London Wilds - Rewilding Architecture Design Think Tank LSA

London Wilds

Maurizio Mucciola, Maria-Chiara Piccinelli Vincent Chan, Ben Griffiths, Kathryn Goligher, Ross Langtree, Theo Shack, Lucia Toribio, Luke Upton

Contents 2

WHY WILDING?

50

A CATALYST FOR URBAN WILDING

4

Rewilding: a Definition

52

Approach

6

Wilding + Rewilding

56

Programme

10

Existing Condition

58

Site Evolution

12

Aims

76

Workshop

82

Propagation

16

STRATEGY

88

Education + Engagement

18

Catalysing Urban Wilding

98

Experiential

20

London + Londoners

104

Residency

22

Crossroads Site

112

Exploration

24

Lea Valley

120

Culinary Wilds

26

Key Species of the Lea

30

Hackney Marshes

130

OUTREACH + IMPACT

34

Site History

132

Shed on Wheels

38

Concrete on Site

138

Impact

40

Learning from Beavers

140

Wilded Attitudes

44

Collaborators

142

Wilding the City

46

Constraints + Opportunities

148

Wilding Design Process

48

Design Parameters

“I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied” - Sea Fever, John Mansfield

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Why Wilding?

Rewilding: a Definition

4

Wilding + Rewilding

6

Existing Condition

10

Aims

12

3

A Global Picture Rewilding has the potential to be a powerful tool to address some of the critical problems of this century from mass urbanisation, to loss of biodiversity, changing weather

11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

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patterns, and climate change.

Touching on these themes, this Think Tank aims to specifically tackle the following UN Sustainability Goals:

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

15. Promoting a sustainable use of our ecosystems and preserving biodiversity is not a cause. It is the key to our own survival.1

Rewilding: a Definition Rewilding is the mass restoration of ecosystems, expanding and establishing areas of self-willed land of all scales and types with a view to enriching ecosystem health, complexity, and biodiversity.

This is best achieved by setting up the conditions for natural processes to then take the reins, often through a trophic process, the reintroduction of highly interactive, keystone, species.

Humans are a keystone species.

There is no defined end point for rewilding. The aim is to support nature-driven processes and enjoy the thrilling and enriching effect they can have on our planet and on our lives, allowing us to be re-enchanted with the natural world of which we are part and upon which we depend for our survival.2

‘We’re trying to create a better world here... a world which is richer in wildlife, but also richer for human life, richer in experience and possibility’

- George Monbiot

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Wilding + Rewilding The terms wilding and rewilding are used interchangeably throughout this publication but it is important to establish an understanding of their meanings.

In general discourse, academic and amateur, the term rewilding has become commonplace. It is the term around which a wide-ranging movement has coalesced and, as such, it has been the starting point for our research. However, there are problems with the ‘re’ in rewilding. It implies a return to a previous state or situation of wildness. The idea of restoration to pre-human states is unreasonable, and potentially undesirable, in places that have seen thousands of years of concentrated human activity such as London.

Furthermore its logical conclusion suggests the removal, or at least reduction, of the human engagement with the natural world. The dubious sense that the wild sits outside the human, wild is good whilst human is bad, exacerbates the problem rather than addresses it. The more we can do to redress this balance the better.3 In this sense the term ‘rewilding’ can by deceptive, and ‘wilding’ may be much more useful, suggesting progress toward a future condition of ‘wildness’ incorporating the human element.

Along with much of the rewilding community we see humans not as the problem but as the seed of a new solution. 4

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There is an extensive history and record of people living and working symbiotically in biodiverse landscapes which provide for both humans and a whole host of animals and plants.5 In our search for a ‘wilder’ London, these are the kinds of places we are taking conceptual inspiration from.

“Humans are a part of nature, not apart from it.” - The Bioneers 11 Complexity and mystery A core part of rewilding that we continue to explore is the acknowledgement of complexity, and a certain amount of mystery, inherent to the natural world. Hence the ‘letting go’ element of wilding.6 The criteria by which we assess our success at stewarding the landscape greatly informs the means by which we steward. Typically, our measure of success has been, and remains, either financial (how can I gain the greatest monetary yield from this land) or, in traditional conservation, the population of certain indicator species, a particular bird or the degree to which the landscape remains unchanged (the clue being in the word conservation).

Part of the issue with traditional conservation and ecology is that in concentrating on what is empirically and factually definable.

We have attempted to control

Oostvaardersplassen

Palayan Rice Terraces, Phillipines

A 56 square kilometres area of the Netherlands has been set aside for rewilding. The controversial aspect of this scheme was in allowing the animals to die in winter in the open, leaving corpses on the site to support the whole spectrum of carrion animals and fungi. Protests by animal rights groups eventually forced a greater level of human intervention in the site.12

An example of a biodiverse, complex and productive landscape which is the result of thousands of years of human activity. The agricultural system here and elsewhere makes use of close interdependencies between different species, for example, rice, fish, and ducks. These biodiverse, landscapes exist in various climates across the world and show how humans can act as a keystone species, bringing benefits and biodiversity.13

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the environment in order to make it meet our targets, xm2 of open heathland in the next six years.7 Rewilding is process, as opposed to goal, orientated. Complexity is the rule, and in highly complex systems, such as a natural landscape amidst changing patterns of weather and inhabitation, there is a constant flux.

The context is continuously altering, and the interrelationships between the animal, microbial, fungal, and plant life are so complex that we cannot always define causality. Complexity calls for a degree of humility, we certainly don’t know everything, so there is no point in pretending, our tunnel vision in this regard can often causes unintended consequences.

As an example, on the West Coast of America attempts to protect the turtle caused the culling of crayfish, which in turn led to an explosion of rats along with other pests etc.8 The relationships within an ecosystem are deep, we have only recently begun to appreciate the fact that trees can communicate to one

another by means of mitochondrial fibres living in symbiosis with them, and can send nutrients to one another in distress.9 Unexpected things can often occur, for example the most effective way of increasing a population of a particular herbivore might be the introduction of its natural predator, ironically enough.10 An increasing awareness of the interweaving of natural systems calls for a certain degree of laissez-faire attitudes. This is what the wilding part of ‘rewilding’ is all about allowing space for others to act - not because we only ever mess things up but because we are part of the system, not an external actor.

If we want to ensure our continual survival as a species we need to appreciate that we sit interdependently within the rest of the world. This requires taking a step back in order to learn, and from there an increased love and respect for our world that allows us to responsibly interact in a fruitful, mature and mutually beneficial way.

Rewilding often involves challenging our perceptions of what we see as beautiful - Isabella Tree 14

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Knepp Farm, Sussex A key case study for rewilding in action.

3,500 acres of former arable land returned to a mozaic patchwork of scrubland, woodland and wetland by removing fences and allowing natural processes to dominate. Much has been learnt about natural processes from this case study, which also draws visitors and researchers from far and wide.15

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Existing Condition Currently, there are widespread issues with our relationship to the planetary ecosystem, even problems with the habitats we have engineered for ourselves, which fail to adequately meet our needs.

56% of species in the UK are in decline and 15% are threatened with extinction. A combination of the loss of pollinators and the degradation of our topsoil is even threatening the

This paints a picture of a dysfunctional relationship between humans and the natural environment, raising the question of how we can begin to restore it.

Londoners can identify

Since the 1970s the area in which children may roam without supervision has

only 1%

decreased by 90%.16

of edible

plants growing in city17

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sustainability of human food sources.

Meanwhile peak temperature increases are exacerbating the urban heat island effect eroding the habitability of our cities.

Average night-time temperature is approx

4°C higher in the city centre23 Less than 10% of children regularly play in wild places, a decline from over half of children a generation ago.20 In the UK, 20% of plants are at risk of extinction, 15% of fungi and lichens, 40% of vertebrates,

12% of invertebrates19

41% of UK species declined since 1970 18

1 in 7 species in

Flying insect numbers in Europe have declined by 75% in the last 27 years.22

UK are threatened with extinction21

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Dundreggan Wilding Estate Dundreggan tree nursery is the centre of Trees for Life, a charity established with the aim of restoring the Ancient Caledonian Forests of the Highlands.

The tree nursery here acts as a hub propagating 60,000 trees per year for rewilding the estate and Great Glen

as a whole. The centre gathers seeds and graftings from trees over a wide geographical area with an emphasis on rarer species, these are propagated in both polytunnels and open air before being planted out all across the estate to kick start the wilding process and re-establish woodland.

Lichen is a symbiosis Lichen is neither a plant nor a fungi, but rather a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. It appears and works in a completely different way from either one by themselves, and only exists as a product of this symbiosis of two or more partners, all working together.

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Survival of the fittest most symbiotic

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Aims At a high level our project aims to catalyse a series of attitude changes that will lead to a restoration of our human responsibility for the environment.

This is achieved through two key strands: Love of surroundings Personal, physical, and intimate encounters with wilded areas is required to engender a love of place. In contrast with the abstract love of ‘nature’ in general, perhaps drawn from TV programmes, the specificity of love of a particular place is important, and begets the attitudes needed to try and restore our relationship with the planet.

