interview Keith Jennings director of Estates, Projects and Masterplanning, Natural History Museum, London, Edmund Fowles, co-principal, Feilden Fowels, Neil Davidson partner, J&L Gibbons × Youn Yaelim
This July, a five-acre site that had long lain dormant within the grounds of Natural History Museum London was transformed for the first time in its 140-year history. By renovating the existing western garden and the under-used eastern lawn, the museum greatly expanded its wildlife habitat area and added two modest buildings. Going beyond the simple concept of green space, the Natural History Museum London aims to help support ‘urban nature recovery’, embracing citizens, wildlife, and the entire planet. SPACE spoke with the Natural History Museum London team, architects, and landscape architects who led this project to learn how this newly opened nature in the heart of the city is coming to life.
Pond landscape in the Nature Discovery Garden
Youn Yaelim (Youn): The Natural History Museum London (hereinafter Museum) has newly opened a five-acre garden. The new garden is a part of the Museum’s Urban Nature Project. What are the specific aims of this Urban Nature Project, and what tasks were given to the architect and the landscape architect?
Keith Jennings (Jennings): There is a critical gap in understanding how nature in urban areas is responding to a changing planet, so through its Urban Nature Project, the Museum is creating new tools and techniques to study urban nature. As part of this, the Museum’s gardens have been transformed into an accessible, free-to-visit green space that will be a haven for people and wildlife, and a living laboratory that will make the gardens one of the most intensively studied sites of its kind in the wor...
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Keith Jennings
Keith Jennings is director of Estates, Projects and Masterplanning at the Natural History Museum, London. He has extensive experience in estate management and project leadership, with notable roles at various organisations such as the Natural History Museum, SOAS, Peak District National Park Authority, Hertfordshire County Council, and Enfield Council. Keith has successfully managed significant projects and transformational changes across different sectors, using his expertise to challenge the norm and engage stakeholders.
Edmund Fowles
Edmund Fowles co-founded Feilden Fowles with Fergus Feilden in 2009, having studied architecture at Cambridge University and the AA School. Feilden Fowles is an award-winning London-based architecture studio designing with a low-tech approach, delivering socially and environmentally sustainable buildings in the cultural, heritage and education sectors. Edmund has led many of the practice’s significant built projects, including Homerton College Dining Hall. He has taught and lectured widely, including at the RIBA, University of Cambridge, and London Metropolitan University where he taught a design studio for several years, exploring new forms of education design.
Neil Davidson
Neil Davidson is a partner at J&L Gibbons an established and visionary landscape architecture studio based in London. He is driven by a desire to work with the deep ecologies that shape the character of a place. The studio is dedicated to design quality, improving access to nature, championing living heritage, developing cultural experiences, creating landscapes for wellbeing, landscape stewardship and community empowerment through sharing knowledge and expertly crafted design solutions. Neil is a fellow of the Landscape Institute and a director of the social enterprise Landscape Learn.
