Royal Parks Framework
A managed rewilding of a historic park
Location: London, UK
Client: Royal Parks
Year: 2020
Site Area: n/a
As one of London’s most popular parks, Hyde Park is appreciated for boldly standing the test of time, and for reflecting our city’s history and pride. While always respecting this cherished park’s character and heritage, there are considerable environmental, social, and economic challenges we face, which will bring some inevitable transformation to the park’s historic fabric.
As part of their framework entry to the Royal Parks, URBAN defined a set of proactive improvements that responds to climate change, biodiversity challenges, and at the same time accommodating increasing visitor numbers and a variety of additional uses.
Focusing on a small area of the park, an extract was developed between the Serpentine through to Rotten Row, demonstrating a range of sensitive ecological, management and masterplan interventions needed to achieve a meaningful solution to the complex issues faced. In refreshing this historic park to incorporate more habitat and meet the needs of the 21st century, we can improve connections between people and nature, the park become a symbolic and literal location of health and well-being in the city, and a marker of resilience to inspire beneficial responses to the challenges currently faced by humanity.