Understanding natural processes Through education, learning about how natural processes work, we can understand how we relate to them, how we rely upon them. We can then learn how to be more aware of

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our actions and interactions with the natural world.

Both of these strands lead to an attitude wherein we are not outside of the ecosystem, we realise that we depend on the plants, insects, animals, microbes, and fungi that surround us, and as a result have a role to play in enhancing habitats for them as a whole. Passion for place and a deep understanding lead to us assuming responsibility for our environment and our place within the ecosystem.

Fundamentally this is a realisation of symbiosis. Through prolonged and emphatic physical encounters with wilder places in the natural world the wilds become part of us. This leads us to see the human relationship with the environment not as dominant but as interdependent: symbiosis.

Symbiosis: a relationship between two types of animal or plant in which each provides for the other the conditions necessary for its continued existence.

Symbiosis

Awareness that we are not outside the ecosystem

Assume Responsibility

Love of surroundings

Knowledge of nature

Restore our relationship with the environment

15

“Think global, act local” - Patrick Geddes

16

Strategy Catalysing Urban Wilding

18

London + Londoners

20

Crossroads Site

22

Lea Valley

24

Key Species of the Lea

26

Hackney Marshes

30

Site History

34

Concrete on Site

38

Learning from Beavers

40

Collaborators

44

Constraints + Opportunities

46

Design Parameters

48

17

Catalysing Urban Wilding Our proposal is not about designing exactly how London can and will rewild, but rather the design of a centre that can catalyse the process of wilding in London as a whole.

In the same way that the Tate Modern is a civic institution for the celebration of modern art, the London Wilds is to be a place that celebrates wilding. A place to bring friends, family, parents, colleagues to encounter these very important ideas, learn the principals and experience in a first-hand, immersive, way what wilding could be. It is a place that will guide and inspire visitors to ask “what can I do personally to reconnect myself with the wild world and it with me?”

Urban catalyst.

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It is a place to see examples of prototyped ‘rewilded’ architecture: a wilded home and office and retrofit existing buildings all with the aim of supporting diverse habitats for other creatures and plants amidst human habitation.

The centre is to act as a catalyst, seeding both ideas and discourse around rewilding, as well as the literal tools with which to begin the process. Research and education will enrich the discourse around rewilding whilst also acting to wild local attitudes. Empowering communities will enable the physical rewilding of London demonstrating how cities can be both human habitats as well as a biodiverse natural ecosystem.

Objectives Increase passion for and understanding of our environment.

Increase biodiversity.

Connect people with natural patterns: seasons, weather, decay and renewal.

Strategies Buildings that create habitat for many creatures and plants, not only humans.

Access to self-willed wilds for exploring, learning, and gathering.

Architecture that is tactile, salvaged, and responds to seasons and weather.

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Rewilding people and place Monbiot introduces two key strands to understanding the principle of rewilding. That of rewilding places: restoring the complexity of ecosystems. And rewilding people: getting us more immersed in the wild, places, plants and ideas. This think tank seeks to explore how these can work in the context of London.

Rewilding London Areas of London, varying in scale from the park to the lawn to the window ledge, become wilded by communities made aware of their environmental responsibility.

Rewilding is a process and not an outcome. As a keystone species, changing the ways that we interact with the environment will have a dramatic impact on other species.

There is no true end goal, but the increase in the distribution, diversity, and complexity of wild processes going on in the city at all scales will in time create richer habitat for all sorts of wildlife, ourselves included. A city that we might be proud of living in.

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Less than 10% of children regularly play in wild places, a decline from over half of children a generation ago.24

Playing in natural outdoors places stimulates creativity.25

Rewilding Londoners Through an increased awareness of the ways that nature works and a passion for wilder places Londoners’ attitudes to the way they interact with the natural world can change.

With this, the values by which we make decisions about the buildings we design, food we eat, or what we choose to give our time and energy to can shift. We see this gradual conversion of people’s relationship to the world as fundamental to creating a richer, wilder and more sustainable city.

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Crossroads Site With a view to exploring the idea of symbiosis between humans and their environment, we have chosen a site which sits at a crossroads. On the one hand very much urban, on the other very much part of the corridor of natural spaces that form the Lea Valley coming into London.

The site sits just to the North of Hackney marshes and between two urban areas: Hackney to its west and Waltham Forest to its east.

A former Thames Water Depot, the site is concreted over and is a

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hinterland, being neither a functioning part of the city nor the Lea Valley.

Fenced off; the site is impermeable and hard edged, it is an obstacle to be negotiated whether approached by people or by animals.

As a crossroads, it is the perfect location to explore how we can integrate both wildlife and human functions to create a symbiotic piece of urbanism. Weaving these needs more closely together to showcase how we can wild both place and people together within a city.

Interweaving.

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Lea Valley The Lea valley forms a corridor of natural open space that extends from outside of London deep into the city.

It acts as an important wild corridor, connecting habitats in London with the open countryside. Reservoirs such as the Walthamstow Wetlands flank the River Lea, forming an important part of London’s potable water system. Passing through the Hackney marshes, the Lea meanders through the recently regenerated Queen Elizabeth Park at the former Olympic site before terminating at the River Thames.

Lea Valley growers produce over 80

million cucumbers and 70 million peppers a year, around 75% of the UK crop.26

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River Lea

Haringey

Site

Waltham Forest

Newham Hackney

Tower Hamlets

25

Key Species of the Lea The trees found within the Lea will become the basis for the seed bank.

Using species already established in this urban environment, whether native or non-native, will ensure they have the greatest chance of flourishing when planted out.

Trees will be used as part of the education programme, to help people develop a better understanding of the wide variety of uses that they have, as well as the methods of caring for and planting out across London.

Tree name: birch Wildlife benefited: insects, fungi, holenesting birds Uses: furniture production, bark used for tanning leather

Tree name: ash Wildlife benefited: wild flowers, insects, birds, lesser stag beetle, dormice, lichens and mosses, caterpillars and moths Uses: making tools, furniture, food, herbal medicine, car frames, firewood, charcoal

Tree name: black poplar Wildlife benefited: caterpillars, bees and other insects, birds Uses: floorboards, artificial limbs, pallets, shelving

Tree name: cedar Wildlife benefited: invertebrates, small animals, tawny owl, bats Uses: buildings, essential oil, cough medicines, ointments and antiseptic, insect repellent

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Tree name: hawthorn Wildlife benefited: insects, dormice, bees, birds Uses: boat parts, tools, firewood, charcoal, food

Tree name: plane Wildlife benefited: grey squirrels, birds Uses: resistant to pollution (roadside planting), wood used for veneers

Tree name: willow (osier) Wildlife benefited: caterpillars, bees and other insects, birds Uses: basket making and weaving, screens, sculptures, planted to ’clean up’ contaminated waste ground

Tree name: sorbus Wildlife benefited: caterpillars, moths, insects, birds Uses: tannery, furniture, craft work, edible berries

Tree name: willow (white) Wildlife benefited: caterpillars, insects, birds Uses: medicinal

Tree name: oak Wildlife benefited: insects, birds, mammals, invertebrates, birds, bats Uses: timber used as flooring and firewood, medicinal, tanning leather

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The site primarily aims to attract local demographics from Hackney, in terms both of using the site and helping to run it. It shall also aim to reach people across the rest of London who do not typically live a ‘wilded life’. The project will seek to protect the existing animals whilst working to increase the biodiversity of the Lea Valley as well as the rest of London.

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children

office workers

dog walkers

elderly

leisure

neighbours

bittern

kingfisher

sparrowhawk

brown long-eared bat

water vole

stoat

red belted clearwing

stag beetle

red eyed damselfly

barbel

eel

roach

29

Hackney Marshes

Site Access Barriers

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A large area of open land sitting between the Eastern edge of Hackney and the Lea River. Formerly a real marshland, the land here has been filled in over time, especially following the Second World War when rubble from the Blitz was deposited across the marsh.

The vast majority of the land is used for recreational sport with 82 football, rugby and cricket pitches on huge grass fields. To the East, a hard barrier is formed by the railway lines, and at the Western edge, the Lea Navigation Canal forms a defined edge between the marshes and urban Hackney. The Marshes are split through to the North and South by two major roads: the A104 and the A12.

Site visit.

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32

Site photos.

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Site History

Aerial photograph, 1945.

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The history of the site as it currently exists begins with the construction of the No.2 Essex Filter Beds in the early 1850s by the East London Waterworks Company, a private enterprise supplying much of East London’s potable water. An aqueduct constructed 1852-3 brought water into the site from the Old Coppermill to the North. Two significant pumping engines, the Prince + Princess and Triples Engines, were housed on site in elaborately detailed Victorian Engine Houses. All that remains of this rich industrial heritage today are the two boiler sheds, corresponding to the two engines, as well as the ‘Engineers House’ the main administrative building on the site. The octagonal sluice / turbine house, located adjacent to the Weir also survives.

The site was later superseded by the current waterworks at Coppermill, and closed in 1971-2, having supplied water for over 264 years.

