Woodside Making Places

  • Value: £4 million (Phase 1)
  • Retrofit around existing tower blocks
  • Ambitious environmental, placemaking-led regeneration
  • From concept through to practical completion
  • Contract administrator & lead consultant
  • Extensive community consultation

“Now there are open spaces, grassy areas, biodiversity, and it feels more like a community… Every weekday after 3pm, the play equipment is full of kids and their parents, and you can tell that people are building relationships with those around them. This is really great work, so thank you to those involved.”

Timber play equipment and rock climbing

BEFORE

Woodside Making Places is an ambitious vision that has transformed Woodside, creating a vibrant and multi-functional green infrastructure network throughout the neighbourhood. A Queens Cross Housing Association project, part-funded by Sustrans, it includes renewed pedestrian areas, cycling facilities and routes, biodiverse gardens and street trees.

The designs were led by RaeburnFarquharBowen, and are interwoven with sustainable rainwater drainage in the form of raingardens, varied opportunities for play and leisure, and edible landscapes.

The project was informed by extensive engagement in the local community, to guide design decisions and ensure needs were identified and met. Identifying ways to reach different people in the community guided the engagement strategy along with the need to adapt rapidly to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CONSULTATION

Swale with integrated play elements

Raingarden kerb detail

Covered cycle parking

“RFB have been an exemplary consultant from Community Engagement, through RIBA design stages and to a final design, working hard with Stakeholders to ensure the project is designed to meet its ultimate goal”

Herb garden for residents

Lively community spaces

Cycle storage

New social spaces

Community garden with artwork by Bigg Design

Other Services

Landscape & Urban Design
Landscape Masterplanning
Blue / Green Infrastructure
Rural Tourism & Infrastructure
Community Engagement
GIS
Playful Landscapes
Active Travel Planning & Design
Gleneagles by RaeburnFarquharBowe
Hospitality
Biodiversity Action Plans
Cairngorms National Park Entry Points
Interpretation / Wayfinding
Art in the Landscape
Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment
Heritage & Historic Landscapes
Building with Nature
Landscape Conservation Management Plans
Principal Designer
Landscape Clerk of Works