Community Wildlife Park gains new international celebrity resident on its 10th anniversary.
Ten years ago our research team, staff and students from 3D Design and Craft and Interior Architecture undertook a project to promote social cohesion and 'green building' in a community in Sussex. A spate of anti-social behaviour and quite serious unrest between different groups in the community around the village’s playing fields promoted a creative response from the Community21 research team.
May 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the launch of the project and as if in recognition the space has become the home of a very rare White Throated Sparrow.
Having worked with local land owners, community groups, the local council and funded as part of a lottery award wild-life initiative the team undertook an experimental engagement project aimed at supporting the community to reimagine the space through collaborative creativity. The site still retains features such as an outdoor classroom built by Brighton students but the structure has recently been commandeered by the hoards of birdwatchers who have descended on the site from all over the UK hoping to catch a glimpse of this incredibly rare, feathered resident.