An experimental scheme dating to 1975 pumps water back into the underground strata via functioning well heads on site.27 Despite its designation as Metropolitan Open Land the site was later turned into a depot by Thames Water, the filter beds infilled in the 1980s.

Heritage of the No.2 Essex Filter Beds.

The site was sold to the Education Skills Funding Agency, the current owners of the site, for the construction of a free school and academy.28

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Site Narrative Rewilding in a rural context typically aims to actively return a piece of land to a pre-human state. This pre-human state varies depending on the context, as an example Carrifran Wildwood in Scotland arrived at a restoration date of 6000 years ago.29 By contrast rewilding in an urban context must mean acknowledging the prevalent human presence. We don’t propose to return the site to a previous condition, but rather to encourage a shared habitation amalgamating the urban and wild conditions, a new form of symbiotic coexistence.

The proposal works with the industrial history of the site, integrating existing infrastructure, buildings, and materials. The wilding of the site will be gradual, to allow for the growth of trees and natural establishment of key species. This accretive approach allows for experimentation and refinement to the level of human interference.

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The site is categorised as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL).

The Mayor of London states that: “MOL has an important role to play as part of London’s multifunctional green infrastructure and the Mayor is keen to see improvements in its overall quality and accessibility. Such improvements are likely to help human health, biodiversity and quality of life.”30 Neither Thames Water nor the ESFA propose a use appropriate to MOL. The Education Skills Funding Agency, who own the site, have proposed a primary and secondary school, designed by Jestico + Whiles. Save the Lea Marshes, a local campaign group, propose an alternative vision for the site to be transformed into a wild swimming destination with the majority of the site rewilded and brought back into the Lea Valley proper.

London Wilds proposes to further the vision of Save the Lea Marshes, combining the MOL vision with rewiliding theory.

‘The site is Metropolitan Open Land and should be returned to the people of East London as a place for wild swimming and a place where people learn to live harmoniously with nature through small-scale food growing or sustainable foraging.

Pre-Human state.

It should be rewilded, with the built environment reclaimed by nature in some places and landscaping and planting in others.’25 - Save The Lea Marshes Industrial state.

Proposed school, Education Funding Agency.31

Current state.

?

Wild swimming, Save the Lea Marshes.32

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A Concrete Approach Much of the former depot site is covered with concrete, in places this sits atop rubble used to infill the former filter beds.

As a strategy to deal with this, we intend to gradually remove pieces of concrete, salvaging the material to use for new buildings on the site in the form of ‘drystone walls’, gabion walls, and as aggregate in new concrete, alongside rammed earth and timber construction.

By removing the concrete in stages, we intend to allow for natural forces to carry on the process as kick-started by us. In this instance trees and plants, both self-seeded and planted, will be able to grow in the gaps in the concrete gradually breaking up the surface further

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through their roots. This has the advantage of increasing the range of habitats on the site and thus biodiversity by providing conditions for a greater variety of soil depths and substrates, nutrient levels, and improved water tables.

Research has shown that some of the most biodiverse habitats in the UK, can now be found on formerly industrial; ‘brown-field’ land. This is in part due to the variety of soil depths and types that they support, but also because of their nutrient-deprived, well-drained nature, which makes them challenging for one particular plant to dominate. Concreted sites can support a whole host of different grasses, flowers, pollinators and invertebrates.

Umnutzung Alter Flugplatz Maurice Rose Airfield - Public Space, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2006 Subtle landscape intervention by the City of Frankfurt to turn the Old Bonames military aerodrome into a publicly accessible park. As part of a broader strategy, the thick concrete that formed the former runway was broken up and then left in place as large chunks to accelerate the natural take over of the site. The effect was to make a water-permeable, faceted surface that was then populated by many plants and animals in a manner similar to rocky natural habitats.

Elsewhere, the rubble has been used in gabion walls to form way-markers and seating.

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Learning from Beavers Keystone Species Through conversations with the ecologist Jonathon Prior from Cardiff University, we established that this site presented the perfect opportunity for reintroducing beavers. Beavers are an extraordinary animal and they have widespread effects on biodiversity and habitat creation.

Until about five hundred years ago, beavers were a key part of our nation’s wildlife, however, they have been largely extinct in the UK until their recent reintroduction and redesignation as a native species.33 Beaver have been introduced already in a number of trial sites across the UK and studied quite intensively, the most comprehensive study being the River Otter beaver trial in Devon, where beavers were discovered already in the wild and, following campaigning, it was agreed to study their effects instead of exterminating them.34 See figure opposite.

Biodiversity Multiplier Upon arrival in a new habitat, beavers work to engineer that habitat to suit their needs. They will cut down branches and dam up small streams in order to slow water flow and create the pools that they need in order to build their dens. However, in engineering the habitat to suit their needs, as a keystone species, their actions also have a series of knock-on benefits for whole hosts of

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dependent wildlife and the ecosystem as a whole.35 This is because the slow-moving pools of water create the perfect habitat for fish to spawn, and insects and amphibians to breed, especially dragonfly and damselfly. Studies of beaver reintroductions have found fourfold increases in biodiversity, more fish, bees, frogs and the return of endangered species to a habitat.

This is also because the environment that beavers gradually create is one of the most biodiverse on these isles – wetlands, or wet woodland.

Over the course of a few metres of such a habitat, you can travel from deep river water, to seasonal marsh, to puddles, grasses, mosses and tree canopies. 36 Beyond this, the beaver’s work has benefits for people living nearby also, particularly in terms of drought resilience and flood prevention.

The slowing of water throughout a habitat will gradually re-saturate the ground around, restoring the water table and increasing the capacity of the area to store water. Acting like a giant sponge, beaver habitats mitigate the worst effects of heavy rainfall by storing water and letting it out slowly.

Studies show peak water flows in storm events being 30% lower downstream from beavers. Moreover, the dams filter out sediment and pollution, naturally cleaning the water course and creating healthier habitats downstream as well.37

Biodiversity increases 300%

Return of endangered wildlife

50% Increase in plant species

Insect life increases 600%

Habitat creation

Peak storm flows 30% lower

Sediment and pollution filtered

Flood prevention

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Ecosystem Engineer Through studying the way that beavers have altered landscapes, we drew up a hypothetical scenario exploring how beavers work to transform a small stream network into a wetland over time. When a beaver pair builds a dam, they cause a slowing and pooling of water behind it, but also the creation of new streamlets that skirt round the dam as the water searches for alternative routes. In a flat landscape, such as our own, the raising of the water level in the pooling can stretch back into the watercourse upstream, causing the stream to overspill its banks and new waterways to be formed. Over successive generations, provided there is enough wood nearby, younger beavers will travel upstream to build their own dams elsewhere in the vicinity, repeating the process. Over time, this allows a wet woodland habitat to form.38 A pattern of heavy rainfall may wash a dam away, but this will be then rebuilt by the beavers in a new way, relevant to the changing watercourses. This sequence of destruction and renewal keeps the habitat always changing and diverse.

Hypothetical evolution of wet woodland habittat based on study of beavers.

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How is a Human like a Beaver?

In studying the beavers, parallels can be drawn with the way that humans act within the ecosystem. Key to this realisation is the acceptance that humans act, not outside of the system, but embedded within it.

Humans are natural.

In a similar manner to beavers humans engineer the ecosystem to suit them, we are keen to explore how this engineering can provide more opportunities for other wildlife too, acting in the same way as the beaver as a biodiversity multiplier.

Traditional building techniques where humans provide habitats for plants, animals and insect: birch bark sod turf roofs and dry stone walls.

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Collaborators The process of working with a variety of thinkers, professionals and community leaders allowed the Think Tank to develop a deep appreciation for the complexity of Rewilding.

Early on, while rewilding our own homes, Thames 21 guided us to volunteer with the Stonebridge Lock Coalition, where we built reed-beds for the Lea River. We then attended the ‘Wild about Weeds’ talk at the Cordwainers Grow, a Hackney based community interest company, where we independently learnt about a Shed on Wheels project in which they needed help.

The symposiums have had an element of collaborative design, in parallel with learning from other groups, through feedback and informal pub discussions.

Working with PiM Studio, led to engagement with a number of academics, professionals and community groups. Morgan Taylor

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took us through current green infrastructure technology and appropriate planting for London’s microclimate. Dr. Jonathan Prior went on to teach us about the aesthetics of modified environments, introducing the Beaver and its role as an ecosystem engineer.

Anna Souter set the tone for the project to be a social enterprise and emphasized the idea of unlearning our relationship with nature. Jon Burke connected Hackney Council’s ambitious tree planting strategy and their value of green infrastructure to our propagation and education programme. Finally, Kirsty Badenboch used her extensive design experience to critique the representation and substance of our proposal. When meeting these collaborators, we had the opportunity to share our work, and appreciate the multiplicity of characters and roles involved with ideas of rewilding.

2 2

6

3 1

4

2 4 1

DTT

5

1

3

Direct Influence 3

4 5

Indirect Influence

1.

2.

3.

