The Westminster Bridge Road Project
Designing for a New Generation: Landscape Architecture at Westminster Bridge Road
At the intersection of education, architecture, and urban landscape sits a bold new addition to London’s skyline: a striking 19-storey tower on Westminster Bridge Road, SE1. Designed by renowned architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), the tower’s sculptural exterior takes inspiration from an unexpected source — the Eames Turned Stool, injecting a playful sensibility into a functional, high-density urban development.
This £200 million mixed-use development, built on the former York House site, is now home to 1,100 student accommodation units, 4,000 sq m of office space, and 65,000 sq m of state-of-the-art educational facilities, including teaching and performance spaces, a gym, swimming pool, landscaped gardens, and a bustling café.
At the heart of this campus-in-the-sky is DLD College London, operated by the Alpha Plus Group. The school accommodates up to 700 pupils and offers cutting-edge instruction in STEM, the arts, and more. For students, the building provides not just housing, but a home — with spectacular communal areas, innovative room types, and panoramic views across the capital from the upper floors.
Landscape as Learning Space
As students and staff move between spaces designed for living and learning, it’s the landscaping that binds this vertical campus together. Europlanters was commissioned to deliver a complete planter and street furniture solution for the scheme’s third-floor terrace and the public realm at the building’s entrance — areas that needed to be just as functional as they are beautiful.
Collaborating with Balfour Beatty and Total Protection, Europlanters manufactured and installed a bespoke range ofgiant GRP planters in a sleek RAL 7021 matt finish, chosen to mirror the steel architecture of the building. The planters — some measuring 2000mm long by 1500mm wide — were designed not just as containers for greenery, but as integral components of the landscape architecture.
A standout feature of the project is the 40-metre run of floating seating, crafted in Sapele hardwood, mounted on the planters using 148 precision-engineered stainless steel brackets. This timber seating helps divide the terrace into usable zones while encouraging outdoor learning, socialising, and relaxation with views over Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, and the London Eye.
Technical Excellence Meets Urban Ecology
The third-floor terrace was designed as more than just a visual amenity — it’s a working green space. In total, 35 GRP planters form the structure of the seating and garden, supplemented by four super-sized standalone planters at the front of the building. These raised beds are filled with over 65 tonnes of compost and planted with large trees and seasonal understory planting, supported by 21 tonnes of Hydroleca to ensure proper drainage and root health in the elevated environment.
The result is a resilient, low-maintenance planting scheme that brings texture and colour to the urban setting while creating natural zones for contemplation, collaboration, and connection.
Pushing Boundaries with Street Furniture Design
“This was a great opportunity for us to showcase our new street furniture range on a landmark London project,” saidJohn Wilkes, Director at Europlanters. “The architecture is inspiring, the views are incredible, and we were proud to contribute to an environment where students can thrive both academically and socially.”
From complex geometric planter designs — including bespoke triangular planters measuring up to 2500mm in length — to integrated seating that turns passive landscaping into active public space, the Westminster Bridge Road project exemplifies the power of landscape architecture in educational design.
A Vision for Future-Focused Design
For architects and landscape professionals, this project highlights how high-density educational environments can be elevated through intelligent, integrated landscape design. It shows how green spaces — even at height — can be more than decorative: they can be functional, meaningful, and essential to student wellbeing.
With every planter, seat, and tree, the landscape at Westminster Bridge Road makes a clear statement: good design doesn’t just build for today — it shapes how we live, learn, and grow tomorrow.
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