The Gillmoss Urban Village lies adjacent to the Gilmoss Industrial Estate in the Gilmoss area of Liverpool.

Gilmoss is an area of mixed uses on the very eastern edge of Liverpool with the boundary to Knowsley Borough Council. The Urban Village is located approximately 7.5km north east of Liverpool City centre. The overall site is irregular in shape and has a total area of approximately 60.2ha. The Green Belt covers 29.3ha of the site, leaving a net development site of 30.9ha. The development lies alongside the M57motorway and is bounded by the A580 and A506 trunk roads. The primary land use is industry and business development of various types. The northern boundary of the site is the River Alt that forms the city boundary, hereafter it flows through Croxteth to wind around the Field Land area and thence northwards. The eastern boundary is formed by the Knowsley Brook and marks the boundary of the Green Belt in this area before it joins the River Alt to the North of the site. It is this hydrological boundary and almost 30ha of land that forms the basis of the Gillmoss Park District and the showpiece Urban Park development. Covering almost half of the site, the park sets the sustainable and rural theme that flows throughout the rest of the development through the use of green fingers reaching out from the park. The village thrives off of the life of the park just as the park thrives off the village they go hand in hand. While the Knowsley Brook acts as a physical barrier between the park and the rest of the development, it is also key in connecting the two together and in forming landmark areas such as the 20metre high island that houses the new Gillmoss monument, or the futuristic sustainable solar hangar of Willow Grove.
Source: NWDA

Source: NWDA

Source: NWDA

Adam McAleavey

Catalpas

roses enclosure

woodland

Urban Park
colours

postmodernist
structures

viewpoints Forested
rustic
planting contrast

st 21

Century

design

beech recreation

trees

British park
sun

community

Magnolias Revolutionary sport hydrology Tangible wood animals Pedestrian vegetation daisies romanticist Robinias Yellow metal Cedars

Utopian landscape architecture

island

Oaks

green art Leaf

educational

living

views furniture landform seductive

distance focal point awe-inspiring trail

Parisian beauty monument Silver school lake Inspiration integrated curves garden spatial structure nature equestrian sound paths exposed water views panoramic Paulownias slopes Copper poetic fencing picturesque

fountain

other-worldliness manipulated

Gillmoss undulation Willow

height

lawns

Source: NWDA

Adam McAleavey

Gillmoss Park will provides active and passive recreation facilities for the whole community. It is essential to the area for outdoor sport, active and passive recreation. Its a place where social contacts can take place. It acts as a place for young and old, for lovers and children to meet, and for families to walk and play. The park acts as an awe-inspiring contrast to the everyday technological world, giving urban dwellers the opportunity to come into contact with plants and animals. It provides urbanites of Gillmoss the chance to view natures processes, such as plant growth, and to experience large spaces, a beauty often lacking in cities. The images to the left give an insight into the imagery and aesthetics of the park upon completion, incorporating the steeps slopes, the green lawns, the swathe of trees, the manicured water features, the showpiece island and its community monument, the beautiful botanical gardens, and the woodland trail. The numbers on the map indicate the rise in height above sea level in certain areas of the park, a key feature as much of the park holds an undulated topography. Design boards such as this are only presented to give a snapshot of the development. The true reality is that the Gillmoss Park District will have to be witnessed in person to be exposed to the sensual impacts of this world away from the 21st Century city life.
Source: Great City Parks, Alan Tate & NWDA

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Adam McAleavey

Urban parks of different shape, size, type and purpose can be found in cities and towns throughout the world. Each of these parks, just like cities, are constantly developing and are never completed. The unique aspects of each hideaway, lake, tree, or footpath to be found within these parks around the globe provided the developers of the Gillmoss Park District with an overwhelming supply of inspiration. Hundreds of Urban Parks have been studied as part of the process of designing our own emphatic creation. They have ranged from Spain, Germany, North America, and even Merseyside. The parks displayed here have had some of the most notable influences upon our own development. The Parisian Parc des ButtesChaumont has been paid overwhelming respect through the creation of a topography that has never been seen within a British park before. The curved paths, undulated lawns, and showpiece island found within the Gillmoss development, all pay direct homage to the works of Jean-Charles Alphand. The small snippets of manicured gardens, planting and water features within Gillmoss Park are influenced by the spectacle that is Regents Park. While two huge parks in North America, Stanley Park and Prospect Park, give a strong insight into how to successfully utilise forested land, sloped land, rivers/lakes, and what ever flat land may remain for recreational use.
Source: Great City Parks, Alan Tate

Adam McAleavey

The essence of planting across the park uses large leafed trees like Paulownias, Catalpas, Magnolias and Oaks as the background plants that cover the majority of the park, along with Willow trees in the foreground. Silver-leafed cedars, yellow-leafed robinias and copper-leafed beech trees can also be found in groups or isolated clumps, combining their colours with the steep lawns of the park to further contribute to the sense of other-worldliness within the park. Oak trees are used extensively within the forested boundaries to the east and south of the park in an attempt to separate the development from the nearby motorway and A roads. Injected within the layers of water, planting and curvaceous paths are rustic structures, fencing and metal site furniture which effortlessly contribute to the beauty of the park.
Source: Great City Parks, Alan Tate

Adam McAleavey

Gillmoss Urban Park and Gillmoss school will combine to create the Gillmoss Park District. The level of high quality sustainable design found within the school site, directly reflects its green surrounds of the park. The park will be directly accessible from the rear of the school, with paths leading to the sports pitches to the north of the park. This is practically a school within a park and so it is only right that all aspects of its components and build pose the least threat to the environment as possible. The highest quality renewable energy resources will be included to help power the school, again to reduce its environmental impact, while the general design and aesthetics of the building will be sympathetic to its surrounds. Both the park and the school are focal points of Gillmoss Urban Village that follow almost parallel design concepts. While the park holds its inextricable maze and an unending labyrinth of curves, a profusion of vegetation, sheets of water and paths, and a bewilderingly complex layout to match; the school pays respect to the emerald green mounds, colourful trees, blue flowing rivers and lakes that it shares its site with by keeping things simple and focusing on providing a 1st class building to house the education of the youth of Gillmoss.
Source: Great City Parks, Alan Tate & NWDA

Adam McAleavey