Armada Way - Public Realm, Plymouth

Image courtesy of Plymouth City Council

Space LA was privileged to have been involved in Armada Way, such an important redevelopment project for Plymouth.

Along the half‑kilometre route from the railway station to the Hoe, one of the nation’s largest urban play areas sits beside water features — jets, pumps and a rill that runs the full length of the space. The project is expected to act as a catalyst for the city’s future regeneration.

Young families can enjoy play areas with a rich mix of experiences:

• A sandy desert for toddlers, complete with wooden huts, swings and slides.

• The New Lands adventure zone, where children can scale a rocky mountain or explore a pirate shipwreck.

• A water‑play stream, with dancing jets and clever scoops, buckets and weirs for curious young engineers.

• Tree‑top hideouts and climbing challenges, including a giant dodecahedron, cargo nets and swing bars set over soft mulch.

• A sound‑sensory grassland, a gentler space featuring a humming sound stone, tubular chimes, a giant Newton’s cradle and playful windpipes.

Below ground, a complex array of pipes, connectors and tanks supports the sustainable urban drainage system. The rill, a purpose‑built stream running through the site, plays a key role by directing and treating surface water from Armada Way in a way that mirrors natural drainage. Through rain gardens, reed‑bed filtration and underground storage tanks, the system cuts the amount of water entering the sewers by as much as 77%.

Appointed as part of the soft‑landscape team, Space LA sourced high‑quality tree specimens and provided expert guidance and monitoring during their installation or translocation. Whereas the former trees were confined to a one‑metre cube of soil, the new planting enjoys a far healthier foundation thanks to underground crate systems that increase rootable soil volumes. It will be rewarding to see these trees and plants flourish over time.

Images courtesy of Plymouth City Council and One Plymouth