Re-green North Kensington
Re-green North Kensington
Location
London
Client
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea / London Festival of Architecture
Collaborator
Year
2024
Photos
This installation transforms a corner of North Kensington using the power of plants to reconnect people to nature and each other. It takes the form of a sculpted pocket garden formed entirely from upcycled oil barrels and recycled plastic to create a new undulating landscape for the community to explore, play, relax and perform.
The project was co-designed with local community group Grow To Know, a west London non-profit founded after the Grenfell Tower fire, who use plants, horticulture and a connection to nature as a way of healing the community following the tragedy.
The design of our gardens draws on the colours, patterns and traditions of the local community. The Notting Hill Carnival and the tradition of upcycling discarded oil drums to create Steel Pans inspired us to create the gardens entirely from upcycled industrial oil drums. We hope that the transformation of a discarded waste product containing toxic and polluting oil into a beautiful, lush community garden will be an inspiration to help us live more sustainably and sends a powerful message of our need to move beyond oil and other damaging fossil fuels.
The oil drum is the basic module of the garden, transformed for a variety of uses including planters, seating, insect habitat, stages and lighting. The bright colours and decorative patterns are the result of a community engagement workshop with students from the local primary school and are inspired by the eclectic range of goods from around the world found in nearby Portobello Road Market.
Re-greening as an educational tool is at the heart of our design so the garden includes a large number and variety of plants. Each plant includes an infographic providing information about the plant and its cultural significance to the diverse communities of North Kensington.