4.

Academic Module Leader - Will Hunter Other DTT’s Symposium Panel Human Geographer - Dr. Jonathan Prior

1.

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3.

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Professional DTT Leader - PiM Studio Greengage Infrastructure - Morgan Taylor Landscape Designer - Kirsty Badenboch Farm and Seasonal Restaurant - Free Company DTT Practice Network Ecology Writer and Curator - Anna Souter

1.

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3.

4.

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Community Based Cordwainers Grow - Debbie Mitchener Hackney Council - Jon Burke Save the Lea Marshes - Abigail Woodman Stonebridge Lock Coalition - Frances Dismore Thames 21 - John Bryden

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Constraints + Opportunities

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Existing buildings on site to be reused Historic rubble and concrete on site to be reused as building material Noise from Lea Bridge Road Water directed through site to create beaver habitat New wildlife and human connections to marshes Historic pump house Existing bridges reopened to give through routes and access Historic hydro weir reinstated as power source Car park for ice rink Salvaged building material on site from demolition Wild swimming in Lea River Prominent views into site from main road Wetlands habitat nearby to tap into Opportunity for beaver introduction

The site is prominent and visible from Lea Bridge Road to the North, which is a noisy through route predominantly for vehicular traffic.

To the east of the site, the old filter beds have become a wetland nature reserve, with lots of bird life occupying the ponds and managed habitats. However, a hard fence boundary along this edge limits accessibility to the wetland reserve whilst paths meet long dead ends.

Tall fences and the Lea River form physical barriers to the site and the rest of the Lea Valley. Three infrastructural bridges cross the river and present opportunities for reintroducing permanent access.

A weir from former mills and a hydro-power station on the river offers opportunity for renewable energy generation on site whilst separating the waters of the Lea from the pollution of the canal, allowing for wild swimming further down the watercourse, The change in water level additionally presents the possibility of introducing a new water channel into our site from above the weir level and allowing the water to pass through the site, bringing with it the potential for a relatively controlled beaver habitat.

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Design Parameters Exploring the interdependence between species the architecture must create shared habitats for animals and plants, including humans, and encourage maximum biodiversity.

The architecture must endeavour to be climate resilient, robust and adaptable to seasonal changes, as well as capable of dealing with catastrophic weather events. Located on an urban river the site must be floodable to act as flood storage for the urban context.

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In search of a carbon negative construction the majority of materials must be salvaged from site, grown, or locally sourced whilst all power must be generated on site.

The architecture must be experiential and tactile to encourage an engaged educational approach to both site and buildings. Connecting with seasons and weather.

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“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

- G. K. Chesterton

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A Catalyst for Urban Wilding Approach

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Programme

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Site Evolution

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Workshop

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Propagation

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Education + Engagement

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Experiential

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Residency

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Exploration

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Culinary Wilds

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London Wilds Lond ndonn Wilds dss is a ceent d ntre re to ccaaatta taly lyse ssee urba ur bann wi wild ldin din ing th ing thro rough ugh ann exp ug xperrie ient ient n iaal eed duc ucattio ion pr prog ogra raam mm me en enco om mp p paassi sing nngg the whhol th olee of of the he Leaa Val a le ley an and d itss urba b n co ontex nttext ext, as we well ellll as tthhe si s te ittsseellf.f Ann outre A uttreeac ach pr p oggrraamm mme fu furttheer brrin b ings gs the h ideeas as, sp pec eciaalliists, stts, s, and nd phhys p y ic ical all pro rodu duct cts of cts of the he Willd dss out ut

tto o a bro oaad der auud der dieenc n e across the hhee city buuildi b dinng di ng on th the he vari vaarious activities ess acrros oss thhe ssiittee.

Thhe bu T b ildi diinnggs o onn the site, as well as th the wild wi ld ded e land anndscape pee, ac a t as experimen e taal t yp ty po olo loggiicaal in insp piirrattion iio o fo or wi w ld ldi din ing iinnte t rvventi enntiio onns annd pr proj oje jec ect elsew ects wheerree.

Approach Going to our site, we started modelling our site using, leaf mulch, plants, wood, and bark. Opposite are stills from the time-lapse video of this process that we put together.

Beginning from the pre-industrial state, we modelled the changes in land use as the area was gradually turned into a water works, before this being concreted over and becoming a depot. Modelling this evolution of the site up to this point helped us to establish principals for how the site might change over time under our proposals into the future.

The concrete surface would first be broken up in places to allow planting to be introduced and a water channel dug through the site, kick-starting the wilding process, providing habitat for the introduction of beavers which would catalyse this through natural means. Our built program would occupy and re-engineer the existing industrial buildings on site, before spreading deeper into the newly invigorated wet woodland over time and according to need. The habitat, both human and natural, would be resilient to storm events and wide fluctuations in temperature, as might be anticipated with climate change.

Always bursting forth again in new life after the flood.

1. Pre-human.

4. Breaking up the concrete.

7. Wet woodlands.

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2. Waterworks.

3. Depot.

5. Reintroducing water.

6. Inhabiting the site.

2. Wild site.

3. Flood event.

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Programme Our programme has developed in response to the location on the Lea Valley and the needs of the surrounding urban area with regards to a centre for catalysing urban rewilding.

Firstly a tree nursery and seed propagation facility is set up on the site, occupying some of the existing warehouse buildings. This gathers seeds and graftings from the Lea Valley, as a whole in order to replant our site and from them outwards to supply the surrounding boroughs with trees.

This is set up in tandem with a Workshop that occupies the other existing building on site and forms the base-point from which adaptive building work and removal and salvaging of concrete on the site is carried out. It will remain on site as a community workshop, a place for local visitors and residents to come and learn how to prototype wilding building techniques and access tools to use in their own homes and gardens.

A water channel is dug running through the site, this combined with the removal of concrete and planting of trees, will in time provide the necessary habitat to introduce beavers.

A key part of the wilding strategy, the beavers will further catalyse the evolution of the site into a wild

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wetland habitat through damming and habitat creation. As a charismatic species, they will attract visitors and researchers to the site which in turn allows the further built programme of the site to develop responsively.

This consists of education and classroom gathering spaces, both indoors and out, research labs, offices, and residential elements to support these. Cooking and growing supports the aims of connecting with the natural world, its patterns and seasons, bringing that knowledge into daily life.

The Shed-on-wheels grows out of both the tree nursery and the workshop elements of the site and acts as a key outreach tool for the wilding of Hackney and the surrounding area. It will bring plants, tools, and expertise out into the borough to connect with local communities or individuals and offer help with wilding projects.

Developed over time, the various programmes developed on the site are all interrelated and build upon our key objectives for the London Wilds. Together they will draw people closer to wildness in the city: its smells, tastes, colours, flavours and patterns, allowing a growth in passion for, and knowledge of, our interdependence with the natural world.

Lea Valley

Tree Nursery

Wild Wetland

Workshop

Beavers

Research

Shed-on-Wheels

Visitors - Exploring

Learning

Auditorium

Cooking + Growing

Accommodation

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2020

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Existing Site The current site, occupied by Thames Water as a depot, is dominated by the concrete plinth poured over the old filter beds to create a level site for the storage of assorted plant and miscellaneous items.

It would be a mistake to assume, however, that the site is a barren wasteland devoid of life. Brownfield sites in urban contexts are often some of the most biodiverse habitats

in the city, more so than typical urban green spaces, boasting a plethora of lichens, fungi, insects, bacterium, and smaller plant species.39 It is important that some parts of the site are allowed to remain relatively untouched, or gradually incorporated into the wild experience, rather than simply ripped up and cast away to preserve this rich biodiversity.

Existing depot.

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2021

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Establishing Propagation London Wilds begins to appropriate the site by inhabiting the existing Victorian boiler sheds, remnants of the industrial heritage of the site. By adapting the fabric of the northern structure a semi-enclosed glasshouse is set up, beginning the process of propagating seeds collected from across the Lea Valley, to grow saplings to enable the seeding and growth of urban forests in London.

The other building is inhabited as

educational space as well as the necessary organisational, storage spaces, and research facilities for the development of the London Wilds site.

Initial seeding, combined with small-scale volunteer manual labour across the site, begins to break up the concrete to allow for the soil substrate to begin to naturally regenerate and a more diverse ecosystem to begin to establish itself.

Seeds of the Lea.

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2024

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Expanding Community As activities on the site continue to develop and the London Wilds management establish the grounding for the organisation inhabitation begins to spill out into the site, a growing community whose productivity and output continues to grow.

Propagation expands outside of the building extents as larger saplings demand a greater portion of sunlight whilst the beginnings of an edible permaculture plantation, based on food forest principles, is developed to the East. Trees and planting across the site continue to develop and

grow, gradually re-establishing the site as part of the continuous green chain that is the Lea Valley.

As activities on site become more industrious the existing Queen Anne Style house40 is taken over to act primarily as workshop and crafting space, as well as a base from which to carry out a more extensive removal of concrete from the site.

Hydro-power sufficient to power 60 typical homes will be drawn on site through an archimedean screw turbine in the old Sluice house adjacent to the weir.

