How we ensure BNG is a genuine net gain for all our stakeholders.
A good architect will ensure BNG intelligently and creatively adds value to your development.
Ian Hambleton, director at Biodiversity Units UK wrote an interesting promotional piece in New Civil Engineer about managing the risks and challenges of the new BNG requirements. ‘It’s not just another bureaucratic hurdle; it’s about ensuring that developers don’t just offset their environmental impact but actively improve the natural world by at least 10%. Before this, developments could chip away at ecosystems, leaving communities worse off. Now, developers have to give something back – creating greener spaces that benefit everyone.’
The key question is how to achieve that worthwhile objective. At Snug Architects we have established an intelligent and creative approach that adds value for both our developer clients and the occupants of our developments, be they ecology or people.
It is easy to see BNG as yet another hurdle that chips away at our primary goal of delivering much needed housing. Managed poorly BNG is a net loss to a development. Managed well it is an opportunity where all parties gain.
At Snug we are committed to seeing all constraints as an opportunity. Transforming, leveraging and reimagining constraints is what we are good at. BNG is just such an opportunity. Not just for delivering worthwhile natural and ecological benefits to nature. It is also a great opportunity for people, the future residents of our developments.
When BNG enhancements are thoughtfully integrated into a new development there is real added value. People love homes that are well connected with nature and landscape, with existing and new natural habitats.
New Blue and Green infrastructure provides a pleasant outlook for new homes, enhancing their value.
Integrating BGI, BNG and existing habitats into a net gain for all
At its best, new habitats should transcend mere credits in a Defra spreadsheet. When designed thoughtfully, in collaboration between architect, ecologist and landscape architect these elements create richer places. These are living places that will improve with age and a little patience. For this to succeed new landscapes need to be curated with care. They need to be connected to residents lived experience of a place, visually, physically and emotionally. To truly deliver a biodiversity net gain they also need to be attractive, valuable and accessible to the natural world. This means well connected, appropriate to local habitats and ecologically balanced, delivering the habitats local species need and local conditions can sustain.
At Snug we start every project by first understanding the baseline. What exists, what should be kept, what can be removed with limited impact. We then explore how these existing retained habitats can be enhanced and healed. Finally we ensure new habitats connect with and link existing habitats through meaningful corridors. These simple steps ensure our designs transcend mere measurement and metrics and effectively and efficiently deliver biodiversity net gain. Having defined these parameters we then ensure new homes and built infrastructure integrate positively with these new and existing natural features, making them available to be enjoyed by people. Our approach is landscape led and ensures new places are beneficial for all their terrestrial residents.
To achieve a positive outcome it is essential that all parties consider BNG early and as a team. The commitment to engage architect, ecologist and landscape architect early and to resource them to collaborate is essential.
In our experience BNG is poorly managed when it is either a forethought, wrapped up in a siloed land parcel before designers are involved, or an afterthought,delivered in a silo with little value to a development beyond a tick in the planners box. Snug’s approach intelligently permeates the whole design process and ensures the design of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether Defra measure the value added achieved by this approach is secondary to creating beautiful places that people and nature love to call home. When this is achieved there is a genuine net gain for all our stakeholders.
A recent example of our approach is a scheme for 60+ units at a site in Sevenoaks.
We were asked to redesign the scheme after a previously failed proposal which took a more siloed approach to resolving constraints.
At the heart of our development is a series of natural spaces that each deliver on multiple bottom lines.
Instead of manmade attenuation ponds that were elevated unnaturally within the flood plain we create a blue-green-infrastructure at the heart of the existing valley with increased wetlands, swales and woodland managing attenuation, enhancing down stream flood mitigation and delivering biodiversity net gain. The new habitats integrate with the existing landscape of the valley, enhancing existing habitats and ecology.
In addition, new boardwalks allow existing and future residents to benefit from the health and wellbeing benefits of this now accessible landscape, leveraging the flood zone.
Finally, the thoughtful siting of these elements deliver one further gain, a tangible enhancement to the setting of the adjacent conservation area, helping to mitigate the impact of much needed new homes.
