With May and June blooming-hot, it has been fans on and afternoon ice creams in the studio, also, here’s our meal deal of a newsletter – two months for the price of one. See below our summary of news from May and June.
40 Leadenhall Street
Construction is underway at 40 Leadenhall Street – a new landmark in the next generation of office buildings in the City of London. Developed in collaboration with architects MAKE on behalf of Vanquish Properties. The City of London project will feature an assembly of hard materials, including Yorkstone and granite sett paving, seating to the north of the building along with a two semi-mature Carpinus Betulus. This continues our work in the city, which you can view in model format at The Guildhall. The City Model, by the NLA was recently updated to include other consented schemes throughout the city.
Source: MAKE Architects
Shoreline (Plot B1) Planting setting out
Two of our colleagues Rosie and Frankie have been out on the southeast coast overseeing the planting setting out for Shoreline (Plot B1), Phase 1 of the Folkestone Seafront Masterplan. In June, temporary pots were intermixed through the shingle front gardens ready for the marketing launch of the first delivered homes.
What a difference Spring makes!
It’s a joy to watch soft landscape establish. Here is Shoreline (Plot B1) residents’ podium garden in February and 5 months later in June. We can’t wait to see it in use!
Chancery House
Fantastic to see a sneak peak of Chancery House, Holborn. A collaboration with DMFK, for client The Office Group. Planting interventions of varied seasonal colours, textures and aromas adorn the site from ground to roof. Here is a glimpse of the Level 3 roof terrace. Well done to the Spacehub team past and present: Sofia, Samantha, and Giles.
Sketchbook
We aspire to curate landscape moments and create memories for people. Here are some thumbnail sketches testing a journey through an urban landscape.
Office outings
Clerkenwell Design week
In May we ventured down Old Street to Clerkenwell Design Week. Along the way, we saw a number of installations exploring the latest innovations in design.
Great to see Farringdon and Cowcross Yards buzzing during Clerkenwell Design Week. Spacehub is proud to have completed the simple refurbishment of the Yards in 2022 including pop-up events power, lighting, signage and seating – the cruciform seat forms the perfect perch to eat market food, socialise and watch the world go by.
Walthamstow Wetlands
For June Friday fun day we paid a visit to Walthamstow Wetlands, located in London’s Lee Valley. This patchwork of post-industrial spaces was opened to the public back in 2017 and completed by KLA.
On a rather blustery day we started at the Engine House heading south to explore the reservoirs seeing Pochard, Gadwall and little Egret along the way. We climbed to the dizzying heights of the old Coppermill Tower, where copper ingots were brought by barge to be rolled in sheet used for a multitude of purposes. The mill drained the original marshes before becoming the largely static reservoirs but high in biodiverse value as we know today. Our final stop along the way was the newly opened Lea Valley Ice Centre by our friends FaulknerBrowns Architects. To the exterior of the low energy building we found swales and wildflower meadow designed by LDA, worth a wander past or get your skates on!
Goodluck Hope Boules
The office paid a visit to our project Goodluck Hope to partake in the annual Spacehub Boules championship. The championship was a hotly fought contest between all the participants in the Dry Dock under the shade of the grand Metasequoia glyptostroboides grove; Erica and Ian ultimately triumphing.
Here is the Spacehub team re-creating the Orchard Dry Dock CGI, who did it better??
Plants of the Month
We are always trying to expand our planting knowledge as a studio and share the wealth of knowledge we already have. Here are five plants we particularly like that have been discussed by members of our team at our weekly staff meetings.
Helleborus foetidus (Stinking Hellebore) – The Stinking Hellebore was brought to us by Ian this month. It is a member of the buttercup Family – Ranunculaceae – though is one you would not want to interact with too closely. The woodland plant is known for its pungent smell and has been compared to odours such as roast beef, wet dog and coffee.
Knautica Macedonia – We loved Mays choice with this drought tolerant evergreen perennial. A great structural plant that appreciates full sun and flowers during the spring and summer, this plant has a cool texture and green shades – working well in gravel gardens.
Cypripedium calceolus ‘Lady’s-slipper’ – Jacks choice this month was an orchid (The UK has orchids?!) commonly found in the north of England in scrubby woodlands with calcareous soils. The ‘lady’s slipper grows to around 30cm in height and takes up to 10 years to flower. The orchid suffered from Orchidelirium during the Victorian era, and pushed to the brink of extinction during the 1930’s and is since known as Britain’s rarest wildflower.
Calluna vulgaris – Frankie gave us the joys of common heather, which can be found on Moorlands, Mountainsides, hillsides and Coastal cliffs. The low growing evergreen shrub has long lasting flowers, which are great for pollinators and need neutral to acidic growing conditions. They dislike wet soils and shady areas and can be found commonly depicted throughout art and literature, most notably Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Album’- Matt gave us this semi evergreen perennial, growing up to 0.5m in height and 1.0m spread. Aromatic, rounded, lobed leaves and often turning red in autumn. The plant is versatile, surviving in full shade to full sun and is one of the few plants that can tolerate dry shade. It will grow in any, moderately fertile soil apart from waterlogged
Out of work – Show & Tell
Our colleague Cristina has been working independently from Spacehub on the Wild in Art Sculpture trail, which will see her artwork along with 30 other pieces displayed through the London Borough of Croydon. The trail will be on display 21st August to 27th October.
Cristina will often be seen doodling around the office on old plans, post notes and even peoples arms. Her work is incredibly diverse and takes on many forms of black ink drawing, anything from goats and flamingos to pirouetting frogs.
For now, we cannot share much of the work other than a few snapshots, but we wish all the exhibitor’s luck with the installations and look forward to more creations from Cristina in upcoming Spacehub projects! https://www.croydonstandstall.co.uk/art-trail/
A bug’s life
Our colleague Alice this month has been busy volunteering over at the Chelsea Flower Show. She was helping with the planting featured on The Royal Entomological Society Garden, designed by Tom Massey. The garden inspired by all things insect and highlights the great significance they have across earth’s ecosystems. A role that is becoming ever more threatened by the advent of climate breakdown; however, through this ‘garden laboratory’ there is hope that the perception of these beautiful creatures can be altered.
Alice had the privilege of working with climate-resistant plants such as hesperaloe parviflora. The garden also includes plants that may commonly be considered weeds, for example dandelions, clover, vetch and knapweed. Trees included in the garden consisted of a largely native community of hawthorn, silver birch, scots pine and hazel.
