Narrative: Chalk cliffs
Objective: Ebbsfleet’s chalk cliffs are enhanced and integrated into the public realm while inspiring the hard materials and planting strategies of the Garden City.
The site’s history of chalk quarries is well documented and the quarrying activity has resulted in a series of exposed chalk cliffs in the existing landscape. The chalk cliffs vary in their level of exposure and height, but the cliffs are characterised by a consistent colour and texture.
Chalk cliffs along Blue Lake
A summary of potential ways to incorporate the existing presence of chalk into the public realm is as follows:
The use of quarried chalk or local by-products such as flint within the material palette of the public realm.
The shaping of views and the enhancement of the existing chalk cliffs within the public realm.
The use of chalky white concrete as a key design feature within the material and paving palette
The use of distinctive forms that reference the horizontal layers (texture) of the chalk cliffs for concrete walls, or reflect the undulating layout
The use of trees with white bark, such as birch trees, to pick up on the white colour of the chalk cliffs.
