Nottingham’s popular Green Heart has picked up a prestigious national accolade.
The city-centre space, which opened in September last year, topped the Landscape and Public Realm Project category at last night’s Architects’ Journal (AJ) Architect Awards 2025 (27 November).
Judges had visited Nottingham two months ago for a site visit of the wider Broad Marsh area, which has undergone a major transformation in the past few years.
In handing out the award, they said the Green Heart ‘breathes Nottingham’, highlighting the ‘remarkably transformative effect of the landscape, which re-energises the city centre with a beautiful and biodiverse public space’.
As well as this space, Nottingham City Council has also opened a new Central Library and Broad Marsh bus station and car park. Nearby Collin Street has been turned from a traffic-choked, three-lane road into a quiet pedestrianised space with children’s play area.
Additionally, Sussex Street next to Nottingham College has been given a makeover with seating areas, landscaping and a new basketball court and skate park.
The submission, put in by Townshend Landscape Architects who worked on these projects with the council, highlighted:
- The council’s Big Conversation consultation on what the public and businesses wanted to see in the space – this attracted more than 3,000 individual responses and 11,000 comments
- How the Green Heart design and implementation put the ‘marsh back in Broad Marsh’ – a key request from members of the public
- Collaboration with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and impact of bringing more nature into the city centre
- Extent of the positive feedback received from the public since the refurbishment of Sussex Street, opening of the Green Heart, new Central Library and Broad Marsh car park
Judges were impressed at the planting of 34 new trees in an urban environment and the retention of four existing oaks. They noted that the scheme achieves a ‘biodiversity net gain’ score of 438 per cent, which is a measurement of how new developments leave the natural environment in a better state than before.
Councillor Neghat Khan, Leader of Nottingham City Council and Executive Member for Strategic Regeneration, Property and Communications, said: “This is fantastic news and we’re so proud to have been recognised by the judges with such a prestigious national award.
“What we’ve created in partnership with Townshend on the Green Heart, plus the way the wider Broad Marsh area continues to be transformed, is worthy of recognition.
“When we carried out our Big Conversation consultation on the future of the site after it was suddenly handed back to us in 2020, we were continually hearing from people that they wanted more green space in the city centre.
“The Green Heart has since proved extremely popular with residents and visitors to Nottingham. It celebrated its first birthday in September and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has already documented numerous species of insects and small mammals on the site.”
Gary Alden, Senior Associate at Townshend Landscape Architects, said: “We’re proud that the Broad Marsh Public Realm has been recognised with the 2025 AJ Award for Landscape and Public Realm Project – an award that celebrates both its transformation and the collaboration and teamwork behind it.”
More on the AJ Awards can be found here.