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Botanical Burton; Rewilding Burton Upon Trent

Part 2 Project 2020
Olivia Hellman
University of Sheffield | UK
The 2016 State of Nature Report identified the UK as one of the most nature depleted countries in the World. Its towns and cities contribute towards this lack of biodiversity by presenting a highly sanitised image of green space dictated by our perceptions of landscape aesthetics. Ecological quality however tends to look ‘messy’. What is good may not look good and what looks good may not be good. Future climate uncertainty implores the need for exploration into alternative approaches in order to reframe our attitudes towards urban landscape creation.

Utilising both architectural and landscape design disciplines, the project identifies an opportunity to challenge Burton-upon-Trent’s dwindling industrial brewing identity and the evolution of a new imagined future as the ‘Capital’ of The National Forest. Urban rewilding is explored, shifting the image of a former industrial brewery site from one of production to one of vegetation and climate change mitigation at the heart of the town. The ‘messy’ and rich ecosystem is set within an orderly framework to maintain the concept of controlled wilderness. The aim, to create a novel and dynamic botanical garden landscape and proposed new architecture, the Rewilding Research Institute.


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2020
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