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SUMMARY:Meadows in the metropolis: wildflowers and the urbanisation of nat
 ure recovery - Ben Platt (University of Cambridge) 
DTSTART:20260210T130000Z
DTEND:20260210T140000Z
UID:TALK244192@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:María Inés Hernández
DESCRIPTION:Wildflower meadows are widely recognised to be in severe decli
 ne across rural Britain\, with estimates suggesting the loss of around 97%
  of species-rich grasslands since the mid-twentieth century. At the same t
 ime\, wildflower meadows are proliferating in cities – where they are in
 creasingly deployed as instruments of urban nature recovery\, climate adap
 tation\, and place-making. How\, then\, did the meadow come to be reconsti
 tuted as an urban landscape form in the UK? This paper explores this quest
 ion through the proliferation of the ‘modular meadow’: an ecological f
 ormation that has become dislocated from its traditional agro-ecological d
 efinition\, mass produced at scale within agronomic systems to be purchase
 d ‘off the shelf’\, and subsequently respatialised\, or ‘rolled out
 ’\, within the urban environment. But the meadow does not travel intact.
  Once installed\, modular meadows are metabolised by urban conditions\, gi
 ving rise to novel\, recombinant ecologies that exceed design intention wh
 ile often overwriting existing\, sensitive urban ecological conditions. Th
 is research deployed a ‘follow the thing’ methodology to understand th
 e political\, cultural and ecological forces that constitute the urban wil
 dflower meadow. It traces meadows from their production in rural wildflowe
 r farms\, their uptake and installation by urban planners and designers\, 
 and their ongoing enmeshment with existing urban ecologies. The paper conc
 ludes by arguing for more situated\, historically informed\, and ecologica
 lly attuned approaches to urban meadow-making.
LOCATION:HB101\, Sir William Hardy Building Seminar Room
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