Center Parcs: New Holidays, New Environments

Bicycles are the favoured transport in Center Parcs.

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Center Parcs is at the forefront of sustainable tourism in the UK offering year round forest holidays and short breaks which allow people to get away from it all and engage with nature. This unique environment allows guests to stay, walk and cycle in the forest and enjoy the activities on offer at the holiday villages.

The villages are established in large forest areas which form the setting for lodges, lakes, outdoor play and activities, indoor sports facilities, restaurants and shops. The rich forest environment is a key characteristic of Center Parcs and one that LDA Design has played a critical role in achieving, working with ecologists and in directing design teams.

We have been working with Center Parcs since our early work at Longleat when we were appointed to masterplan, secure planning approval and develop the design for the Longleat holiday village. Our diverse skills were invaluable in selecting the site; appraising the woodland; preparing the masterplan; conducting a visual impact assessment; devising landscape protection proposals and taking the scheme to detailed design and implementation. Longleat Center Parcs opened in 1994, after a major public inquiry for which we provided key evidence.

We are leading the masterplan for a new Center Parcs at Woburn, where architecture, site layout and detailed design development are driven by the stringent sustainable design standards. Integrated design responses are established in the masterplan, which received planning approval after an extensive public inquiry. We have taken the Woburn proposal from site selection, developed the masterplan with the client's operations team; co-ordinated the Environmental Statement and planning submission and given evidence at public inquiry to secure permission for this Green Belt site.

Woburn has been designed to accommodate new technologies, allowing it to adapt to new energy sources as they become available, to lessen its dependency on fossil fuels incorporating measures such as extensive sustainable drainage systems (SUDS), ensuring Center Parcs works with the forest to retain and extend its high sustainability and environmental standards.