Located in Sutton, South London and developed by the Peabody Trust, BedZED, comprises 100 homes, office space, a college and community facilities. Conceived in 1997, Bioregional, architect Bill Dunster and engineers Arup were looking for an opportunity to create a zero-carbon eco-village.

The scheme has helped to inform sustainable living across the UK and whilst rather dated now, shows how densely populated places can still provide opportunities for Green Infrastructure and associated health and wellbeing.

Urban Greening

As a landscape architect (placemaker) the key take away was the ability to maximise the space and integrate the building with the landscape creating multiple greening opportunities from green roofs, green wall (climbers) through to the innovative use of office roofs to provide amenity gardens for residents.

Another key success has been the sustainable transport plan using car clubs, E bikes storage and the proximity to local transport to justify reduced car provision. This has created pedestrian friendly streets, a safer environment for residents and families to live and enabled the community to grow – this was noticeable by the number of children and adults seen playing and chatting in the streets.

Unfortunately, the neighbouring development (dominated by cars) is a reminder that Bed ZED is still an exception, not the norm, even after 20 years!!

One Planet Living

Sue’s experience living here with her family has also helped to inspire Bioregional’s One Plant Living – A vision of a world where we can live happily within the Earth’s resources, and a straightforward framework to achieve this. Worth checking out their website to see how you and your organisation can live happily and sustainability.

Feel free to get in touch with the DD team to see how we can make your site happy and sustainable using landscape technologies