Berry Hill Park

Arkwood were engaged by Mansfield District Council to develop a new masterplan for Berry Hill Park in Mansfield as part of the council’s £12.5 million Towns Fund application to central government. The £3.32 million park restoration project was one of the council’s most significant Towns Fund projects.

Client and Contract Period

Mansfield District Council

2022-2025

Project Objectives

Arkwood has been commissioned by Mansfield Borough Council to develop RIBA 4 Technical Design proposals for the refurbishment of Berry Hill Park in Mansfield and to administer the execution of works on site through RIBA 5 and 6.

Further detailed consultation has been undertaken to explore specific and detailed aspects of park use and how the design should respond to these.

The scheme is an evolution of a project developed with the client and stakeholders through RIBA stages 1 to 3. These were proposed scheme for Berry Hill that would include:

A park for events
A park for play
A park for public art
A park for biodiversity adapted to climate change
A better equipped park with restored infrastructure

Elements of the masterplan for Berry Hill Park include a new park hub building, the installation of a new playground new paths, a forest school area, new signage and ecological enhancements. The project involves the installation of significant new play elements including play towers. To take a cue from the site’s coal industry heritage, the towers have been designed to reference forms typical of the pit head winding gear towers that were once widespread across the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Locally sourced timber and stone will be the primary materials used with a bold red recycled steel support frame adding an industrial reference. All materials will be locally sourced to minimise embodied carbon.

The masterplan for Berry Hill Park has been informed by a natural capital account for the park that quantified the value of ecosystem services that the park provided. By protecting the condition of the site’s natural capital assets, the project will support the continued flow of these ecosystem services. Using natural capital data, the Design Team’s business planning consultant developed a Green Book-compliant business case for investment in the park that assesses the site’s future economic and environmental performance.

Issues Challenges and Outcomes

Arkwood assembled a Design Team including an architect, structural and services engineers, quantity surveyors, business planning consultants and environmental economists.

The design team made use of advance consultation carried out by the council to develop spatial planning for park, including the identification of a position for the new proposed park hub building and the functions that the building could support. The proposals were consulted on with key stakeholders through a series of online workshops, events in the park and through the use of an interactive online gallery space. Given the extremely pressured delivery programme, the design team had to make rapid progress in design development by analysing and developing the components of a ‘destination park’.

Services