Often described as derelict, abandoned and marginal, urban wildscapes are frequently overgrown with vegetation and host a wide range of human and non-human activities.

Usually seen as undesirable, these landscapes have recently been re-evaluated. The book “Urban Wildscapes” by Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan demonstrates that they have far greater significance than is commonly thought, and that an appreciation of their particular qualities can inform a far more sustainable approach to the planning, design and management of the wider urban landscape.

Wildscapes are often portrayed in children’s literature as places where characters experience great adventures, which in reality many children growing up in urban environments don’t have access to.

The poem “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein alludes to an “in-between” place that, through a child’s imagination, is lively and joyful, away from the sometimes harsh realities of cities.

The proposal aims to provide a space where primary school aged children can learn about the importance of urban wildlife, as well as practical ways of helping other species thrive in the city, which can be implemented within the site and further afield, through workshops and other manual activities, taking place mainly outdoors but supported by a pavilion-type main teaching space.

The site is located on an existing car park within the Brandon Estate in Kennington, adjacent to Kennington Park, in south London.

Although there are many green spaces surrounding the site, there is an opportunity to transform these in order to increase biodiversity as well as to make it more inviting and engaging for children.

The Young Rewilders’ Pavilion could become a beacon in the community. The building itself would act as a “third teacher”, drawing from the idea that the spaces used by children should be an embodiment of the ideas being learned within them.

The proposal for the pavilion is based on the reconceptualisation of the existing landscape surrounding the site, which would be reclaimed by the local community and transformed from a modernist idealised picturesque landscape into a wildscape.

Within this wildscape, the “place where the sidewalk ends” features a long-lost cottage that can be found by those who take a detour from the main path connecting the Estate with Kennington Park. There, among trees and overgrown vegetation, children, animals and plants find refuge from the busy city.