Endless Garden
Public space | Park
The brief was to develop an ecologically driven proposal for Parkwood Springs, a post-industrial site in Sheffield shaped by landfill and continual change. Focusing on a 10ha area of early succession, the project adopts an “ecology of recomposition”—working with existing conditions rather than fixing them. A light framework of paths and platforms reveals the site as an evolving mosaic, supporting access, legibility, and long-term change. Materials are reused from the site—stone, concrete, asphalt, timber—assembled to reflect their origin and ongoing weathering, avoiding an imposed palette. Tested through visualisations over time, the proposal shows how a simple geometric structure can guide movement and perception while allowing habitats to develop freely, setting conditions for ecological growth and a strong, time-based sense of place.
Principles for the “Ecology of Recomposition”—a novel ecological concept created in the initial phase of the project—provided the foundation for the proposal
The second part of this project proposed a tangible, design-driven response to the brief set in the initial phase.
The concept of the “Endless Garden” celebrates the rough, ruderal, and unfinished nature of the site as a ‘feature’ rather than a ‘bug’.
Success was defined by three goals describing the ecological, social, and material ambitions for the project
