Natural Stone Awards win for Elephant Springs

Elephant Springs in Elephant Park has won the Landscape (Commercial & Public Realm) category in the 2022 Natural Stone Awards.

The category is for a project that involves the use of natural stone in landscaping, and we submitted a joint entry with stone supplier Hardscape.

Elephant Springs is a 420m² play area within Elephant Park, a new green space at the heart of the £2.5 revitalisation of Elephant and Castle by Lendlease and Southwark Council.

Hardscape sourced 300 tonnes of colourful Prima Porphyry stone, which was layered to form natural-looking mounds, ravines and channels. As well as being colourful, the stone is very hard-wearing and has good slip-resistance when it is wet. Mel Chantrey and The Fountain Workshop collaborated with Gillespies to design the springs, developing the design through sketches, CAD drawaings, and a scale plasticine model. The design team worked with RoSPA to ensure the playscape provides adventurous but safe play. Hardscape's sister company IP Surfaces was involved drilling and processing the underside of the boulders to house the water fountain infrastructure. The levels had to be millimetre-perfect to achieve the right distribution of water in the stream beds and pools.

The main contractor was Careys, lighting design was by Speirs Major and Willerbys was the softworks contractor.

As soon as Elephant Springs opened to the public in June 2021 it became a popular play destination for local children and adults.

The judges were impressed with the "unique sense of place" that the project created. They said: "This exciting new natural stone and water landscape sets the benchmark incredibly high for creating playful landscapes in the public realm". They were impressed with how the placement of the stone slabs creates the impression of a natural igneous rockscape. "The scheme provides a safe, tactile, and aesthetically pleasing haven of considerable community benefit and enjoyment."

Senior Associate Neil Matthew accepted the award behalf of our team: congratulations, Stephen Richards, Armel Mourgue, Neil Matthew, Patrick Conn, Giacomo Guzzon, Eleanor Godfrey and Busra Yilmaz. The park at Elephant Park has also won a Silver WAN award, a ROSPA Play Safety Award for Publicly Accessible Playgrounds, and the Developer Magazine Pineapple Award for Public Space of the Year.

Bourne Walk and Whistler Square water features for the Chelsea Barracks in London achieved Highly Commended in the category. Commended were St Paul's Cathedral step-free access project, and the Glade of Light memorial in Manchester.