Occupying the Engineers House.

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2028

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Beaver Partnership Reintroducing water to the site through an excavated channel from the Hackney Navigation / River Lea allows for the introduction of beavers onto the site.

Some of the trees planted on site, many from the dedicated tree nursery, have by this point matured to the extent they can support this keystone species on site. The relationship between human and

beaver on site is viewed as responsive partnership, as fellow consultants, with beavers doing much of the work to wild the site proper and improve the water quality and biodiversity, additionally developing the site as a natural floodplain.

In turn the human presence on the site will respond carefully to the rodents’ habits ensuring a smooth transition to urban co-existence.

Introducing Beavers.

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2032

Shared Gathering As the programme of activities on site expands and reaches larger audiences the built form of the London wilds continues to aggregatively develop in the form of shared residencies, for on site staff and researchers, and expanded educational facilities. The footprint of these developments will be determined by the waterways and natural development of the site.

Key to the educational programme at the London Wilds is the promotion of shared experiences with wild

nature; in the spirit of this the principle spatial intervention on site is a large outdoor gathering space constructed from salvaged on site materials, creating a relationship between the built and wild areas of the site.

Whilst the majority of educational and research activities will take place on site and within the wider context of the Lea valley the expanded facilities accommodate larger groups and a wider outreach programme.

Permeable, floodable gathering space.

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2035

Culinary Wilds The site begins to truly establish itself as a wild part of the Lea Valley. A Wet Woodlands habitat, one of the most biodiverse types of UK habitat,41 is created though a combination of human planting and intervention as well as natural processes, particularly involving the beavers.

As the permaculture plantations established earlier begin to reach maturity one of the key foci of the London Wilds educational programme, foraging and culinary wilds, spreads further across the site including the creation of a dedicated social kitchen and dining space for both residents and visitors.

Food forest permaculture.

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2038

Into the Wilds No wild ecosystem ever truly stops changing however as a relatively stable and ‘settled’ state across the site is reached lightweight structures including classrooms, seasonal shelters, temporary residential modules, and exploratory facilities populate deep into the site.

There is a dominant focus on encouraging exploration of the site and sustained interaction between

the different users on the site, including humans.

As the need for the tree nursery and active management on site has been diminishing over the years, with the site given predominantly over to wild processes, the Wilds has begun to focus its energies outwards, carrying out programmes and initiatives in the local and wider contexts of Hackney and London.

‘Poo Towers’.

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Arrival

As you approach from the road, wildflowers grow from between the gaps in a dismantled concrete walkway; walking deeper, the ground surface gradually becomes colonised by grasses and flowers, then increasingly taller plants. On your left, a tree nursery can be seen in the old warehouse buildings, open to be explored and selling saplings and seeds out of the windows to passersby for their wilding at home. On the right, activity spills out of workshop spaces in the old Engineers House.

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A small stream growing reeds and rushes by its edge passes from the Lee navigation river into the park.

Crossing the path, the stream broadens and shallows to form a ford, which you take off your shoes to walk through, feeling the mud and stones between toes, perhaps catching a glimpse of some water-life.

Turning left, and passing around the old buildings on site, the path carves a small hollow between tall planted banks, leading towards a break in a high wall inhabited by climbing plants and birds.

Passing through a tunnel, you enter an amphitheatre space, a place for informal gathering, meeting friends, performances and talks. It also acts as a fulcrum for the London Wilds, a place to come back to, from which you catch a glimpse of the different things happening, places to discover and explore.

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Workshop

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1:200 workshop plan

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Workshop A workshop occupies an existing arts + crafts building on the site and forms the base-point from which adaptive building work and removal and salvaging of concrete on the site is carried out. It will remain on site as a hub for visitors and residents to learn the skills and techniques necessary to carry out projects of their own in the local community and further afield. A community tool library provides access to tools, from hammers and saws to jack-hammers and pickaxes, to facilitate large and small projects across Hackney and London.

400 m2 workshop 100 m2 tool library 100 m2 material laboratory

Workshop

Tool Library

Material Laboratory

21 work benches 20 work stations

The building acts as an example of a wilding retrofit architecture, with large areas of the upper stories given over to habitats for bats, owls and rodents. Intricate staircases and circulation routes encourage an exploratory experience of the structure.

500+ tools 7 staff 150 weekly users 30+ collaborators 200+ members On-site prototyping Retrofit rewilding Practical knowledge interchange

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workshop

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depot

hydro-power

Dynamo Metal Workshop, Zurich

Edinburgh Tool Library

Activity spills out into the street under a large canopy, providing a sheltered and supervised environment for technical work whilst encouraging wider engagement.42

The Tool Library stores and lends tools to local communities, empowering them to realise change and creating a social hub.43

Skill sharing and community engagement is encouraged in the workshops, allowing people with any level of skill access to the training and resources necessary to make material changes to their physical environment.

By exposing the circulation spaces to the elements light, sounds and smells of the world around are brought deep into the building.

Tactile surfaces and hidden secrets encourage an engaged and aware experience of the space.

Opening the attic at the gable end provides a viewing platform.

Researchers will be able to use the fabric of the building to experiment with natural construction materials.

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Propagation

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0

5m

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1:400 propagation pavilion plan

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Propagation Gathering seeds and tree graftings from the whole Lea Valley, as a successful local seedbank, the tree nursery propagates these into saplings which can be planted out across the site and throughout the neighbouring boroughs. The existing Victorian ex-boiler sheds are adapted with glazed, or simply open, roofs, dedicated irrigation and rainwater collection, open arched walls allowing light, air, and access. They are turned into conservatory-like spaces to extend the growing season.

A wildflower seed and sapling shop allows visitors to begin to wild their own homes and local areas whilst an outreach programme brings both plants and expertise out into local communities.

1400 m2 ‘glasshouse’ 1600 m2 external 90 m2 shop - store

Tree Nursery

Seed & Sapling Shop

75,000 trees p/a 5 gardeners 20 volunteers / week 18,000 trees p/a to Hackney Council44 Increase biodiversity Trees reduce max. urban temps. by 2 - 5°C Capture carbon

SHED ON WHEELS

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seedbank

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propagation

seed storage

Dundreggan Tree Nursery, Inverness

PC Caritas, Melle, Belgium

Part of the Trees for Life campaign’s efforts to rewild the Dundreggan Estate in the Scottish Highlands. The tree nursery propagates over 60,000 hard to grow trees pa. as well as dedicated projects for specific species and acting as a volunteer rewilding hub.

A Rewilding Centre will open in 2022 ‘to engage a larger, more diverse audience with the natural and cultural heritage of the Highlands’.45

This project by Architecten de vylder vinck taillieu reinterprets the old semidestroyed ‘pavilions’ of a psychiatric clinic for contemporary use, whilst retaining its ambiguity ‘somewhere between open space and finished building’ and ‘swaddled in vegetation’.46

By removing and adapting some of the roof coverings from the existing buildings, different environments are created internally to facilitate the propagation processes and encourage natural light and ventilation.

A nature ladder allows access to planted areas of the roof. Rainwater harvesting feeds into the propagation spaces.

Knocking through some of the solid arches to create openings in the facade encourages engagement with the activities within whilst reinforcing the open and accessible nature of activities on the site.

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Education + Engagement

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5m

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1:200 amphitheatre plan

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Amphitheatre A fulcrum or node about which the rest of the built scheme is orientated.

This large, floodable, landscaped, outdoors space is constructed from the concrete salvaged from the site and built into gabion walls. It acts as a gathering and orientating space upon arrival, a space for informal encounters and meeting, an agora of sorts. Apart from its daily use as gathering space twice a week the amphitheatre plays host to lectures, performances, concerts and open-air cinema screenings dedicated to wilding and related topics, encouraging engagement and knowledge sharing.

Amphitheatre

200 person outdoors 45 events annually Seasonally fluctuating floodable space Intimate connections with nature Outdoor cinema, theatre, lectures, gatherings

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gathering

floodable

Scott Outdoor Amphitheatre, Swarthmore College ‘Built into a heavily wooded steep natural slope, the amphitheatre is minimally and elegantly formed entirely of natural materials.

It is truly a blending of nature and man.’

Measuring 220 x 110 ft the Amphitheatre can hold 2,000 chairs and is part of the Scott Arboretum. Designed by Thomas W. Sears.47

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exploration

Enghaveparken, Copenhagen ‘Enghaveparken public park was designed as a gathering space for the dry season that can also accommodate 24,000 cubic meters of water when it floods.’ Floodable public spaces in urban contexts are key to city-wide resilience strategies for dealing with climate change and extreme weather events.48

Niches and overhangs for bird nests are carved out of the concrete rubble structure. Moss and lichen are encouraged to fill gaps.

Rainwater is embraced through it’s journey down the building and integrates with window planters and green roofs.

Nesting niches and poles at a treetop height interact with the crest of the building.

