Location
North Downs, Kent
Client
Armstrong Kent LLP (for Hines UK and RREEF)
Project
Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks
Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks
Pegasus Landscape Design was commissioned in December 2005 by Hines UK Ltd. to provide landscape and visual masterplanning and design advice for a 300 acre site on the North Downs in Kent. The site was formerly occupied by the Ministry of Defence and is still classed as a secure site housing weaponry research companies.
Fort Halstead lies within the Metropolitan Greenbelt, and also in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Located at the top of the Downs escarpment in a potentially prominent position, it is also enclosed by Ancient Woodland and retains many mature trees across its area, as well as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM). Pegasus Landscape Design was appointed based on our knowledge and expertise of promoting sensitive sites; to lead the master planning approach; setting up the development parameters in terms of height and spread of built form; location and structure of open space; and elements of sustainable landscape. The masterplanning Architects, Aedas (London), worked within the parameters established by Pegasus Landscape Design, ensuring that the development framework was landscape and visually led; an essential element of scheme in a sensitive location.
The emerging masterplan was based on a ‘development envelope’ that was expressed in both vertical (height) and horizontal (spread) terms. This iterative process drew upon a number of refined computer modelling techniques to present to the Local Authority as part of the overall landscape and visual strategy. The strategy was accepted by Sevenoaks District Council in late 2010 in preparation for the Core Strategy Examination in Public (EiP).
