This project will create a new type of office and business park; a healthy and inspiring working environment set in a beautiful woodland setting, helping to protect this natural asset by providing an income to maintain it.

Set within the Flaxby Green Park business park outside Harrogate, the scheme will create 22 timber framed eco-lodge offices, a hub facilities building, a children’s creche and a ‘doggy-day-care’ centre. These are all linked by a network of no-dig pathways and vehicular routes, carefully threaded through the protected woodland. We worked with the landscape architects Golby and Luck to create a rich series of landscape interventions throughout the site that provided areas for outdoor meetings, contemplation, active leisure or simply connecting with nature.

Achieving planning permission was challenging as, although the woodland was in very bad condition, all trees were covered by a protection order. We worked with Addison Planning, MRB Consulting Engineers and the local tree officer to produce a design that retained all important trees on the site. This included proposing a raised piled / pad foundation system, using techniques we have developed on similar projects, to ensure no undue pressure on the woodland root protection zones.

We are very proud of what this scheme aims to achieve and hope that once complete it can demonstrate how sustainable working environments can be integrated into and connected with nature.