The image for Gloucester Gateway was to build a building, that didn’t look like a building. The new service station on the northbound side of the M5 between J11 and J12 was a leap forward in service station design and engineering. The clients aimed to do something different from the average motorway services. No franchises, no big brands, but instead a sense of where you are - a sense of place; homemade food and farm shops that work hand in glove with small, artisan producers from the local area and beyond. The idea that has been successfully used at the Tebay services in Cumbria for 40 years.
The 4,000m2 state of the art green roof project was designed to disguise the new service station as a part of the landscape. Being a Greenfield site, flanked by the Cotswolds and Robinswood Hill, great care was required to minimise the environmental impact and blend the building into the surrounding countryside. The buildings and petrol filling station are covered by a Sky Garden Biodiverse living roof, designed to encourage local flora and fauna to flourish.
The wildflower seed mix is tailored specifically to the surrounding area and features many wild grasses that are abundant in the region; with wildflowers rich in nectar such as Self Heal, Yellow Rattle, Birdsfoot Trefoil and Meadow Sweet our aim is to support pollinating insects such as bees and preserve the heritage of our UK native wild flora habitats.
The vegetation sits on top of Sky Garden’s rigid 20mm drainage board and filter fleece. The 110mm specialist substrate supports the natural growth of the selected regional wildflower and grass mix. After seeding, the brown roof took time to develop but now the roof is looking great and blends into the surroundings as though it was never there.