Edenbrook

Located on the Surrey border near Fleet, Edenbrook is an award-recognised residential development delivered by Berkeley Homes, providing more than 600 homes within a richly landscaped setting. fabrik was appointed as landscape architect to develop a comprehensive landscape strategy that places green infrastructure at the heart of the masterplan, creating a distinctive neighbourhood where people and nature can thrive together.

The site’s proximity to the River Hart floodplain presented both opportunities and constraints that informed the design from the outset. Rather than treating water management as a technical requirement, the landscape strategy embraces it as a defining characteristic of the place. An integrated network of swales, wetlands, attenuation ponds and green corridors manages surface water naturally, improving water quality while creating diverse habitats and enhancing biodiversity. These landscape features also provide an attractive and legible framework for the development, connecting neighbourhoods and creating spaces that residents experience every day. Homes are carefully positioned to overlook green spaces and water features, strengthening connections with nature while ensuring sensitive ecological areas are protected and enhanced.

At the heart of Edenbrook is an expansive country park that extends the site’s green infrastructure beyond the residential neighbourhood and has won a prestigious Green Flag Award. Species-rich grasslands, wetlands, meadows and woodland create a varied landscape that supports wildlife while providing an extensive network of walking and cycling routes connecting residents with the wider countryside.

The landscape also incorporates a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, carefully designed to provide an attractive destination for recreation while helping to protect internationally important ground-nesting birds within the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. Play spaces, allotments and informal recreation areas are sensitively integrated throughout the landscape, encouraging healthy lifestyles, whilst respecting ecological value.

Developed through a long-term collaboration between Berkeley Homes, Hart District Council and the wider consultant team, Edenbrook demonstrates how landscape architecture can successfully integrate sustainable drainage, habitat creation and public open space into a cohesive place-led strategy. The completed development shows how multi-functional landscapes can deliver far more than environmental mitigation. By weaving together blue and green infrastructure, biodiversity enhancement, recreation and movement, the landscape creates a resilient neighbourhood that supports health and wellbeing, responds to climate change and provides lasting value for residents, wildlife and the wider community.

Edenbrook has been recognised as an exemplar of landscape-led placemaking and nature-based design. The project was a finalist in the 2021 Planning Awards in the Planning for the Natural Environment category and has been featured by Natural England as a national case study demonstrating how collaborative working can successfully deliver sustainable growth through landscape-led planning. The development has also been highlighted by Berkeley Homes as a benchmark for integrating housing, biodiversity and high-quality public open space.