Lea Castle development awarded Building with Nature Design award

Our Lea Castle development in Kidderminster has been awarded a Building with Nature Design Award for putting nature at the heart of the development.

We are working with Vistry Partnerships to build 600-homes on the 49-hectare site.

The awards, run by Building with Nature, recognise efforts to include nature in the development by designing and delivering a great living environment for both people and wildlife.

The Building with Nature framework purposefully encourages the incorporation of sustainable solutions and the use of nature-friendly features within a design, by assessing its approach to green infrastructure that considers peoples’ wellbeing, water management and wildlife habitat improvements.

Throughout the design process, sustainability has been at the forefront of our Lea Castle development, with the scheme maintaining extensive woodland areas while introducing areas of enhanced habitat.

There are also open spaces, play areas and trails available across the development.

Our Executive Director of Development, Nick Byrne, said: “We are thrilled that our Lea Castle development has been given a Building with Nature Design Award.

“Lea Castle is our largest development to date and putting nature at the heart of the development will create a lovely atmosphere for our customers to live in. We want our homes to make a real difference to our customers’ lives and having a development built around nature trails and open spaces will help to achieve this.”

Managing Director at Vistry Partnerships West Midlands Darren Beale said: “We are delighted to be recognised at a national level for our Lea Castle development. In Kidderminster, we have gone above and beyond the norm by creating something which allows wildlife and people to live together in perfect harmony by placing sustainability at the heart of all decision making.”

We also worked with environmental consultants, The Environment Partnership (TEP), to ensure the project met the award’s guidelines.

TEP’s Senior Landscape Architect, and qualified Building with Nature assessor, Anna Miroslaw, added: “We have worked hard to ensure that the landscape design reflects the unique and special character of this site, whilst also creating an environment in which the new community can flourish.

“The open spaces, play features and active trails have been designed for all to enjoy; sustainable drainage features allow rainwater to replenish the natural water table and carefully selected planting will enrich biodiversity.”

Building with Nature’s Standards provide built environment specialists with evidence-based, how-to guidance on delivering high-quality green infrastructure.

Work is continuing on the £137m development at Kidderminster which will be made up of 240 affordable homes and 360 outright sale. It will take up to eight years to complete.

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