Heathfield Knoll

Client: Heathfield Knoll School, Wolverley, Worcestershire.

With EdgeDB, Branches Nationwide and Christopher Upton

[2023]

An outdoor learning and recreational area.

A wider plan for the schools landscape is to both reinterpret the Victorian gardens of the previous industrialist owner and echo the surrounding indigenous landscape.

Within this, I designed an outdoor learning and recreational area that combines elements of edible orchard space with grassy knolls and woodland play areas with the main theme of bringing a child to a ‘bees-eye view’ of the world. This fitted with our collaborative ethos that whilst having fun, children can begin to respect and care for the environment from an early age.

As there was a limited budget for the project we aimed to recycle as much timber from the wider site as possible and use plants available from a local nursery. However, through working with Christopher Upton, Co-founder of Zerodig.earth, native planting and soil management was proposed to allow for a more ecological approach in certain areas.

This is being revisited in a second stage of work after the children have had initial useage of the playground to find where these planting methods can best be implemented.