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1:150 classrooms + offices plan

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Classrooms + Office Classrooms Connecting with schools in the nearby area, London Wilds will be hub for outdoors learning. The classroom buildings are a raised, lightweight, moveable architecture, with extensive semi-enclosed space. They are built to be able to open and close in response to the seasons and to provide a close and direct connection with the surroundings. Rewilding education itself, these spaces are used by groups of schoolchildren, adults, and community groups as places to exchange knowledge and practical expertise of foraging, making and agriculture. They act as a base to go out foraging and exploring the site, following the principles of forest school.

180 m2 insulated office 150 m2 insulated classrooms

Classrooms

3 wild teachers 20 + researchers 280 children / week Forest School base 25 schools within 3km

Adult learning, CPD. study days

Open source skills sharing

Offices The centre for managing the London Wilds, permanent staff share office space with visiting researchers and interested local businesses. The office maintains close relationships with the Wilds and act as a prototype for a rewilded office, a test bed for ideas that could be transferred to the city proper.

Offices

Shared office space Centre management Seasonally responsive architecture

Partnerships with rewilding specialists

Gathering evidence for urban rewilding

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gathering

office

Miaki Hall, Tamotsu Teshima A large, generous, semi outdoors covered canopy is created alongside this hall to create a soft edge to the building, extending the room into the landscape and framing the surrounding places in a new light. Allowing for moments of reflection and a gradual threshold.49

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meeting

Gotong-royong Angkat Rumah, Kedah, Malaysia A custom among local villagers in Kedah involves moving their wooden houses as a community effort. The reason for this move is to save the money and time required to buy a new house. The idea of moveable architectures is equally applicable to an architecture adaptable to changes in site and situation over time.50

Covered walkway for shade, shelter from rain and space for nesting.

Permeability between inside and outside is encouraged.

Use of natural ventilation and natural lighting. The deep green roof provides additional insulation.

The adaptable building design allows it be floatable and movable as the site grows. The open ground plane allows passage for bugs, insects and animals.

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Experiential

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Experiential Seasonal shelters Outdoors, immersed, up to your elbows in muddy wet woodlands is the perfect environment to learn about nature, the processes of decay and renewal, growth and symbiosis. In the woods temporary structures built out of the materials from the site by visitors and students occasionally define outdoor classrooms. Willow weaving, drystone walling, wattle and daubing amongst others. These structures are formed and dismantled every year in response to the changing weather and as educational activities in traditional building techniques.

Composting toilets Deep in the woods, raised up above the ground and exposed to the stars (or satellites). The poetic and wilder way to pass your bowels. One man’s excrement is another plant’s vital treasure. Returning human waste into the ecosystem turns the one way extraction of nutrients from the ground, which is causing the impoverishment of our soil, back into a closed loop. A sustainable approach which can feed over time into the food forest on site (human waste takes about 5-7 years to decompose before it can be used as plant fertiliser).

65,000m2 on site 40,500,000 m2 Lea valley

Forest School

Inspiring love of outdoors Improving creativity

Exploration

Composting Toilet

Connection with the elements Replenishing soil nutrients

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gathering

camping

The Forest BIG, Miaoli, Taiwan Divooe Zein Architectstje turned an abandoned house into a net covered educational events space in the Forest BIG, amidst the remnants of an old theme park, to encourage ‘respectful’ interaction with nature.

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wet woodlands

The design brings the natural world into the built in thought provoking ways, encouraging an active engagement with the forest setting.

Paths through the forest and gardens proper bring the visitor into close contact with the flora creating an exploratory experience.51

Outdoor classroom encourages learning through tactile experiences.

Use of trees as a playground, for all generations. Fallen trees create habitat for bugs, insects and a seat for humans.

Dubbed the ‘Poo Tower’, an elevated composting toilet gives the user privacy while doing their business and allows the pit to be naturally ventilated.

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Residency

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First floor plan

Ground floor plan

1:50 temporary residential unit plan

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Residencies The London Wilds supports two kinds of residency: permanent, for the staff who work year-round on site; and temporary, for visiting researchers, students, or adults looking to immerse themselves into the wilding experience.

The permanent residencies accrue over time and form a vertical, staggered-courtyard urban form beside the amphitheatre and the social heart of the site. These take the form of both flats and co-living spaces which integrate wilding elements into the architectural detail, acting as inspirational working prototypes for symbiotic building techniques and ways of living.

Permanent Residency

Temporary Residency

8 people to live on site 3 studio flats 5 co-living 40 students, researchers and visitors across site Intimate connection to nature Seasonally changing floodable ground floor

The temporary residential elements tap into the communal cooking and gathering spaces whilst providing sleeping areas deeper into the wilded site in small, up to four person, modules. These encourage an intimate connection with wildlife, supporting animal and plant habitats within their construction.

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Ground floor approach, tactile grounding.

Shared terraces with views to nature and the city.

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Reflective courtyard + shared habitats.

Experimental detailing, a prototypical symbiotic living space.

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gathering

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residency

wet woodlands

The Great Wall of WA, Australia

Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri

Designed by Luigi Roselli architects ‘the rammed earth wall meanders along the edge of a sand dune and encloses twelve earth covered residencies’. Constructed from extremely local materials and boasting an incredible thermal mass these dwellings adapt and respond directly to their setting, merging with the surrounding landscape.52

An urban laboratory and experimental community established in 1970 operates today as an experiential learning centre offering an ‘efficient “lean” alternative to urban sprawl’. The architecture expresses the principle of Arcology and acts as prototype urban form. The site is continuously developed and maintained by a dedicated and passionate community sustained by regular visitors and residency programmes.53

The discreet beaver lodge permanent residency.

Niches in and around circulation spaces provide ecological encounters.

The sleeping cave with deep window reveals and shading shutters creates a temporary nest for humans.

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Exploration

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5m

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Research + Study Located in London and able to carry out wilding experiments in an urban context, initially focusing on beavers, the London Wilds will draw interest from researchers and enthusiasts internationally. The research element of the programme will build connections with universities, gathering evidence and strategies for urban rewilding, to be implemented both locally and internationally. By bringing together amateurs and experts, the ideas developed here will propagate through community, professional, and eventually legislative contexts.

76 m2 library Open access

Rewilding Library

Fieldwork throughout Lea Valley + London

Research

Increase biodiversity by 300% Trophic catalysts

Beavers

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Temporary storage of concrete blocks arranged to from a nature chapel in which spaces are created for animal habitation and human meditation.

Site exploration forms a crucial part of immersion. The nature chapel is nestled deep in the wet woodland.

Use of trees as a playground, for all generations. Fallen trees create habitat for bugs and insects and seats for humans.

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“You are in nature, part and parcel of it, in a far more complete and intense way than on dry land, and your sense of the present is overwhelming. In wild water you are on equal terms with the animal world around you: in every sense, on the same level. As a swimmer, I can go right up to a frog in the water and it will show more curiosity than fear.”54 - Roger Deakin

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Immersion Wild Chapel Nature Chapel The space and time for stillness and contemplation is important for rewilding the soul. If we want to mend our relationship with the natural world, we need to look both inside and outside ourselves.

The ‘chapel’ is a place that offers a space for this deeper into the site, a destination reached via a winding pilgrimage route that may at times involve climbing and wading. Making use of salvaged concrete slabs on the site, the building also creates a different kind of habitat, encouraging biodiversity.

Wild Swimming

350,000 + annual visitors to the Wilds Peace, calm, recollection Pilgrimage through wetlands

Wild Swimming Visitors and locals will be encouraged to explore the revelatory experience of swimming in a wild river, as both a meditative and prejudice - challenging activity. Access to the River Lea on the site will be dependent on the Beavers however advice as to recommended spots throughout London will be available.55

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Hooke Park The AA’s woodland campus in Dorset, contains a growing educational facility for design, workshop, construction and

Souto de Moura, Chapel for Pavilion of the Holy See, Venice Biennale 2018.

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landscape-focused activities. The site is designated as ancient woodland and sits within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.56

John Pawson, Wooden Chapel, Lutzingen, Germany

Evidence of the beaver’s work becomes visible in the biodiversity created within the wet woodland.

Once the woodland is established, selection cutting allows for timber harvesting.

Construction of temporary structures for events allows development of natural building technology.

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Culinary Wilds

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Cultivation areas across site.

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Food Forest Alongside foraging across the Lea Valley, two acres on site are set aside specifically to grow food in a sustainable and biodiverse way. The model of the ‘food forest’ which uses the symbiotic relationships between certain trees, shrubs, and edible plants as a means to establish a minimal maintenance permaculture in a space efficient manner. This is an educational tool, food forest principles can be applied even in a 2m2 area making it a perfect model for urban cultivation.

400 m2 glasshouses

Food Forest

2 Farm managers 2 cooks / foragers 20 + Volunteers / week Foraging whole Lea Valley Reduced carbon impact Improve Biodiversity, organic, good for pollinators Inspire more London foraging, better food awareness

mycelial / fungal layer

soil surface crop layer

canopy / fruit tree layer

creeper / groundcover layer

herbaceous layer

shrub / fruit bush layer

rhizosphere / roots layer

aquatic / wetland layer

This is accompanied by turning one of the existing warehouses on the site into a glasshouse for growing and planting up a walled area as a more traditional ‘kitchen garden’.

