From Broadgate to the studio garden and experimental earth construction, Tom Greenall and Nicole Abernethy of DSDHA explore how testing ideas at different scales can turn landscape, biodiversity and material innovation into everyday practice.

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Tom Greenall and Nicole Abernethy at Exchange Square, a new public park for the City of London, suspended above the tracks of Liverpool Street Station

Our landscape and public realm framework for Broadgate in the City of London fundamentally shaped our approach to architecture. A series ofshort-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions across the estate allowed usto demonstrate the benefits of landscape improvements to health, wellbeing and tenant satisfaction, as well as commercial office rates and retail spaceviability. This gave the client the confidence to invest in a transformational scheme for Exchange Square, which is credited with accelerating the post-COVID return to work in Broadgate.

Our garden offers opportunities for horticultural learning and experimentation, and has been used to train the studio in strategies for biodiversity enhancement and how to calculate urban greening factor – lessons that havebeen directly applied to our projects. We made the decision to install toiletsthat are accessed externally to give everyone the opportunity for regularbreaks outdoors. Planting prioritises pollinating species and growing seasonalproduce that is used in our weekly studio lunch.

Our current research, developed with Webb Yates and Atelier Ten, pioneers the use of earth in construction. From warranties to carbon calculations, so much thinking in the construction industry is predicated on 30-50-year lifespans, yet loadbearing earth buildings can last more than 700 years and be more than 25-metres high. Building with earth is underrated despite the fact even simple adobe blocks can be made to reach the strength of medium-density cement blocks simply by increasing the sand content. We aim to become the first UK practice to use earth blocks as an alternative to blockwork in a fire-rated construction between two separate spaces.

Tom Greenall and Nicole Abernethy
DSDHA
London, SE11

Buildings.

All photographs in the Reinventing Practice series will be on show at Regenerative Design 2026,  a month-long programme of exhibitions and events that takes place at the Building Centre throughout October 2026.