DSA Environment + Design were appointed as landscape architects for the new primary care centre at Alcester, Warwickshire. The introduction of sustainable drainage systems, or SuDS, was not explicitly part of the design brief. DSA have, however, established a track record in this field and were able to work closely with other members of the design team to introduce rain gardens into the new landscape. The new wetland areas provide an attractive and ecologically rich setting for the building. Large display panels have been installed to tell the story of the design and explain the sorts of plants and animals that inhabit them. It is one of the first examples of its type.
Alcester Primary Care Centre sits on brownfield site, that of a former hospital, in a suburban area of Alcester on Fields Park Drive, B49 6QR. The building houses two medical practices as well as physiotherapists, community nurses and a pharmacy. It is bounded by St. Benedict’s Catholic High School playing fields to the west, Meadow View Care Centre to the south and residential properties to the east. Funding for the £4m project came from the NHS Warwickshire Primary Care Trust.
The site is roughly ‘L’ shaped and approximately 0.75 hectares in size. The land is fairly level, sloping only 0.5m across the site. A particular challenge on the site was the retention of existing mature trees including a large lime at the entrance.
It became clear early on that an innovative approach to drainage should be used to encourage biodiversity and create an environment for patients to explore. The concept of a SuDS ‘treatment train’ to deal with storm water was employed. Water is fed from the building roof and hard surfaces via permeable paving into a series of rain gardens containing chiefly native species, ultimately to soakaway. These areas are laid out in a bold sinuous form and planted with native wetland edge species including sedges and grasses. It was envisaged that the rain gardens would not contain permanent water, since these would not be lined, but would function instead as ‘marsh’, drying out in warm weather.
The design of the SuDS scheme meant there was no need for oil interceptors to be installed. Permeable paving is installed in areas with a relatively low risk of watercourse pollution such as parts of the car park. This fitted in well with the ‘no dig’ construction required for several mature trees adjacent to the car park. The contractor sourced recycled material locally for the sub-base and bedding for the porous paving. All of the SuDS were designed for a critical 100 year + climate change storm event in accordance with BREEAM requirements. Before development, the site was deemed to be of low ecological value.
The site now has significant benefits to biodiversity and the increase in species is notable already. Importantly, interpretation boards were installed in each of the three gardens. Each board has a narrative explaining the function of the rain garden illustrating the wildlife and plant species that may be found. The site is covered by a Landscape Management Plan to help guide management of the SuDS for a period of twenty years. This has been completed as part of the BREEAM assessment exercise.
