of water sensitive urban design strategies that have been recently published, not least of which is Ciria’s 2015 autumn SuDs manual.

Our work was prepare design guidance particular to London’s landscape. This needed to respond to the network transport role and scale of the affected landscape in the specific London context; their form, materials and textures; their relationship with the landscape as buildings meet the ground; the topography; the movement, access and servicing over, around and through the ground plane; all modes of movement, pedestrians, bikes and all vehicles; the aesthetic and technical qualities of the surface materials; the position, nature and technical qualities of all surface features, CCTV camera posts, lighting columns, bins, benches, bike stands and barriers; the myriad of buried utilities and statutory services, their depth and constituent materials, what they convey and their role in the providers network; the adjacent or underground structures, basements and foundations to buildings or Tube rail structures and strategic tunnels or culverts; and most critically the horticultural, filtration, geotechnical and geochemical characteristics of the underlying soils.

All told a very complex environment into which we demonstrate it is feasible to thread meaningful and valuable green and blue infrastructure.