Essay
Designing parks for hotter summers
Shade, water and soil: what a decade of heatwaves has taught us about the parks we design, and what we would do differently.
In the summer of 2022, the temperature on the play area we had opened three years earlier reached 58°C at ground level. Nobody was hurt, because nobody could stay there long enough.
That afternoon changed how we design. This essay collects what we have learned since, from our own projects and from the maintenance teams who look after them.
Shade first
Shade is now the first layer we draw, before paths or play. We map where people will want to be at 3pm in August and make sure a tree, a canopy or a building will be there.
- Plant the biggest trees the budget allows. A 20cm girth tree gives useful shade five years sooner than a 12cm one.
- Put seating on the north and east of trees, where the shadow falls in the afternoon.
- Never place play equipment in full sun. Metal slides are the first thing to go.
Water that stays
Rain gardens, swales and permeable surfaces keep water on site and in the soil, where it cools the air as it evaporates. They also reduce flooding downstream, which is increasingly what funds them.
Soil is the park
Healthy, uncompacted soil holds water, feeds trees and stays cooler than any surface we can buy. We now specify soil the way we used to specify stone: with samples, tests and a named source.
We used to spend our budget on what people could see. Now we spend it on what they stand on.
What we would change
If we were designing that play area again, we would plant before we built, fence the tree roots during construction, and put the water play in the shade. None of these ideas are new. All of them are easier to cut than to keep.
