Design by Nature at The Southbank

Students from GMD Year 2 exhibited design concepts and proposals at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in March as part of a unique conference curated by guerrilla geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison who has proposed that London becomes the first ever global city to become a National Park.

This is an extraordinary development for an extraordinary city. Recognised as one of the world’s most important urban habitats, green, blue and open spaces occupy over 60% of London. Over 1,300 Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation cover 19% of the National Park*. Londonwide the capital is home to more than 1,500 species of flowering plants and 300 species of bird.

Uniquely combining a biodiverse landscape with nature reserves, parks and gardens, the Greater London National Park* covers an area of over 1,500 km2 and is home to more than 8 million people. With over 300 languages spoken, 170 museums, four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and one of Britain’s National Trails the Greater London National Park* is open for you to explore.

Students Jack Walsh, George Towerton, Nathida Khumsap and Carlotta Gallo presented a future vision of Rooftop London, Jennika Sapigao developed a city-wide Bird Nesting scheme, Tim Lucraft presented a Green map of bridle paths for London, Shayln Wilkins, Yan Thompson, Nina Vukadin and Pheobe Salter proposed an innovative participatory Walking mobile app entitled Hive, Darshil Shah proposed a new Green Safari Bus, Alistair Brown, Charlotte Boag and Yiran Shi presented a city wide Seed-bombing campaign and Liam Mcintyre and Callum Griffiths explored the notion of Private & Public space. Many of these projects emerged from Design By Nature, a year 2 Collaborative project which explored biomimicy. Daniel was delighted with so many innovative proposals for the Greater London National Park, a scheme that will feature in the Mayor of London’s Election campaign in 2016. http://www.greaterlondonnationalpark.org.uk