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Elisha Nathoo
Diploma 4
Touching green belt land is mainstream taboo, the image and ‘setting and special character of historic towns’ is preserved through extensive protective legislation which covers 45-50% of the land in the United Kingdom and maintains an 80% use of land for agriculture, of which only 25% is used for growing crops and the remainder is used for grazing, whilst its low contribution to GDP and employment remains respectively at 0.7% and 1.8%, meanwhile 60% of the countries food supplies are outsourced. The protective legislation is preserving the pastoral image of the landscape and the environment as a resource. The proposal of the project is to make the Green Belts of Britain wild. The Green Belt Policy is currently the only major planning tool in Britain and was conceived over half a century ago. Contrary to popular understand, the green belts are still growing, and between 1979 and 1993 the green belt area designated in England doubled. However, this legislation is no longer relevant as progress, development, employment, social integration and economic diversification in rural areas is stifled. The affordable housing shortage in major cities increases and London’s commuter belt grows ever further beyond the green belt whose original purpose was to prevent the urban sprawl of growing cities. Green belts were so called long before the word ‘green’ gained the wider use it has today - as such, there are no ecological principles on which this planning policy is based.The geology and topography of the Thames Estuary.The 12 initial projects of identified ecologies and London’s brownfield sites. The twelfth project is linked specifically to the Foster and Partners Thames Hub Airport, where the destruction of wetlands can be compensated for by the relocation of habitats. Projects are managed on a local and national level. The initial projects grow and connect with one another, as activities in the wild areas and knowledge increases, the management of different areas begins to differentiate according to geological, topographic and habitat variations as ecosystems do not respond to legislative boundaries but to environmental ones. Ecosystems grow and evolve, responding to climatic and seasonal flux. Principal infrastructural routes including the railway lines, the M25, major roads and the settlements in the former ‘Green Belt’ are now embedded in wilderness and its associated activities.The wild activities build upon and grow from identified existing ecologies and infrastructural networks, working with geological and legislative borders.The Foster and Partners Thames Hub Airport, linked to wetlands, ecosystems, associated industry, production, infrastructure, educational and research institutions. Wildlife Corridors through Agricultural Land Coupled with Infrastructural Networks for the Re-Development of the Image of the Landscape - Attaching to existing rail lines, motorways, and the High Speed Rail RouteGreen Belt Policy, the Biodiversity Action Plan and all Sites of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSIs) are modified to build ecological networks.