Gaia’s Garden, London – Dominvs Group

The Gaia’s Garden primary focus was to bring young people from underprivileged backgrounds to enjoy green space whilst reconnecting with both the city and nature to improve community wellbeing.

Where is the project located?
61 - 65 Holborn Viaduct, Holborn, EC1A 2DE 
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
Dominvs Group
 

Supported by Dominvs Group, the Gaia’s Garden project’s objective was to bring young people from underprivileged backgrounds into the City of London post-pandemic to enjoy green space, while simultaneously reconnecting with both the city and nature to improve community wellbeing. 

Dominvs Group worked with Culture Mile and creative agency Play Nice to create ‘Gaia’s Garden, which also formed part of the Lord Mayor’s Culture and Commerce Taskforce’s ‘Enhancing the City’ initiative, which sought to fill repurposed commercial spaces across the City with carefully curated creative activity to animate the area and drive footfall. Dominvs Group also partnered with urban transformation charity Urban Growth to design the Garden, using an innovative, circular approach to materials use.

Seeking to elevate women’s voices within the sphere of sustainability, five young female creatives led the concept behind Gaia’s Garden. Their expertise across graphic design, photography, music and fashion was essential to curate the site’s events schedule, which focused on educating London’s communities about sustainability through an inclusive, feminist lens.

Dominvs Group provided the Holborn Viaduct site for Gaia’s Garden and committed £250,000 to enable its delivery. The project employed 10 part-time staff who were assisted by 230 volunteers. Dominvs Group employees, including Rachel Harrison, Marketing Manager, Anupriya Rajpal, Development Manager and Georgia Bird, Social Value Associate, committed 10-15 hours a week in both delivering the scheme and supporting PlayNice with maximising its impact.

Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way?

Dominvs Group funded and provided the site for Gaia’s Garden, a not-for-profit community garden located in the heart of the City of London. Dominvs worked in partnership with creative agency Play Nice to design the unprecedented meanwhile scheme. 

The Holborn Viaduct site was transformed by Dominvs Group from vacant brownfield land into a vibrant urban oasis, intended as a respite from London’s bustle and noise. The thriving green space brought 1,500 people predominantly from under-represented communities back into the heart of the Square Mile.

The community garden hosted 1,500 guests for nine weeks of workshops and events, covering sustainability, music, dance and movement, and mental health. To elevate women’s voices within sustainability, the events were programmed by a group of five young female creatives: Tina Wetshi, Ramzia Jawara, Eleanor Grace Hann, Ananya Parwar and Andrea Siso.

Named after the Greek goddess of nature, environmental stewardship was key to Gaia’s

Garden. Hundreds of plants, shrubs and trees were planted by volunteers into raised beds and

planters at the heart of a city lacking in green space.

The site will continue to support young people and creatives, because Dominvs Group have received approval to turn the site into an urgently needed student accommodation scheme supported by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the ground floor will feature a mix of cultural and performance space to showcase the city’s creative talent. The finished scheme will feature a publicly accessible roof terrace with views towards St Paul’s Cathedral.

 
Please share any data or figures that support your entry, for example increased footfall, happiness surveys, event attendance and/or observed changes in behaviour. 

● Built over six weeks by more than 200 volunteers.● Brought 1,500 people, predominantly from under-represented communities, back into the heart of the city centre as part of the Culture and Commerce taskforce response.

● Five young female creatives - Tina Wetshi, Ramzia Jawara, Eleanor Grace Hann, Ananya Parwar and Andrea Siso - led the concept behind Gaia’s Garden.

● 10 part-time jobs and 230 volunteering opportunities were created for those under-25.

● Measured using the Housing Association Charitable Trust’s Social Value Bank, following guidelines from the HM Treasury Green Book, the jobs and volunteering opportunities alone generated social value equivalent to £245,466, 50% of which was attributed to Dominvs Group.

● 35% percent of the new student accommodation is affordable and capped at £174 per week, which is 55% below market value.

 
Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution? Please provide any evidence or data to support this. 

The thriving green space brought 1,500 people, predominantly from under-represented communities, back into the heart of the City as part of the City of London’s Culture and Commerce taskforce, boosting London’s post-pandemic recovery. 

The total social value generated by Gaia’s Garden was measured using the Housing Association Charitable Trust’s Social Value Bank, following guidelines from the HM Treasury Green Book. The impact of the 10 part-time work and 230 volunteering opportunities created for those under-25 was measured. In total, the project generated social value equivalent to £245,466, 50% of which was attributed to Dominvs Group.

The project platformed five young female creatives, who programmed events raising awareness of sustainability and mental health – vital topics for the 1,500 guests who attended. It also hosted The Pattern – an initiative that trains thousands of young people from underrepresented communities in skills needed for success in the creative industries.

Dominvs Group’s in-house Social Value Unit exemplifies their commitment to putting community value at the heart of their strategy, both throughout the development lifecycle and over the long term. Although a temporary scheme, Gaia’s Garden was key to this strategy, and the project’s materials were reused in other local developments as a circular economy is a key theme of Dominvs Group’s social sustainability. To minimise waste, the site was created using sustainable temporary structures, with benches and tables made from recycled pallets and scaffolding boards. These materials have since been redistributed for use elsewhere, so no waste was created following its closure.