LUC was delighted to attend the opening ceremony for a new roof garden at 10 Fenchurch Avenue in London.

10 Fenchurch Avenue is a new mixed-use office development located in the heart of London’s insurance district. Designed by Eric Parry Architects, the development comprises a seventeen storey building that includes 14 floors of office space from mezzanine to level 13.

LUC was appointed on the detailed design and delivery of the soft landscape on the roof garden from the concept design of Latz + Partner. This project is London’s first publicly accessible roof garden in the ‘true sense’, towering 65 metres above street level. The garden comprises of 2.200 m2 of roof top terrace, with 360 views across the City of London.

The roof garden has been designed to include all the best aspects of a public space with the challenge to integrate building services and energy efficiency requirements. As the visitor moves around the garden, the quality of light changes according to aspect and time of the day. The design elements include a large water feature along the south perimeter. The roof garden will provide an area which allows a continuous walk around the perimeter and stunning views of the London skyline in all four directions.  The planting in the perennial borders responds to these shifts in colour temperature, starting golden in the east, changing to ‘hot’ reds and purples along the south, warm pinks for the western sunsets, and cool whites for the north. The flowering plants are threaded through with evergreen grasses and ferns to give groundcover in the winter months, and provide contrast and texture to the intense flower colour.

‘Wisteria Trees’ formed by climbers supported on a metal structure were designed to provide an overhead canopy  that will contribute to the overall shading and zoning of the space. The picturesque trunks of the Wisteria wind around the steel structure, marrying architectural elements and vegetation.

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