Camden Highline

For far too long humans have considered themselves separate, distinct, dominant to the rest of nature. Nature has only been considered in terms of the value that we as humans bestow upon it, for our own purposes, and to satisfy our never-ending desire for consuming and accumulating more: more power, more things, more stuff. Years of constant abuse of our landscapes, our natural capital, our planet, through industrialisation and urbanisation, has not only resulted in lonely and lifeless places, but has left our precious and finite world on the brink of collapse.

Is there not a better way? Can we not imagine a relationship that replaces exploitation and destruction with compassion and care? Is there not a way of being in the world, in which both humans and nature thrive, with an understanding that we as humans are part of nature, rather than separate from it?

URBAN’s submission for this international competition looked to the Camden Highline as a catalyst for change. To be a transcendent place, created artfully, piece by piece, by the hope and vision of a diverse community; a place that frees us from the greyness of our ordinary lives, lifting us to an elevated plane of life, growth, harmony and beauty. Symbolically, the Camden Highline can provide inspiration for a new world, spreading the knowledge that radiant life will be experienced only when we embrace each other and all of nature and its beauty.