SKY Grant Way
A New Threshold into the Sky Campus.
Location: London, UK
Client: SKY Plc
Year: 2023
Site Area: 0.7 hectares
Grant Way forms the principal arrival route into the Sky campus and plays a pivotal role in redefining how people first encounter the workplace. Formerly a vehicle-dominated street, the client asked for Grant Way to be transformed into a welcoming, people-first landscape that signals a clear shift in values—away from infrastructure-led design and towards a campus shaped by landscape. The redesign reframes arrival as an experience rather than a transaction, creating a generous threshold between city, campus, and buildings. As the primary approach to the Innovation Centre and a key connector to BiBB Plaza and the wider campus, Grant Way establishes legibility, coherence, and a strong sense of place from the moment of entry.
From Street to Shared Landscape
The design reimagines Grant Way as a shared, slow-moving environment where pedestrians take priority and movement is intuitive rather than controlled. Hard surfaces are deliberately reduced in favour of planted areas that soften the space and create a calmer, more human-scaled experience. Direct, legible routes guide people safely through the street while allowing flexibility for service access and everyday campus life. Planting plays a central role in reshaping the character of the street, with trees, rain gardens, and layered vegetation replacing the visual dominance of cars and kerbs. Materials are robust yet understated, chosen to align with the wider campus palette and to support long-term durability while allowing the landscape to mature and evolve.
Living Infrastructure and Everyday Wellbeing
Beyond its role as an arrival route, Grant Way functions as a piece of living infrastructure within the campus. Extensive planting and soft landscape contribute to urban cooling, improved air quality, and increased biodiversity, while rain gardens and permeable surfaces help manage surface water and reduce runoff during heavy rainfall. The street supports informal pause as well as movement, with seating and planted edges offering moments of rest and social interaction throughout the day. In transforming Grant Way from a traffic corridor into a green, inhabitable landscape, the project demonstrates how streets can become places of wellbeing, connection, and care. It reinforces the campus’s wider transformation into a landscape-led workplace—one where arrival is not defined by vehicles and barriers, but by trees, planting, and a clear invitation to enter, slow down, and belong.