This combination of spaces, alongside urban foraging, will provide enough food to produce eighty meals a day all year round.

7,600 m2 food forest

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1:200 kitchen + dining plan

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Kitchen + Dining After learning how to identify edible plants and foliage, forage, and grow food at the London Wilds, the wild kitchen is a space to learn new recipes using local and seasonal ingredients. As well as sharing knowledge, the wild kitchen is a place to experiment and inspire visitors with culinary ideas to bring out into their daily lives. Cooking and eating together creates a strong social heart for the site. The cooking and dining area is centred around a large hearth and spreads out through various degrees of enclosure into the outdoors. In winter, people may huddle close around the fire, sharing experiences and company, whilst in the summer, the building opens out and expands into the surroundings.

300m2 cooking, dining and food storage

Wild Kitchen

Dining

2 cooks / foragers 30-90 seats seasonally varied 40 meals / day from food grown on site Summer recipes Cooking classes with foraged food Winter recipes Cooking classes with stored food

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cultivation

The Free Company, Balerno, Edinburgh A small farm + restaurant. In two small paddocks of about two acres enough organic food is grown to serve dinner for eighty people five nights a week for half the year. All food is grown and cooked on site, or locally, exploring seasonal cooking and creative flavour combinations. Two long tables in the top floor of the barn create a convivial atmosphere celebrating food and conversation. The site also combines artists studios and workshop spaces along with a shared residency.57

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dining

cooking

Fat Hen, Gwenmenhir, Cornwall A ‘wild cookery school’ Fat Hen offers wild culinary courses involving foraging the local countryside and seaside for ingredients as well as the preparation and cooking of the discovered ingredients. The school teaches the art of foraging to promote a deeper and meaningful relationship with the natural world as well as the value of sharing a meal with others.58

The fungi tower supplements produce from the food forest. Raised walkways protect the ground plane and can be rotated to allow soil rehabilitation.

Use of cooking hearth to heat the wild kitchen. The communal kitchen encourages learning and sharing.

Growth of herbs, spices and use of indoor plants to mediate kitchen humidity. Storage allows non perishable produce to be used in winter.

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Winter

Summer

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“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world” - Nadeem Aslam

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Outreach + Impact Shed on Wheels

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Impact

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Wilded Attitudes

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Wilding the City

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Wilding Design Process

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Shed on Wheels The Shed on Wheels is a current proposal by Cordwainers Grow, a “Hackney based community interest company focusing on connecting people with the natural world in creative and collaborative ways.” The design think tank has developed a design which mirrors these goals, appropriating the physical form as a means to engage in a programme of active outreach with local community groups and individuals.

The concept is to create a mobile teaching and transport unit for sharing knowledge, stories, skills, equipment, food, and wonder.

This follows well from their motto

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“Connecting people and place through discovery”.

The idea took inspiration from an art project in Efford, Devon that was devised by artist Anne-Marie Cullhane.

The shed is to be based on an electric milk float. It will be zeroemission and use renewable energy.

Storage space inside will cater for tools, equipment, exterior furniture, and covers. It should be able to open up to increase the available space and have an all weather awning and removable side panels to cope with moderate wind and rain.

From right to left; Cordwainers Grow logo, Memory Map of Shed on Wheels, Devon; Shed on Wheels, Devon

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Design The design uses casement opening panels to support a lightweight roof. This creates two main spaces, Kitchen and Potting Shed. The inside of the panels allow for storage, shelving and display.

Adaptability sits as a core concern as the shed is to be used for a variety of

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events, requiring some or all of the spaces.

The potential for alternative configurations allows the programme to be flexible, accommodating for example a mobile research unit or heavy duty tools, or indeed a ‘shed on boat’ model as an alternative.

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Active Outreach Exploring the principles of rewilding place and people the shed on wheels will enable the sharing of knowledge and skills to a much wider audience, as well as carrying materials and resources.

The project provides a platform to cross social boundaries, working together to address issues that affect everyone. Wilding is a concept that potentially has an impact on both our social and physical survival.

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Impact Immediate area and time-scale In the immediate geographical area the effect of joining up the Lea Valley and creating a wet woodland at this key point in the corridor will have an impact on increasing the rich biodiversity of the area as well as improving access to, and movement through, the Valley. The introduction of beavers has been shown to have widespread benefits both for wildlife and for flood prevention, benefiting both the natural and urban contexts.

Ideas around rewilding are burgeoning and taking hold, but at this early stage, where it is not common parlance, the establishing of an institution or centre for these practical studies and theories particularly in an urban context - will effectively spread the message; it may fuel the inspiration and energy needed to continue to explore how we can better live in relation with our world.

Hackney and London Playing host to a rewilding centre will form and inform the identity of Hackney as a borough, giving good reason to act as an exemplar for the introduction of wilder spaces at all scales within the borough as a whole.

Local schools will have special access to the Wilds, forming a dedicated study interest in this field and prompting students to spearhead the broader rewilding of London.

As the London Wilds establishes

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itself in the public consciousness visitors will bring friends and family, wilding enthusiasts will know where to drag along their disinterested friends to get them inspired. A series of knock on reactions will occur around the dining table in flats in far off parts of the city, between people who may never have been themselves, but have heard from a friend of a friend who has.

Over time, this knock-on effect builds the capacity to wild the city, spreading out first through Hackney, with a change in the criteria by which spaces are designed and built in favour of providing habitats for the biodiverse array of living things with which we share the city. We could imagine a wilded extension or garden; ways of celebrating the seasonal and weather patterns in detailing; a more permeable and resilient road-surface beyond the practical considerations of SUDS; new-build housing that creates habitat for bats, birds, and insects as proudly as it does people; biodiverse construction methods and materials inspired, in part, by the architecture at London Wilds.

Further afield With time, the wilds at London Wilds will mature, trees and plants take time to grow and establish themselves, and the beavers may have spread all up and down the Lea Valley and watercourses across the city doing much of the rewilding work on our behalf.

Researchers studying the effects of wilding in an urban context will be able to study what works, both in terms of rewilding place and rewilding people, refining the methods for wilding across the city. They will have been able to publish their work giving a strong evidence base upon which government can legislate in favour of making wilding more viable across the country.

Connections with universities abroad, gatherings, and festivals held at London Wilds will spread the best of these ideas and principals abroad improving human relationships with the environment even outside this country.

Over time this may be a catalyst to mend our physical and mental schism with natural processes.

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Wilding Attitudes In terms of wilding people the focus of the educational programme at the London Wilds is on changing attitudes to the natural world and the way in which we inhabit it.

Becoming aware of the importance of natural ecosystems to humans, and of our critical role in those ecosystems, must be achieved

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through a combination of both theoretical and experiential learning.

The London Wilds not only offers the opportunity for extensive experiential learning but also teaches the skills, and provides the physical tools, to enable the physical realisation of the ideas it seeds.

aversion

tactility

ignorance

knowledge

conflict

co-existence

convenience

growth

Imagined section through a typical Hackney street.

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Into the City One of the most significant impacts of this project would be on the broader city at large. Through increased awareness about the potential for re-wilding encountered in visiting the London Wilds, and the impact of the Shed-on-Wheels, London would see a subtle revolution in the way that buildings, streets were designed and adapted, creating habitats for all sorts of wildlife.

We have started to explore the potential impact of some of our architectural detailing and ideas being taken out into the city through the following sections of two typical Hackney streets at different densities.

These explore how new building materials, permeable surfaces and approaches our relationship with rain, the weather and wildlife can start to make a wilder London at every sort of scale.

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Shared gardens open to the community for better access to nature in the city and encouraging a communal responsibility for wild spaces. Boundaries built from sustainable materials that allow for natural growth and inhabitation, aimed at the channelling of

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biodiversity. Emanate clean water used in housing creating access to animals and thus creating flood resilience spaces. Replace existing roofs with green or blue roofs, or create access to roof voids for in habitation by birds and small mammals.

Activate light-wells for private uses, such as outdoor showers with water collected from the rain, creating a human bond with the seasons and the weather. Rooftop rainwater collection through blue roofs can additionally be fed into irrigation systems.

Green walls can be a viable means of introducing biodiversity to a facade, so long as they use vertical climbing plants as opposed to the maintenance intensive systems greenwashing new buildings worldwide.

Wild front gardens and trees planted in the streets limiting cars and bicycle speeds creates a more conducive environment for children to play in the street.

Create human access to the gutters at upper floor levels to interact with neighbours and the environment whilst getting your feet wet and contemplating the views.

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Imagined section through a typical Hackney park.

Break up the pavement to let vegetation grow. Dedicate interior spaces such as basements for shared use with flora and fauna. Creating porous facades to be permeable and habitable. Design windows to improve indoor-outdoor relationship.

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Let fallen branches rot in the parks to enrich the soil. Plant fruit trees and edible borders so that people can forage in public spaces. Physical interaction with nature through sitting on logs or climbing trees. Allow green spaces to wild themselves, with minimal management, wherever possible.

