The Linear Park in Coventry transforms a former industrial site which had been abandoned, and turns it into an urban park which breaks through the ‘concrete collar’ of Coventry’s elevated Ring Road to connect local communities directly to the city centre. It revives a formerly culverted stream and links with an existing park further out from the city centre to create new routes for people and nature.

Our judges thought this was an excellent project that demonstrated inventive and sensitive ways to deal with the issues caused by the UK’s legacy of elevated highways that disconnect communities. One judge commented on how they particularly liked the way that the designers brought a sense of “transformation and renewal in unexpected places”. Judges were also impressed by how the landscape scheme was completed before the planned housing to give it time to establish and become embedded in the local area.

image credit: CDP