Client: Explore Living
Location: Balls Park, Hertford, Hertfordshire
Landscape Contractor: Oakview Landscapes Ltd
Fountain Contractor: Miles Waterscapes Ltd

History
The Fountain Courtyard is the centrepiece of a prestigious development within the historic parkland at Balls Park in Hertfordshire. Balls Park Mansion is Grade 1 listed and the associated historic gardens and parkland are Registered Grade 2, of special historic interest in the national context. The parkland also lies within a Landscape Conservation Area.

During the 1960s and 70s, a number of areas within the historic park were developed when Balls Park become a teacher training college. The latter relocated a number of years ago and a Planning Framework for Balls Park was adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance by East Herts District Council in 2000. This recognised that redevelopment of the more recent buildings within the park would be necessary to generate sufficient funds to secure the long-term future of the historic buildings, gardens and parkland, and to generate a conservation subsidy). As part of the overall development proposals, a historic landscape restoration plan and a nature conservation management plan were prepared for the historic parkland.

Balls Park Apartments Design Brief
The new apartments at Balls Park are being developed around two courtyards on the site of the former main teaching block. The apartments look inwards over the courtyard and outwards over the historic parkland. The client's brief was to provide a high-quality fountain courtyard that would function as a communal garden and provide an attractive leafy outlook into the courtyards from the adjacent apartments.

The plan for the site allows for no private space with all areas being shared communal spaces. The layout of the apartments has been driven by the location of major trees around the periphery and this has also determined the site levels.

Design Concept
The original design concept followed on from the client brief, centred on the creation of a fountain courtyard that would provide a communal focus where residents would have opportunities to meet their neighbours. There was also a need for the wider courtyard to accommodate a number of parking spaces. The original concept was to achieve this whilst minimising views of the parked cars, maximising the quality of the views from the apartments, and creating a sense of enclosure from within the central fountain seating areas.

This was achieved by arranging the parking around the perimeter of the courtyard, resulting in views from the apartments over the cars towards the 'green island' of the fountain gardens in the middle of the wider courtyard space. The small mop-headed trees and railings around the perimeter provide an attractive outlook from the apartments, at the same time creating a perceived sense of enclosure from the fountain seating area. The lighting installation has been designed to create an entirely different feel to this space at night, extending the hours that it can be enjoyed.

The Fountains
The fountains form the focal point of the main courtyard. They have been detailed in granite with a multi-tiered fountain in the upper bowl and with four bronze lion-heads spouting water from the fountain bowl down into the lower pool. There is a lily-pad themed pond cover which has been finished in a verdigris colour, which will in time match the patina of the lion-head water spouts and the copper lanterns which are suspended from the entrance archways. The fountains are surrounded by a paved seating area. There are four granite benches and the lower pool surround also provides seating opportunities.

Principles
One of the design principles was to use a simple palette of hard landscape materials that complement the built form and respect the historic setting in order to create a calm, harmonious and accessible communal space.

The simplicity of the hard landscape palette also provides a foil for the planting. The principle behind the planting design was to create an ornate framework of low box-hedges and topiary interplanted with bulbs and evergreen herbaceous plants, providing a succession of interest throughout the year. Safety is a priority. The fountain water is filtered and treated with UV light. The pond cover is designed to prevent potential accidents and adequate lighting will guide people through the space during the hours of darkness.

Inspiration
The very formal layout of the fountain courtyard and the dominance of topiary with railings and entrance archways was a distillation of some of the design concept of the various existing gardens within the historic grounds of Balls Park. The detailing of the entrance archways closely follows the design motifs of the existing formal gates to the rear gardens of the Balls Park Mansion. The four Magnolia grandiflora standard trees within the fountain courtyard echo the mature wall specimens adjacent to the Mansion. The central fountain and seating area makes reference to the communal well, which traditionally would have formed a focus within the centre of a settlement