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OURcadia: Community Landscape Care

Part 2 Project 2024
Lauryn Thomson
Thomas Rogan
University of Sheffield | UK
OURCADIA envisions a new existence in the uplands surrounding Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. By re-appropriating the term Arcadia, we question what is defined as an idealistic 'natural' interpretation of life in the English upland countryside. Now we welcome scars of human activity as integral threads, engaging in a dynamic, symbiotic relationship with nature. Built on community-owned land, the project unfolds to support co-living, creativity, and learning spaces.

The project is centred around community rewilding, beginning with the rewetting of precious blanket bogs to form carbon-sequestering peat and slower water run-off into the valley, safeguarding Hebden Bridge’s future in the climate crisis.

Commencing with a call-to-action manifesto and art exhibition in the town, the project employed a methodology that integrates social, ecological and architectural issues by illustrating critical local challenges of land ownership, flooding, and biodiversity.

The settlement uses regenerative approaches and materials, from 18th-century farmhouse ruin interventions, through to new experimental regenerative facades for the co-living houses, which adapt local live-work typologies. The buildings and landscape consolidate to form a unique and robust vernacular, inspired by the local environment. Stone remnants will eventually provide new frameworks for life, provoking memories of the community that can be reimagined by the next generation.


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2024
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