Living Floodplain
Along Calfins Beck, the floodplain is not treated as leftover land or a boundary to be defended, but as a living interface where water, habitat, farmland and community life meet. Shaped by agricultural edges, fragmented riparian buffers and future settlement growth, the river corridor becomes a place where multiple pressures overlap and where landscape can begin to reconnect them.
The project reimagines the floodplain through wetlands, meadow transitions, riparian woodland and controlled public routes. Seasonal water is allowed to slow, spread and gather, forming wetland pockets and wet meadow fringes that support habitat continuity and flood storage. At the same time, the village-facing edge is shaped as an everyday social landscape, with open lawns, shaded seating, sensory gardens and planting edges that invite gathering, pause and informal use.
Movement through the site is filtered rather than fully opened. Raised boardwalks and low-activity paths allow people to approach and observe the wetland without disturbing its more sensitive areas. Along the riparian edge, Salix-based planting stabilises the bank, slows runoff and strengthens the relationship between water and vegetation.
What emerges is not simply a floodplain park, but an adaptive landscape that changes with water levels, seasons and patterns of use. Living Floodplain explores how landscape architecture can hold together ecological restoration and public life, creating a place where flood resilience, habitat formation and community connection can grow within the same ground.
