New beginnings: redefining our relationship with nature

This week we’ve been reflecting on our approach to a project's relationship to the natural world and its immediate surroundings as we presented our paragraph 80 project in the Surrey Hills to a Design Review Panel. The fundamental rationale for the project was to investigate whether it could be used as a catalyst to improve the woodland site’s biodiversity and ecology, using a regenerative strategy based on landscape character appraisal, whilst also radically redefining our connection with nature and natural cycles.

Terracette House visualisation

For our relationship with the natural world to be regenerative - rather than sustainable -  we need to work from a place of being a part of natural systems, rather than an outside influence on them. We are an inextricable part of natural systems and the definition of that  relationship needs to be ontological, not just philosophical - this is a defining issue of our time.

An important aspect of this approach for the Terracette house was the use of mycorrhizal networks, maintaining this connection between trees and plants that allows nutrient and information exchange - sometimes referred to as the ‘Wood Wide Web’ - by carefully looking after the soil health (through enriching with biochar and other strategies), and creating a literal, physical land-bridges between the roof gardens and wider landscape.

 In the process of preparing a presentation for a Design Review Panel, we’ve been able to reflect on how much work has gone into designing the Terracette House, showcasing the highest design standards in architecture and how much it really responds to the ecological, material and natural systems of the site, bringing an aliveness and connectivity to an otherwise poor quality woodland.

In more practical terms the project represents a new beginning for the woodland on the site, the improvements and caretaking it requires would not be practically possible without having someone living on the site. In summary: 

●      The design is a microcosm of the surrounding landscape character

●      Uses chalk from site as a building material

●      Reusing topsoil in green roofs, enriched with biochar

●      Creates a continuous mycorrhizal network connection between the woodland and roofs

●      Allows the woodland to integrate within the building plan

●      Creates a  balance between the woodland understory and overstory

●      Increases biodiversity and resilience in the woodland

Design Review panels are set up as an independent body of design professionals who can give an impartial assessment of a project, and make recommendations or objections -  in this case whether the project meets the requirements set out in Paragraph 80 of national planning policy (see previous blog post). The panel were delighted with our proposals, and we’re eagerly waiting for their formal feedback to be able to add the detail needed to advance the project on to a planning application.