The Landscape
THE VILLAGE GREEN
The Triangle takes its name from the central triangular green that every house overlooks. It's the village green, if you like - a green oasis where kids can play and parents can look out of their windows and make sure everything is OK. We could have crammed more houses on there. But we didn't want to. Instead, with our landscape architect Studio Engleback, we've created a place for people to meet, socialise - or simply just to enjoy the view.
AN EDIBLE LANDSCAPE
The Triangle is fruity all year round. We've planted apples, pears, plums, old-fashioned quince (quinces arrived in England back in 1275 - try roasting them and add lashings of cream, yum!) right through to figs, morello cherries, walnuts, hazelnuts, kiwis, even passion fruits, and our favourite, mulberries. We've put them in front and back gardens, as well as in the communal spaces. Best of all, something will be in season whatever the time of year, so rich pickings are guaranteed.
We've also got two kitchen gardens (with polytunnels to keep out the wind and rain while harnessing the heat of the sun) so residents can grow whatever else they fancy. In fact, a few months in and the locals have set up a Saturday market stall.
BIODIVERSITY
What's this mean? Put simply, that we've planted lots of things to attract all manner of wildlife. We've created hedges that you're more likely to find on a farm in the middle of the countryside than in deepest Swindon, which include hawthorn, blackthorn, and wild rose. These attract birds, birds eat the caterpillars, and caterpillars eat the aphids - what we have is a very happy eco-system, rather than just paving or a square patch of lawn.
WATERING YOUR PLANTS
No more using mains water to give these lovely plants a soak. Each house has a rainwater harvesting system - when it rains, water from every roof is collected in tanks under the central green and used to water the plants. Perfect for those hot summers and hosepipe bans - when they, ahem, arrive. Mark our words, they will... .
FLOODING
Along with dry, sunny spells come some very wet ones, too. With global warming, flooding is now a day-to-day risk and was already an issue on this site. So we've made some nifty moves to ensure it's no longer a problem at the Triangle. Car parking is on porous paving, so instead of water running off and having nowhere to go, it soaks down into the ground. And when we get a deluge, the large green swales (full of willow tress which love the wet ground) take the brunt and simply flood with water, which then recedes over a few days as the ground sucks it up.
CARS AND BIKES
It's the 21st century. We know most people have at least one car, but our hope is that we can encourage people to keep it at that. Do you really need a second car? Could you manage without it? Do you even need a car at all? The pedestrian is king at the Triangle. We think that's only right in a residential development. Our central location means it's a short walk to town, and an even quicker cycle. But if you do need a car, we've teamed up with Goco to provide Swindon's first-ever car club. Sign up, and pay as you hire - you can start with as little as a 30-minute trip.
