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H(edge): A Manual for Hedgelaying as Infrastructure for Public Access to a Protected Rural Landscape

Part 1 Project 2022
Varvara Yakovleva
Architectural Association London | UK
The function of the project is to create spaces for the enjoyment of landscape by tourists, hikers and ramblers who use the Landscape trail in the High Weald AONB and also facilitate passing on the knowledge of traditional landscape management techniques and crafts of the area.

The material experimentation investigates (hedgelaying, coppicing and basket weaving) to create a site specific building system encouraging biodiversity. Working with local landscape waste the construction manual uses components of pre-determined dimensions creating an alternative for the traditional timber grading system and a new tectonic language after Gottfried Semper’s Style.

The hedgerow is simultaneously a fragile wildlife habitat in need of care and a land boundary sitting on the edge between two fields. Heritage is “intangible”, it is the living traditions of the craft passed on as generational knowledge.The project responds to the essay Experimental Preservation by Jorge Otero Paillos, questioning the possibility of a craft centric society without the involvement of institutions.

Spreading through the High-Weald the structure anchors itself onto farmsteads, abandoned infrastructure and landscape features. Becoming improvised settlements and a way to reclaim the landscape. Addressing the question of land privatization, the Right of Access is established through easements.


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2022
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