An Urban Wildlife Research Centre and Nature Reserve

This project attempts to tackle how people can co-inhabit the urban environment alongside nature by proposing an ecologically sensitive urban wildlife research centre and nature reserve. The main aims are to promote biodiversity for the benefit of preserving species, minimising the affects of climate change and involving all members of the local community in its development and understanding.

Urban settlements are dramatically losing their ecological diversity, it is estimated that cities on average retain only 25% of estimated pre-urban species diversity over a 50 year period. Planning, restoration, and management of plant communities in urban spaces is critical to conserving and enhancing biodiversity and the ecosystem services vegetation provides.

My project enhances the biodiversity within the city by dividing planting areas into either managed or unmanaged spaces for ecological development. Managed vegetation can be found in the public park space found on the west side of the site allowing the public to have a tactile relationship with rich flora to help develop a greater appreciation for its place in our daily lives. Meanwhile, the unmanaged vegetation found at the southern end of the site can help encourage a more enhanced permaculture to help ecology flourish. The urban wildlife research centre can be found on the east end of the same site as the urban park space to help encourage a wider audience to be exposed to the developments of the research centre. The discoveries developed by the employees of the centre are to be exhibited to investors on site and then implemented directly into Merthyr's town centre - making the town urban biodiversity an ongoing experiment involving all members of the community. The buildings themselves are also designed from natural plant material such as timber and hemp which are constructed such that they harvest rainwater to be used in constructions themselves.

I believe my project successfully harbours a wider community to the site, helping to elevate the individuals baseline expectation of nature in urban spaces. By encouraging a wide biodiversity to the site, from woodland birds to freshwater fish, the site can successfully inspire a young minds to become innovators in the biological field or encourage an older member of society to take up gardening in their retirement. If this project were to be realised, I would hope it would encourage more city officials to make their urban spaces co-inhabited by both people and ecology.