5 minute read
New life for the landscape of the Natural History Museum
A carefully reconstructed pond is central to the development of the Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum. Paul Lincoln interviews Victoria Sutherland, the project’s lead landscape architect.
The Natural History Museum together with the V&A and the Science Museum are at the heart of London’s original ‘Albertopolis’1 museum district in South Kensington. Although many museums in the area have undergone significant investment, this transformation includes not only two new buildings but also a complete reimagining of its five-acre gardens to create an accessible, biologically diverse educational green space in the heart of the capital.
The project will transform grounds which have often been overlooked by visitors into an outdoor extension of the Museum, telling the story of the way in which the planet is changing over time. The plan is to allow new areas of habitat to flourish, create an open-air laboratory where Museum scientists can study urban wildlife and create a significant amenity for visitors, especially young people.
The design team includes architects Feilden Fowles and landscape architects J&L Gibbons. They have worked with the Museum’s scientists to develop a series of outdoor living galleries. Set in the landscape are two new buildings: the Nature Activity Centre and Garden Kitchen.
The project revisits the existing green space and is designed to protect and increase biodiversity on the site, extending and enhancing woodland, grassland, scrub, fen, reedbed, hedgerow, and wetlands. The scheme also includes the reconfiguration of the existing pond.
The gardens are arranged thematically into two areas.
The Evolution Garden is an educational experience for visitors telling the story of time, from the Cambrian period 540 million years ago to the present day, through geology, planting, and interpretive exhibits. The Nature Discovery Garden, which is already home to thousands of species of British flora and fauna, will explore the impact of humanity through a series of habitats.
Within the Nature Discovery Garden, the Darwin Centre Courtyard explores ‘future nature’ through emergent and pioneer species, and possible approaches to climate adaptation, resilient communities, and promoting improved biodiversity within our cities.
Victoria Sutherland outlined the project to date and explained that there was an existing but little-known wildlife garden. ‘The wildlife garden itself was conceived in 1995. It was intended as a microcosm of the major UK habitats, so it showcased woodland, wetland, grasslands, and heath. These habitats have evolved and adapted to the particular site conditions there, including the significant overshadowing created by the mature perimeter plane trees which were planted when the Museum was built. Some habitats have done really well, others, for example the heath, less well.’
‘At the heart of the landscape is an existing pond,’ explained Victoria.
‘Although the pond was doing well and was thriving, the pond liner had come to the end of its life. This project has taken the opportunity to replace this liner and improve accessibility around the pond in the process. The new design for the pond brings the water up to create what is a sunken pathway between the pond water bodies so that, for instance, a child in a wheelchair would be able to sit comfortably, lean over and participate in pond dipping activities.’
As the existing pond habitat was functioning well and there was a desire to minimise disruption, a translocation strategy was put in place. Ecologists collected the water, silt, vegetation, and pond life, putting them into temporary storage tanks in another part of the gardens.
Victoria noted that the reconstructed pond had been designed to be larger than the original by around 25%. ‘We’re pleased to say that it’s been a great success. The pond is more diverse than it would have been as a brand-new pond without the material being translocated back in.’
One aspect of the project’s sustainability ambitions was to reduce water demand, so planting palettes were developed both to cope with a fluctuating climate, and to capture run-off as much as possible. J&L Gibbons worked closely with engineers HRW to develop a drainage strategy that removed reliance on surface water gulleys, and instead captures rainwater in a series of planted swales, connected to below-ground attenuation and infiltration tanks.‘
The project is very unusual in that the Museum is creating an open-air learning space and so the level of interpretation outside will be as great as the interpretation inside.
Victoria said, ‘There are very distinct areas across the gardens. In the Evolution Garden, it’s very much about interpreting the story of planetary change across all biological and geological lifeforms, and in doing so, inspiring planetary ambassadors of the future.’
The wildlife garden itself was conceived in 1995. It was intended as a microcosm of the major UK habitats, so it showcased woodland, wetland, grasslands, and heath.
In the wildlife garden, there will be the new Nature Activity Centre, which focuses on the current composition of our habitats, as well as their future adaption capabilities, and provides educational facilities for school groups as well as laboratory facilities for in-house scientists.
In the Nature Discovery Garden there will also be playful interpretation moments which are designed to encourage visitors to take a moment to pause and engage, and to process information they may have learned whilst exploring the exhibits.
Victoria concluded, ‘From the minute of entering, the gardens aim to be as much about providing an immersive, educational experience, as they are about creating a beautiful space to enjoy.’
