The Urban Nature Project is the Natural History Museum’s response to the growing pressures of urbanisation and biodiversity loss on people and planet. It aims to give people across the UK, no matter who they are or where they live, the motivation and tools to safeguard nature in towns and cities.
Change starts at home, with the transformation of the Museum’s five-acre gardens into a welcoming, accessible and biologically diverse green space in the heart of London.
The project transforms an underused garden into an urban oasis, telling the story of change on our planet over time. New areas of habitat allow nature to flourish, and create a living laboratory where scientists can monitor, record and study urban wildlife.
Feilden Fowles led the transformation of the gardens, working closely with landscape architects J & L Gibbons, alongside a multidisciplinary design team including Gitta Gschwendtner, engineers HRW and Max Fordham.
The design team have worked closely with the Museum’s scientists to sensitively develop a series of outdoor living galleries, providing opportunities to learn about and explore nature. Integrated within the landscaping are two new buildings: the Nature Activity Centre supported by AWS; and Garden Kitchen.
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Project: The Urban Nature Project
Location: South Kensington, London
Building Type: Learning, cafe
Project budget: £25 million
Status: RIBA Stage 5 Construction
Architect: Feilden Fowles
Landscape architect: J&L Gibbons
3D design: Gitta Gschwendtner
Structural engineers: EngineersHRW
Fern engineer: Structure Workshop
M&E, Lighting and Acoustic engineers: Max Fordham
Principal contractor: Walter Lilly
Project management: Mace
Quantity surveyor: Mace
Sustainability consultant: Mace
Planning consultant: Deloitte and Lichfields
Heritage consultant: Purcell
Access consultant: Earnescliffe
Civil engineering: Infrastruct CS
Pedestrian flow: Buro Happold
Specialist planting consultant: Fossil Plants
