Cass lecturer starts a nature revolution upon the streets of London News from the School of Art, Architecture and Design

Siân Moxon encourages Londoners to adapt their gardens to encourage wildlife.

Date: 01 November 2018

Image credit; Viktoria Fenyes, an Architecture graduate.

Siân Moxon, senior lecturer and sustainability coordinator at The Cass, has hit a new milestone in her Rewild My Street campaign, with the launch of a new website.

Rewild My Street aims to inspire and provide guidance for people wishing to adapt their homes, gardens and streets to encourage urban wildlife. It seeks to bring London’s streets back to life, reversing the trend of them becoming grey and unsustainable.

Siân’s comments on the core idea of Rewild My Street:

‘The concept behind Rewild My Street means there would be no more paved over front gardens, no more felled street trees and no more synthetic lawns. It would instead bring back real greenery and real life. Every small change can add up to make a big difference. Children growing up on the street would have nature on their doorsteps, while residents of all ages would regain a sense of community, coming together for Neighbourhood Wildlife Watch events’.

Siân inspires the public by designing and producing vision drawings of a reimagined typical residential street in London, which can all be found on the Resources pages of her new website. These include: a street plan, aerial view, street elevation and garden elevation. Each image is used to highlight different information - wildlife habitats, DIY activities to attract wildlife, products for wildlife, or species of urban wildlife - and is accompanied by a table of links to associated external expert guidance, which she researched and collated. 

The launch of the website, funded by The Cass and the Big Idea Challenge, took place at the Cardiff University Generosity Conference 2018, where Siân presented a paper on her project. This conference focuses on academics and creative practitioners presenting ways in which ‘architecture aspires to, or may be expected to, give more than is necessary’.

Last year, Siân won a design competition with her Rewild My Street idea, held by the National Park City Foundation, which challenged artists, designers and architects to imagine what London would look like as a national park. Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London and a London Met alumnus, made the aim for London to be declared the world’s first National Park City part of his environmental strategy, with goals to make 50% of the capital greenspace and its tree cover by 10% by 2050.