Use roofs as gardens maximising the usable space whilst creating sunny spaces to enjoy relationships to the outdoors. Shed on wheels running through the city to spread knowledge about wilding. Expand the ground floor into the street responsive to the weather, creating an active connection to nature. Plant vegetation in the underutilized spaces between buildings.

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Wilding Design Process Beyond the hypothetical conclusions and imagined impact of this project, and alongside the meetings we have had with interested local groups such as the Cordwain Growers and Save The Lea Marshes, perhaps the greatest impact this project has had is on us as designers. Starting to design with a view to looking at all species, not just one, how you can use architectural detail as an opportunity to create a home for other living things has completely altered our outlook on architecture.

We have had our horizons widened beyond the constrained architectural worldview, to see through the eyes of the landscape designer, the ecologist, the artist, the beaver.

Trying to design in this way has made us notice just how much there is a change of values that takes place. The

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criteria by which success is measured changes and as a result, so does the process.

From getting close up and intimate with the dirt and mud that forms much of our site context, plunging into the river we are proposing to be swum in, we discovered that rewilding ourselves was an essential piece of the puzzle. We’ve tasted our own medicine, and despite it being a February swim on a rainy day, we couldn’t recommend it enough.

These direct, physical (and at times freezing!) encounters with the place we were designing helped us to understand it better and will inform the way we approach design in the future. Perhaps every design block in the future will now have to be remedied with a nippy dip.

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Ivy bee Lasiommata megera (Wall brown)

Cow Parsley

Ground Ivy Stinging nettle

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Sloe Berries

White Dead Nettle

Three Cornered Leek

Lords and Ladies

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Endnotes 1

United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, ‘Goals 11, 13, 15’. Online. Accessed at www. undp.org.

2

Rewilding Britain, Rewilding Britain. Online. Accessed at www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding/ Rewilding Europe, Rewilding Europe, ‘What is Rewilding’. Online. Accessed at rewildingeurope.com/ what-is-rewilding.

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, (Penguin, 2014).

Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, (Picador, 2019).

3

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, (Penguin, 2014).

4

The Bioneers, The Bioneers, Online. Accessed at bioneers.org

5

Julie Watson, Lo-TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism, (Taschen, 2019).

6

Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, (Picador, 2019)

7

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, (Penguin, 2014).

8

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, (Penguin, 2014)

9

Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate-Discoveries from a Secret World, (Greystone Books, 2016)

10

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life, (Penguin, 2014)

11

The Bioneers, The Bioneers, Online. Accessed at bioneers.org

12

Steph Yin, WHYY, ‘The Netherlands grand rewilding experiment gone haywire. 23 August 2019.

Online. Accessed at whyy.org/segments/the-netherlands-grand-rewilding-experiment-gone-haywir Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, (Picador, 2019).

13

Julie Watson, Lo-TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism, (Taschen, 2019)

14

Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, (Picador, 2019)

15

Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, (Picador, 2019)

16

George Monbiot, The Guardian, ‘If children lose contact with nature they won’t fight for it’. 19 Nov 2012. Online. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-withnature.

17

Kate Wills, Evening Standard, ‘Meet the food waste warriors’, 10 July 2019. Online. Accessed at www. standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/food-waste-warriors-a4185491.html

18

Claire Marshall, BBC, ‘More than a quarter of UK mammals face extinction’, 3 Oct 2019. Online. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49892209

19

Claire Marshall, BBC, ‘More than a quarter of UK mammals face extinction’, 3 Oct 2019. Online. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49892209

20

George Monbiot, The Guardian, ‘If children lose contact with nature they won’t fight for it’. 19 Nov 2012. Online. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-with-

nature.

21

Claire Marshall, BBC, ‘More than a quarter of UK mammals face extinction’, 3 Oct 2019. Online. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49892209

22

Hallmann CA, Sorg M, Jongejans E, Siepel H, Hofland N, Schwan H, et al. (2017) ‘More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas.’ PLoS ONE. 12(10): e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809.

23

Greater London Authority, London Datastore, ‘London’s Urban Heat Island - Average Summer’, 2018.

Online. data.london.gov.uk/dataset/london-s-urban-heat-island---average-summer.

24

George Monbiot, The Guardian, ‘If children lose contact with nature they won’t fight for it’. 19 Nov 2012. Online. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-withnature.

25

Christine Kiewra and Ellen Veselack, ‘Playing with Nature: Supporting Preschoolers’ Creativity in Natural Outdoor Classrooms’, International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education. 29 Aug 2016. Online. https://naturalstart.org/sites/default/files/journal/10._final_kiewra_veselack.pdf

26

East London and West Essex Guardian. ‘Film celebrates Lee Valley food growers producing 80 million cucumbers a year’. Dec 2019. Online. https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/18083263.filmcelebrates-lea-valleys-food-growers-producing-80-million-cucumbers-year/

27

http://leabridge.org.uk/index.html

28

https://www.saveleamarshes.org.uk/2019/11/23/east-london-waterworks-park/

29

http://www.carrifran.org.uk/about/

30

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/current-london-plan/london-planchapter-seven-londons-living-spac-19

31

http://www.leabridgedepot.co.uk/

32

https://www.saveleamarshes.org.uk/east-london-waterworks-park/

33

Jonathon Pior, in conversation with the authors, 21 Jan 2020. Pim Studio, London.

34

Brazier, R.E., Elliott, M., Andison, E., Auster, R.E., Bridgewater, S., Burgess, P., Chant, J., Graham, H., Knott, E., Puttock, A.K., Sansum, P., Vowles, A., River Otter Beaver Trial: Science and Evidence Report (Devon Wildlife Trust, 2020). Online. https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/what-we-do/our-projects/ river-otter-beaver-trial

35

The Wildlife Trusts, The Wildlife Trusts’ Beaver Reintroductions, (The Wildlife Trust, 2018). Online. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/181023%20Beaver%20Brochure_WEB.pdf.

36

Gaywood, M. et al, Beavers in Scotland A Report to the Scottish Government (Scottish Natural Heritage, 2015), Online. https://www.nature.scot/sites/default/files/Publication%202015%20-%20Beavers%20 in%20Scotland%20A%20report%20to%20Scottish%20Government.pdf

37

Gaywood, Martin. (2018). Reintroducing the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber to Scotland. Mammal Review. 48. 48-61. 10.1111/mam.12113. Online.

38

Jonathon Pior, in conversation with the authors, 21 Jan 2020. Pim Studio, London.

39

https://www.groundsure.com/resources/brownfield-sites-a-wildlife-haven/

40

http://leabridge.org.uk/gazetteer/locally-listed-buildings/engineers-house-lea-bridge.html

41

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/wet-woodland/

42

https://www.archdaily.com/297206/dynamo-metal-workshop-phalt-architekten

43

https://edinburghtoollibrary.org.uk/

44

Jon Burke - Hackney Council, in conversation with the authors, February 2020, The LSA.

45

https://treesforlife.org.uk/dundreggan/dundreggan-tree-nursery/

46

https://www.publicspace.org/works/-/project/k015-pc-caritas

47

https://www.scottarboretum.org/publications/Brochures/Amphitheater.pdf

48

https://inhabitat.com/copenhagens-enghaveparken-public-park-is-designed-to-be-flooded/

49

https://atlasofplaces.com/architecture/miaki-hall/

50

https://www.langkawiartbiennale.com/2014/event/angkatrumah

51

http://www.divooe.com.tw/architecture16.html

52

https://luigirosselli.com/residential/the-great-wall-of-wa

53

https://arcosanti.org/

54

Roger Deakin, Swimming, (Vintage Minis: 2017)

55

http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/health-benefits/

56

http://hookepark.aaschool.ac.uk/

57

https://www.the-free-company.com/

58

https://www.fathen.org/

Key site section

Hackney

Lee Navigation

Wild swimming page 117

Practical knowledge interchange

Wilding retrofit

Tool library

Prototyping

Material laboratory

Outreach

Workshop

Shed-on-wheels

page 79

page 132

Wilding depot

Seed & sapling shop

Arrival

Propogation

page 72

page 85

Tree nursery

Re-engineered glasshouses

Floodable auditorium

Wild library

Informal gathering

Bird tower

Amphitheatre

Residency

page 91

page 107

Woven bridge

Open source skills sharing

Moveable and adaptable

Seasonally responsive

Outdoors learning

Exploration

Foraging

Classrooms + offices

Food forest

page 95

page 123

Climbing trees

Dead wood left as habitat

Poo tower

Decompostition and renewal

Composting Toilets page 101

Immersion

Fieldwork througout Lee Valley

Biodiversity multiplier

Ecosystem engineers

Research

Beavers

Temporary residency

page 114

page 40

page 107

Habitat creation

Salvaged concrete from site

Fishing

Pilgrimage through wetlands

Immersion, recollection

Wild chapel page 117

Outdoors learning

Selection cutting

Construction experimentation

Seasonal Shelters page 101

Culinary wilds