Sayer Street and The Meadow nominated for AJ Architecture Award

The purpose of the awards is to recognise excellence in projects across an array of categories, be it schools, housing, landscaping, retail, or leisure. The awards ceremony will take place at Grosvenor House on 17^th November this year – wish us luck! Here’s a little more info about the design of Sayer Street and The Meadow, designed by Jan Kattein Architects and BD Landscape Architects.

Sayer Street is one of Elephant Park’s dining districts where a carefully curated selection of F&B providers line one side of the street. With the other half of the high street still under construction, we wanted to create a space the local community could use and enjoy whilst visiting or passing through.

The result was something quite spectacular. Elephant & Castle is a creative place. Food, music, culture, art, design, and music merge in one London district, and the installation had to reflect this. Playful canopies alternate with event decking, micro parks, seating nooks and three workspace shacks that are now home to Greenpoint Market, The Nunhead Gardener and flat 70 Artists' Collective. The colours are bold and bright, with planting scattered throughout to create an oasis in the city.

At night, the space lighting concept heightens the experience, creating an inviting place to wander at dusk and in the evening.

Turn west off Sayer Street and you’ll come to The Meadow – a wildflower garden that contains winding paths for you to explore. It’s the main pedestrian link from Elephant & Castle Station to the centre of the Elephant Park development - a thoroughfare that’s going to be well used by the community. It’s now a green oasis and shared sanctuary for people and pollinators alike!

The space comes to life with sculptures and opportunities for natural play. Places to rest provide opportunity to sit down and take it all in, whilst sculptural lighting lights the path in the evenings for as pleasant stroll.

As with many projects at Elephant Park, sustainability was a key consideration from the earliest design stages.

On Sayer Street, the scaffolding installations are reusable, as are the workspaces which will be dismantled, reassembled, and reused elsewhere when the construction phase completes.

Within The Meadow, the choice of plants is deliberately rich in pollen to encourage local populations of bees, butterflies and other pollinators. And dotted throughout the dense wildflower gardens are habitat stations to provide shelter for these species. Even most of the materials used in The Meadow are site-felled timber, reusing existing materials to create new spaces in which children can play and adults can explore.

To find out more about the awards and nominees, visit the AJ Awards website.