Today we release the first of four research pamphlets examining four key challenges that London's urban nature faces today. Issue 1: Parks and the wild, treads the overgrown routes of Richmond Park to investigate how far we can tangibly connect with nature from the very middle of an urban capital city. You can download the publication on our research papers webpage. The remaining pamphlets will be published later this year and early next.

Daniel Rea is joining MHCLG's chief planner Joanna Averley, Lendlease's head of masterplanning Selina Mason and Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs at the ULI UK's Digital Infrastructure and Urban Development Product Council Day on Tuesday 24th November 2020. Daniel will be speaking on the topic 'What is Infrastructure?' focussing on how Periscope's high performance landscape systems deliver economic, environmental and social value. Find out more here.

Today we are launching our new research Atlas, you can find it here. Atlas is a visual catalogue of Periscope's project based investigations together with curiosities from our research platform.

Later this month we'll be publishing the first paper from our research platform, further updates will follow throughout the month.

Welcome to Antonia Alexandru who started with Periscope this month. Antonia joins us as a Part II Architectural Assistant from Witherford Watson Mann having graduated from her Part II studies in architecture and landscape architecture in 2019.

We've updated the navigation on our website to improve speed and usability and to provide a more immersive experience. Thanks are again due to Villalba Lawson and United Forms for providing great design and programming help. Later this month we'll be launching a more extensive site update for our Research Atlas.

We're very pleased to announce that Kirsty Badenoch has been promoted to Associate and appointed Head of Research. Kirsty has been working with Periscope since early 2018, leading our masterplanning and detailed design work for Meridian Water in Enfield as well as a series of other projects. She will continue to lead projects but also now coordinates our new research working group, a cross-cutting team that will publish all of Periscope's research activities including our new bi-annual research publication, the first of which will be released this autumn.

We Are five today.⁠
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It's been a fantastic few years, sincere thanks to our collaborators, clients and team (past and present), you've all helped us get here and we're looking forward to the next five and where they take us.⁠

Periscope will be featured in New Architects 4, a publication by the Architecture Foundation showcasing the best new British based architecture and spatial design talent. The book will be published in Spring 2021, find out more here.

It's been two weeks since we de-camped from the office to work from home in this strange new world.

Collaborating remotely rather than over paper or around a model is new for us, but through necessity we're discovering really valuable new ways to show and draw ideas together.

Our team is working hard and fully available to our clients; you can reach us using email or telephone as normal. We hope you are all well and look forward to speaking soon.

Last night Enfield Council's planning committee granted consent for the Meridian Water Strategic Infrastructure Works and Phase 2 applications. This is a major milestone for the Meridian Water client and consultant teams, the consents provide for the delivery of 2,300 homes with supporting infrastructure for up to 5,000 homes. In 2019 Enfield Council secured £156m in Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) grants in order to fund the first phase of the Strategic Infrastructure Works for which contractor procurement is under way. Find out more on our projects page.

We've been longlisted for the Heath Park Competition to transform the former ICI business park in Runcorn (near Liverpool) into a mixed-use, carbon-free environment. Take a look at the Architects Journal story here for more information.

Branch Place in Hackney has won a 2020 Civic Trust Award. We're proud that our pieces of the Colville Estate are falling into place, a highlight of which is the Branch Place podium garden; its green, well made and children seem to have hours of fun in it.

We are pleased to become members of the Green Building Council. We believe that the GBC offers the right balance of strategic policy guidance and practical knowledge sharing to help Periscope transition to a net zero carbon built environment.

Periscope reached the final shortlist of the Smithfield Market competition with finalists Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, and WilkinsonEyre the competition was won by Studio Egret West.

Excellent news to start the week, Future Fossil has been granted planning consent. Start on site due next spring.

Find our more about the project here.

On 12th December 2019 James and Dan will be joining Jonathan Smales of Human + Nature at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Lithuania for the 26th Architecture Fund lecture series.

The event will feature a dialogue between Architect, Landscape Architect and client on the topics of urbanism, landscape and value.

Find our more in this link.

We've been working up plans for Birmingham Central Bus Garage with HUB Residential and Shed KM. The buses are moving out and the site, with its 150m long canal frontage, will be reclaimed for new employment and residential uses. A planning application will be submitted in the new year.

We've all been in Cologne for a couple of days, experiencing some wonderful places.... Highlights included Kolumba museum, Insel Hombroich and Landschaftspark Duisburg-nord. We also enjoyed jägerschnitzel and beer.

Our project for Enfield Council and Network Rail at Meridian Water Station has reached practical completion.

The east and west squares and temporary routes allow access to the station which also forms a new public bridge over the railway connecting the communities of Upper Edmonton to the Lee Valley. For more information about the project click here.

As part of the Meridian Water Phase 2 and Strategic Infrastructure Works planning applications the two parks we have been working on for 18 months have been submitted for detailed planning approval. Together these parks offer over eight hectares of recovered habitats for the Lea Valley and will in future provide recreation and amenity space for some of the 10,000 people that will eventually call Meridian Water home.