The Wild Regent
Yes… I drew cliffs in the middle of Regent’s Park. But hear me out!
‘The Wild Regent’ is a concept proposal I did a couple of months back, envisioning ‘a’ future for city parks.
A park is an extraordinary oasis of peace and tranquility in our cities. This is a place where we can escape our daily stress, the hustle and bustle of the busy city, and where we can recharge our batteries with fresh air and sunlight.
And that must not change.
It has been proven again and again that green spaces help reduce stress, improve our mental and physical state, boost mindfulness, productivity and creativity, and even help better build social connections throughout our communities.
We desperately need the health benefits these spaces provide, especially while we live in a world that deals daily with pollution and overcrowding.
We need a place to escape the city.
And we should not have to leave the city to find it.
-42.0cm x 59.4 cm / pencil on paper-
In a sea of serene central parks, could we still be missing that natural element that truly makes us forget we are in a city?
For generations we have designed beautifully polished parks to populate our inner cities, and while the urban environment evolves and expands, finding a piece of untamed land becomes a luxury.
In my proposal I chose to keep the wilderness at the heart of the design and place the polished elements at the border of the park … as well as below it.
Our subconscious needs the wilderness element from time to time. It is programmed for it. We need to walk on grass not on asphalt; we need to run amongst trees, not on a perfectly designed route; we need to climb some rocks, not just stairs.
When it comes to technology, I understand that it will continue to advance, and certain aspects of it will undoubtedly be incorporated into the green spaces within the city. Let's welcome the changes, and design it so it makes our experiences better.
I am sure we will be able to design and build the ultimate park that can combine everything. A park that has both the serenity one searches, and the wilderness one craves.
Go wild!
Owner & Principal, Todd Jersey Architecture Inc.
4 年Fantastic
Architect
4 年Hi Iza. Exotic drawings as ever. So have you seen the ‘existing mountains’ in the zoo on Regent’s Park? The Mappin terraces.... “The Mappin Terraces in London Zoo are the largest and most prominent of the Zoo's animal enclosures and were designed to provide a naturalistic mountain habitat for bears and other wildlife. It has housed polar bears, Ibex and snow leopards. The terraces were designed by Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell in 1913-14, who was the Secretary of the London Zoological Society from 1903-35 and funded by John Newton Mappin. The architect was John James Joass, engineer Alexander Drew and the contractors D G Somerville and Company. The enclosure comprises a three tiered quadrant with hills, built of reinforced concrete constructed on the Kahn system -a method of concrete reinforcement invented by Julius Kahn in 1903”