This in-person masterclass explores how to adopt design approaches that will enable you to unlock the potential of integrated SuDS design on any project, no matter how challenging.

These approaches consistently lead to better landscapes and developments that deliver more benefits for people, wildlife and the wider environment, more layers of meaning and more design fulfilment, as well as being more functionally effective, robust, cost-effective and easy to maintain.

The delivery of wildlife benefits in SuDS depends directly on sound core principles of both SuDS and ecological design, combined with careful design detailing, supervised construction and considered maintenance. 

This masterclass explores how to design SuDS, or influence SuDS design, to optimise benefits to wildlife and how this fits with the new mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements that came into force in early 2024.

Drawing on decades of dedicated SuDS and ecological design, delivery, guidance and policy-making, we will share industry-leading knowledge and experience in an interactive and engaging masterclass with practical, applied learning activities.

This in-person masterclass explores the principles of bioretention raingarden design – raingardens designed to manage polluted runoff from urban hard surfaces. Through an interactive training experience we’ll highlight the core requirements and the potential to deliver valuable co-benefits through urban raingarden design.

The day describes the origins of the ‘raingarden’ idea and the development of ‘bioretention’ in Portland Oregon and other US exemplars, as well as looking at great examples in the UK.

We discuss design criteria, critical detailing, silt management, the importance of soil specification, suitable planting and the potential obstacles to good design, including implications for management.

This masterclass, led by industry leaders Kevin Barton and Tim O’Hare, explores how to choose, design and specify both planting and soils to strike the right balance between healthy and successful planting, and hydraulic functionality in SuDS features.

In this unique learning opportunity, Kevin leads a tour, on foot and by public transport, of eight SuDS projects that demonstrate a range of SuDS techniques in a variety of urban contexts.

He explains the project backgrounds, how they were designed, important design considerations, challenges encountered, critical detailing, functional elements such as flow controls, important learning and maintenance arrangements.

Featuring the highly acclaimed and multi-award-winning Bridget Joyce Square, the value of learning about SuDS ‘in the flesh’ from one of the UK’s leading SuDS designers cannot be overstated.