Kidbrooke Village Landscape Edging Case Study

AluExcel gives Kidbrooke Village project the edge

The Kidbrooke Village Development by Berkeley Homes sets the benchmark in green space urban regeneration, winning a multitude of plaudits and awards since its inception in 2010. Kinley products have been specified by Berkeley Homes Group to enhance the landscape.

'An exemplar for sustainable suburbs'

Kidbrooke Village is a 20 year project to deliver 4,000 homes on the old Ferrier Estate which contained 1,900 concrete social housing homes which fell into disrepair. The project has been described by CABE as “an exemplar for sustainable suburbs.”

The 109 hectare development is located to the east of Blackheath Park. In its regeneration one of the key principles has been ‘Sociability’ creating social neighbourhoods with appropriate communal values. This has been achieved with both formal and informal gardens in addition to over 35 hectares of parkland and sports facilities. Not only has it created numerous areas of high quality public space but has also met its 50% affordable housing criteria. With this type of scheme the landscape architects were very conscious that the green spaces would also be viewed from above so the aerial aesthetics are important.

The AluExcel Aluminium Edging by Kinley has enabled tight sweeps to meet the design aspirations whilst enabling sufficient root space for the grass to avoid die back. The system was also chosen due to its cost effective supply and installation.

“The main reason for using the edging was to stop the grass edges from dying back. On other areas at Kidbrooke we have used traditional kerb edges and the grass particularly in summer suffers in hot weather where the hunching that supports the kerbs is just below the surface leaving little or no soil on the edges causing the grass to dry out and turn brown.”

David Lloyd, Technical Manager for Berkeley Homes

Awards

The Kidbrooke Village scheme has won the following accolades:

● What House Best Brownfield Development Gold Award 2013
● International Property Development Award 2013
● Evening Standard New Homes Awards 2012 – Highly Commended for Best Regeneration Project
● Regeneration and Renewal Best use of Housing in Regeneration Award 2012