Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice - Featured Project

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Located in north London, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice or The Ark, provides compassionate palliative care to over 400 families per year. Designed by architects Squire & Partners, The Ark was delivered in 2019 by a collaborative team including 8build, Bauder plus more. As budget was key, many professionals worked either pro bono or not-for-profit.

Set in a stunning 7 and a half-acre nature park and run by specialists in soothing pediatric care, The Ark was carefully designed to be a haven of calm and comfort. A center oak-framed hall connects the four ‘wings’ of the building which evolved into the butterfly shaped plan – the symbol of the children’s hospice movement, depicting a brief but beautiful life. With a flourishing native wildflower meadow in the sky, the Biosolar greenroof - the first community funded in the UK - was designed by Dusty Gedge and installed & maintained by Bridgman & Bridgman to support wildlife while producing renewable energy. The Bauder BioSOLAR integrated mounting system is made stable by greenroof layering and vegetation, removing the need for penetrating the waterproofing to secure the mounting units to the roof. The angle the panels are set at allows the vegetation beneath to thrive, which includes wildflowers, sedums, and colonized grasses. This is the first time the Small Blue Butterfly has been noted on a greenroof in London – no doubt because of its food source, Kidney Vetch. The distance between the panel arrays is 1000 millimeters, and behind them is a mound 150 millimeters deep and in front only 50 millimeters deep. The Ark’s 171 solar panels were funded by Energy 4 All, a community co-op, saving over 84,000 pounds in energy costs over a 20-year period. Extending nature down from the greenroof, landscaped gardens were carved into each of the four sides to create views into the surrounding nature reserve, all with fully wheelchair accessible paths.

The many social landscape spaces include the Entrance Garden, a welcoming, beautiful, terraced landscape to socialize & reflect; the Staff Terrace, a respite for caregivers; the Horticultural Garden, with raised accessible planter beds for gardening; the Sensory Garden with plants and flowers with interesting textures, colors and aromas + sensory play instruments; and the Children’s Sensory Trail which passes around the Butterfly Meadow, Wildlife Ponds and Bluebell Wood. Bauder revisited the site in spring 2025 and introduced additional plug planting species and created sand piles and log piles to assist with increased biodiversity on the biosolar roof. Healing landscapes both atop the living roof and on the ground attract native wildlife and create a vibrant, naturalized landscape for deserving families. A restorative, safe, and fun place to stimulate the senses, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice is a beautiful and fully integrated biodiverse site.

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Greenroofs.com Featured Project 9/3/25: Video credits: © Squire & Partners by David Morris and Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. Photo credits: Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, Bauder, Bridgman & Bridgman, Dusty Gedge.