George Fereday, School of Art, Architecture and Design, leads collaborative project to enhance community engagement with urban woodland.
Date: 22 May 2025
FORESTED (Future-Oriented Regeneration of Ecological Spaces through Timber, Education and Design) is a regenerative design collaboration between London Metropolitan University, The Royal Danish Academy and Bexley Council, intended to amplify ecological citizenship in one of London’s largest urban woodlands.
Beginning in September 2025, the 12-month project will provide woodland furniture within Lesnes Abbey Woods, made from locally sourced trees, opening the landscape to increased amenity use and enhanced local ecology. This work will be led by George Fereday, Associate Teaching Professor at the School of Art, Architecture and Design.
Funded by the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+, this project will enhance engagement with 88 hectares of urban woodland, using digital design tools and community fabrication of public furniture from underutilised hardwood tree species. The project will take place at a newly built woodland hub, ‘The Clearing’, and engage established community volunteer groups in advocacy for the local ecology.
Connecting woodland management, in-situ use of harvested timber, and amenity access to woodland, the project will create a template for ecological citizenship in other community woodlands. The project aligns both with the University’s strategy of ‘giving back to the city’ set out in its Civic Statement, and regional goals set out in the London Urban Forest Plan, including:
- Goal 2 “Manage more of London’s woodlands to maximise their benefits for people and wildlife”
- Goal 10 “Recognis(ing) the productive potential of London’s urban forest and support woodland enterprise”
The Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ is a UK Research and Innovation funded project based at the Royal College of Art. Responding to the urgency of climate and ecological crises, the Network funds innovative, short-term projects that explore Ecological Citizenship for a sustainable digital society.
In 2025, applicants were invited to share their ideas with the Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ around the theme of The Natural World. FORESTED was one of 15 ground-breaking projects selected for funding, out of 85 applications received.
George Fereday, Principle Investigator, said: “Support from the Ecological Citizens Network + will help us demonstrate the latent potential of urban woodland for ecological and societal change. Using digital tools, we will intertwine functional use of hardwood, enhance woodland ecologies and expand human experiences of these vital urban spaces. We hope this combination will reinvigorate local woodland culture and act as a template for ecological conservation and community action in other council-run woodlands across the region.”
Anne Markey, Dean of the School of Art, Architecture and Design, added: “I am delighted that George Fereday has been awarded funding by the Ecological Citizen(s) project which will enable him to continue his valuable research into the use of woodland timber for sustainable structural design to address Climate Change whilst supporting our treasured woodlands.”
Ecological Citizen(s) Network+ is an EPSRC / UKRI funded project: EP/W020610/1.
Prototype roundwood deck. Student making workshop, Lesnes Abbey Woods, April 2025. Image credit: George Fereday