Name: Restoring Ripple Nature Reserve
Date: 2024
Location: Newham, London, UK
Client: Arkwood Landscape Architects & London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Date: 2024
Location: Newham, London, UK
Client: Arkwood Landscape Architects & London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
I was commissioned by Arkwood Landscape Architects to work with local residents, community groups and landowners to shape a shared vision for Ripple Nature Reserve, a wild and much-loved green space in Barking. Between August and October 2024, I met with 116 people through pop-ups, workshops, interviews and a forest school workshop to understand what people value about the reserve and what they hope for its future.
The site comes with significant challenges: it is split between multiple landowners, including areas directly beneath National Grid pylons, and each organisation holds different priorities and ideas for the future. At the same time, the reserve has deep community roots, with local activists playing a central role in its original creation and holding a strong sense of responsibility for its care.
Working closely with Arkwood, I brought these invested groups together for open, honest conversations about how the reserve could be reopened and cared for in the years ahead. People shared a strong desire to protect its wildness and biodiversity, improve safety and access, and create opportunities for ecological learning and community involvement. These insights now form a community-rooted brief that will guide the next phase of design and long-term stewardship of the reserve.
The site comes with significant challenges: it is split between multiple landowners, including areas directly beneath National Grid pylons, and each organisation holds different priorities and ideas for the future. At the same time, the reserve has deep community roots, with local activists playing a central role in its original creation and holding a strong sense of responsibility for its care.
Working closely with Arkwood, I brought these invested groups together for open, honest conversations about how the reserve could be reopened and cared for in the years ahead. People shared a strong desire to protect its wildness and biodiversity, improve safety and access, and create opportunities for ecological learning and community involvement. These insights now form a community-rooted brief that will guide the next phase of design and long-term stewardship of the reserve.