Leven Road Community Forest

Nominated for the Nottingham DABE Sustainability Award

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The parallel development of the human social brain and biophilic tendency in human evolutionary history results in the positive correlation between our inherent desire for nature and social contact. The tension between increasing technological consumption and increasing nature deficit changes the way in which we see ourselves, each other and the world. Authenticity is often lost in screen-mediated technologies.

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By restructuring Kellert’s Human-Nature relationship design attributes, a biophilic hierarchy is established to explore spatial design that reconnects and enhances social exploration, interdependence, collective reverence and solitude within an increasingly pervasive technological urban condition. A socially charged nature-rich environment that can support human flourishing can be achieved through biophilic urbanism.

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The design brief studied the opportunities within the Lee Valley, proposing a vision to stitch together the currently fragmented area, to become a connected socio-ecological network, amidst continuing development within the Olympic Legacy Framework.

Within this nature-rich network, the design project proposes a test site that can support existing and proposed communities, a NAP (Nature, Art and Play) Community Forest, featuring a hybrid typology that combines active and passive programmes, allow its users to be authentic, uninhibited and free to explore, pertinent to disrupting the loneliness loop. 

[READ THESIS ABSTRACT]