Our design realised a new urban square themed on a woodland glade in the heart of Romford’s busy shopping area – providing seating under the shade of existing trees amongst woodland understory and suds planting beds. It’s now helping to rejuvenate an under-used but central shopping zone of the town centre. By designing around existing mature trees and a myriad of underground services we’ve created as space that improves biodiversity and provides a shady respite within an enhanced biodiverse setting. This encourages longer dwell time for shoppers, as well as space for a mini markets or small events. Suds planters reduce run off and the design allows unhindered access to the underground services to facilitate maintenance without disturbing the more expensive paving. We re-used paving blocks to minimise waste and create a differentiation in surfacing tying in with the planters and service runs.