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Sculpting a Civic Landscape: An Ecological Centre for the Citizens of Wakefield

Part 1 Project 2024
Ameli Vidanearachchi
University of Sheffield | UK
Against climate change and the latest IPCC report, what does it mean to ‘repair & restore’? And to do so at the edge of the River Calder in Wakefield? The city holds both marginalisation and privilege; memories of the wool trade’s wealth and echoes of a colonial past.

This landscape infrastructure project responds with three distinct elements: a renovated ‘folly’ in the retrofit of a Grade II listed cornmill; a monolithic citizens’ building to regeneratively host; and a sculptural walkway connecting to a floodable landscape.

The citizens’ centre interfaces between Hepworth and mill and wetlands. Gabions make the whole ‘building’ a habitat, hosting seeded native plants, insects and animals to live in harmony with users on either side of a ‘thin’ threshold.

The design critiques, converses with, and honours the context. It decentralises modernist individualism, promoting community and ecology whilst framing ruins of industrial heritage past.

‘Sculpting a civic landscape’ explores what a ‘Bilbao effect’ looks like for regenerative ecological landscapes and communities. While highly contextual, this project raises questions as well as answers them. What does a resilient civic landscape for all look like? For mutual thriving might every single town in the UK need a space like this?


Tutor(s)

2024
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