Roofs & Rambles

Organised by the sponge network, in association with reset and livingroofs.org, the first integrated habitats workshop seems to be have been a great success. I was joined by Adam Dawson of Sponge and Blanche Cameron of RESET at Justin Bere’s House. Blanche had had this idea to try and do a workshop based on trying to integrate habitats into the built environment. Fortunately Songe had managed to raise interest from London 2012. In all 12 people turned up including architects, suppliers, designers and people interested in constructing sustainable buildings.

The morning session consisted of a brief introduction by Justin  to his house and his office, a look at the work of Reset and Sponge. Adam provide an overview of the challenges facing London re climate change. The morning was finished off with a tour of the roofs and lunch.

In the afternoon I did a presentation on green roofs and SUDS. Then into the workshop. This was the bit I was so sure of. The participants were give 3 D images of Soho and asked to try and develop a habitat strategy for retrofitting that link in with the Mayors Climate Change Strategy, The London Biodiversity Partnership and City of Westminster Biodiversity Action Plans.

Everyone seem to take to the task readily. There wasn’t a great deal of time but the plans and ideas that came out from the process were certainly exciting and it was good to see none nature conservation professionals take up the cause of green space and nature conservation in the heart of London.

Lots of lessons were learned by the workshop team and I am sure we can build on this for future workshops.

Of course a big thank you to Justin Bere of Bere Architects for hosting the event. A fantastic venue. and Blanche, Briony, Adam, Alex and Sponge for organising.