Wildering Westside

Ladywood, Birmingham

2015

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Located in Ladywood, to the West of the city core, Wildering Westside aims to be a community driven initiative that physically unifies the existing underused green spaces, make the canal more accessible; and to create an increasingly walkable and permeable route from the city centre towards the region of upcoming development. This promotes the biophilic notion of immersion within the natural environment, with exercise and fresh air conducive to an improvement in mental and physical health.

Featuring a productive landscape and a pavilion to prepare and drink tea, the urban acupuncture will be a high quality public space which the community will take ownership of. Growing, cultivation and harvesting will be an activity that nourishes the social bonds within the community, whilst sharing the joys and health benefits of tea drinking with public canal users and visitors.

The pavilion will include shelter and amenities for those passing by, whilst also acting as a hub for cultivation, community use and education. A green roof, rainwater harvesting system and composting loos are some aspects that allow the pavilion to become part of a closed loop feedback system that engages with the environment through natural processes.
By ‘starting with the park’, the intervention acts as a catalyst for upcoming development, much like the public realm of Brindley place did for that area. However, Wildering Westside aims to retain an element of wilderness amongst the industrial heritage of Ladywood, not sanitising the character and sense of place within this quarter of Birmingham.

Returning to the urban scale, this type of acupuncture can be replicated at suitable locations to provide high quality open spaces that both passively and actively reconnect people to nature, forming a network of walkable and stimulating routes through the city.