Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum

Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum

Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum

Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum

The Urban Nature Project reimagines the Natural History Museum’s 5-acre gardens to increase biodiversity, accessibility, scientific research and best practice outdoor nature-learning all year round. It has been designed as a response to the urgent need to monitor and record changes to the UK’s urban nature and to develop skills to study in this field, as part of a national drive to re-engage people with the natural world and urban wildlife. The project transforms an underused garden into an urban oasis, creating significant new areas of habitat and biodiversity, re-presenting the grounds as a living laboratory.

J&L Gibbons collaborated closely with architects Feilden Fowles on the garden transformation, supported by a multidisciplinary design team. The design team worked with the Museum’s scientists to sensitively develop a series of outdoor living galleries providing opportunities to learn about and explore nature.

In the east this includes the new Evolution Garden, a journey from Deep Time to modern day, where visitors can learn about 2.7 billion years of Earth’s history. This is told through an immersive timeline of plants, rocks of different geological periods from across the UK, and representations of reptiles, birds, dinosaurs and mammals.

In the west this includes the Nature Discovery Garden, supported by the Cadogan Charity, which extends and enhances woodland, grassland, wetlands, and explores approaches to climate adaptation set within an urban forest of the future. The gardens include two new buildings: the Nature Activity Centre, supported by Amazon Web Services, and the Garden Kitchen.

The Urban Nature Project represents an inspirational case study for repurposing urban spaces to increase biodiversity and provide urban cooling, offering recreational and wellbeing benefits, and enabling scientific research to inspire people - in particular young people - to develop a love for nature and become the naturalists of the future.

Selected SDG project categories specific to this entry:

4 - Quality Education

9 - Industry innovation and infrastructure

11 - Sustainable cities and communities

13 - Climate Action

17 - Partnership for the goals

Other collaborators:

Sustainability and Cost Consultant - Mace

Planning Consultant – Deloitte / Lichfields
Heritage Consultant – Purcell 
Access Consultant – Earnescliffe 
Civil Engineering – Infrastruct OS 
Pedestrian Flow Access – Buro Happold 
Specialist Planting Consultants – Fossil Plants
Structural Engineer (Fern) – Structure Workshop
Artist/Fabricators (Fern) – Factum Arte

51.496715, -0.1763672

Collaborators
Natural History Museum
Feilden Fowles
Gitta Gschwendtner
engineersHRW
Max Fordham
Year of the project conception
2019
Year of completion of the project
2024
COST (€/m²) ($/m²) (€/ha) ($/ha)
Confidential
Price category
Articulation
Price subcategory
Jardines espacios de infraestructuras públicas
Surface
2.01
Customer type
Administració pública
Customer Name
Natural History Museum
U.M.
Ha
Construction company
Walter Lilly
Works management
Mace
Maintenance manager
Natural History Museum
Maintenance costs (€/m²)
Confidential
Address
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
Coordinates UTM
30U 695992.39m E 5708844.56m N
City / Place
London
Region
Greater London
Country
United Kingdom