Plan drawing with layers of collage and hand drawing showing contours, land uses and vegetation on the Braid Hills.
Braid Hills collage exploring and documenting relationships between land form, dominant vegetation and land uses.
Project description

A Place to Be is a resilient future where the Braid Hills landscape is in flux, more-than-human species have an abundance of places to dwell, and where Edinburgh’s residents can exist within its enhanced dynamic ecosystems. This transformation is possible through a fundamental shift foregrounding multi-species needs. An ecological resilience is sought first through the process of encouraging a shifting mosaic of habitats in which no one ecosystem state is desired and conserved above others.

The transformation is also pursued on a societal level through the design of the hill as a public park, where people can simply be, immersed a functioning ecosystem, and challenge the idea of what is ‘enough nature’.  The emerging design responds to the local challenges facing Edinburgh.  Recreational, ecological and developmental pressures are increasing on the hills as the lowlands flood. Dually this project works to prevent causes of those issues whilst protecting and enhancing what exists.

Drawing of a hill range in section. Beneath the section line is a distorted pattern depicting different animals and plants, some of which no longer exist.
A drawing to acknowledge to the depths of the Braid hills and ground the project in this deep time.
Section drawing showing a gentle change in topography with mature scots pine trees, willow, birches and a large cedar. expand
An area of a golf course becomes a woodland ecological state before shifting again.
Three square plan drawings each showing planted species of trees and shrubs.
Planting of native trees and shrubs to increase ecological complexity
A plan drawing of a walled garden. Planting areas are represented using different patterns. A smaller plan beside it shows the same garden in the future with more community growing space.
Social ecologies evolve in a walled garden where nothing currently grows.
Digital collage showing two people sitting in the sun on a wooden bench chatting and drinking coffee. A man with a dog in a wheelbarrow walks along a path lined with lavender. In a greenhouse a woman is holding a spade.
A place to gather and grow.
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Related topics
Anthropocene
Landscapes
Queer
Temporality
Environment
Equalities
Landscape Architecture - MA
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