Nottingham to lead the way in city-centre regeneration

Nottingham to lead the way in city-centre regeneration

by | Dec 10, 2021

Heatherwick Studio has revealed plans to use the remains of the half-demolished 1970s Broadmarsh shopping mall as part of its post-pandemic vision for Nottingham city centre

The proposals by Thomas Heatherwick’s practice for the long-troubled 8ha plot feature a major ‘green space which will permeate the whole site and weave in and out of the [centre’s] frame’.

The vision, drawn up with socially responsible development company Stories, also includes 750 new homes in the shadow of Nottingham Castle, recreating ‘lost street connections’, the overhaul of the city’s cave network, the transformation of the existing Severns House into a hotel and 37,000m² of office and conference space.

The concept, which received initial backing from Nottingham City Council today (7 December), has been billed as a ‘once in many generations’ opportunity for Nottingham to ‘lead the way in city-centre regeneration following the impacts of Covid-19 and online retailing’.

 

Read the whole article in Architects’ Journal.

 

 

 

China is Building Sponge Cities to Fix Its Flood Problem

China is Building Sponge Cities to Fix Its Flood Problem

by | Nov 30, 2021

Once a largely rural country, China now has more than 100 cities with populations of over a million people, and all that building on former farmland has led to a major downside, flooding. But instead of constructing big barriers like others have done, China is turning back to nature for the solution, upgrading its cities so that they welcome the water rather than hold it back.

 

 
 

This British farm went from a ‘biological desert’ to biodiversity hotspot

This British farm went from a ‘biological desert’ to biodiversity hotspot

by | Oct 3, 2020

During the spring and summer months, the birdsong on Knepp estate is a glorious cacophony of sound.

Walking through the scrubland of this 3,500-acre estate in West Sussex in the south of England, it’s hard to believe the tangled thickets and rugged pastures were once orderly arable fields.
The estate, which includes a 19th century castle, has belonged to the Burrell family for over 200 years. Charlie Burrell inherited it in 1985, when he was just 21.
“I came out of agricultural college incredibly enthusiastic about farming,” he says. “We’d been taught that conventional farming can work.”
But by the late 1990s, with the farm producing low yields and costs rising, the estate was facing serious financial trouble.

Burrell realized that the farm occupied “very poor agricultural land” and was destined never to produce high yields.
“I got to the point when I just felt that I couldn’t go on, because we actually were beginning to lose serious money,” says Burrell. “I needed to change and to change radically.”
Burrell and his wife, Isabella Tree, decided to turn to nature for a solution and in 2001, set about “rewilding” the estate. Knepp is now home to an astonishing array of biodiversity and has become a celebrated conservation success story, attracting many rare species and transforming the landscape from English country farm to untamed wilderness.
“We were living in a biological desert,” says Tree. “Now, ecologists are blown away all the time by just the amount of life here.”

Read the whole article by Hazel Pfeifer in CNN.

 

 

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