Making space work for people and nature
The city can be an unyielding place with few places to sit and enjoy the sun.
Urban Wilderness is a landscape design and environmental consultancy based in Leeds and Sheffield. We are a close-knit team of Landscape Architects, Masterplanners and Urban Designers, offering our clients a wide range of services. We design at all levels from large open spaces and new settlements to individual gardens and play spaces.
As our name suggests, we specialise in bringing the best of the world beyond the town into the urban environment. Similarly the more ‘natural’ systems of the countryside require sensitive design and management to successfully incorporate new development into existing spatial strategies, land uses and habitats. Every space has its own merits and we strive to embrace these to produce designs which are sensitive to their context and character.
We help to physically shape our environment and the way in which we experience it.
Southwell
This project included the detailed hard and soft landscape design for a new signature building within Nottingham Trent University's Brackenhurst Campus. The landscape sought to integrate the new building into the…
More info on Reception and Environment Centre Take a look at our projectsYork
Urban Wilderness were commissioned to work with McArthurGlen to develop a new, temporary garden for the Bloom! Festival in York; “A fun floral festival celebrating 250 years of the Ancient Society of…
More info on Bloom! St. Helen’s Moorish Stitch Take a look at our projectsWirksworth
Following successful tender submission, Urban Wilderness were commissioned to reinvigorate a much loved community greenspace closely connected to Wirksworth town centre. Having recently been saved from potential development through purchase by the…
More info on Wirksworth Meadows Take a look at our projectsPeak District National Park
Urban Wilderness was commissioned by the National Trust to develop a spatial plan for the landscape at the Longshaw Estate (Peak District National Park) with an ambition to optimise the visitor…
More info on Longshaw Estate Take a look at our projectsSheffield
Urban Wilderness supported the University of Sheffield’s Department of Landscape to develop a ‘green barrier’ within Hunters Bar Primary School, with the intention of mitigating the effects of pollution emanating from…
More info on Hunters Bar Primary School Take a look at our projectsSheffield
Off the back of the award winning success of the Hunters Bar School, where Urban Wilderness designed a 200ft long living barrier around the school’s playground in collaboration with PhD researcher María…
More info on Green Barrier Guide Take a look at our projectsKent
Urban Wilderness were commissioned to work alongside Church Lukas Architects to develop a new student accommodation scheme in Canterbury that seeks to balance biodiversity enhancement with space for student health and…
More info on Canterbury Take a look at our projectsSouthampton
This urban realm scheme integrates six student accommodation blocks together via a series of courtyard spaces. Like all urban residential schemes, the landscape sought to deliver a richness in both user…
More info on Portswood Road Take a look at our projectsNorth Leeds
The Meanwood Valley runs from the city centre of Leeds out to its rural edges. The valley follows the Meanwood Beck which is a tributary of the River Aire. It provides a much-needed green corridor…
More info on Meanwood Valley Strategy and Climate Resilience Plan Take a look at our projectsNorth York Moors National Park
Working for the Benedictine community of nuns who had moved north from Worcestershire, Urban Wilderness produced landscape proposals from concept through to construction for the nuns’ new monastery in Yorkshire. With Fielden…
More info on Stanbrook Abbey Take a look at our projectsAshford
This legacy project seeks to create a new sustainable neighbourhood in Ashford, providing a framework for social inclusivity, environmental stewardship and future economic prosperity. The project aspires to create a truly…
More info on Court Lodge Take a look at our projectsHarrogate
Urban Wilderness were commissioned by CEG to provide landscape design services associated with a new office refurbishment in Harrogate at Central House. The design for this scheme sought to deliver both landscape functionality,…
More info on Central House Take a look at our projectsHalifax
Urban Wilderness were appointed by the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation to support a planning application for the development of Calderdale Hospital, Halifax, providing a TVIA and Estate-Wide Landscape Strategy. The…
More info on Calderdale Hospital Take a look at our projectsSheffield
Our City Green is a proposed festival committed to improving people’s health and wellbeing through connection to, and exploration of, urban nature. The festival seeks to reinvigorate underused green spaces across Sheffield,…
More info on Our City Green Take a look at our projectsBirkenhead
Working in close collaboration with Pozzoni Architects, Urban Wilderness developed an overarching site-wide landscape strategy, including the detailed application of a 100 bed Extra Care Scheme. At a site-wide level Urban…
More info on Rock Ferry, Assisted Living and Extra Care Take a look at our projectsShepshed
In response to local policy requirement, Urban Wilderness was commissioned to create a biodiversity strategy to ensure that the development of housing allocation sites along the Black Brook would positively address both the ecological…
More info on Black Brook Biodiversity Strategy Take a look at our projectsSheffield
In the 1920s, prominent garden designer of his day, Percy Cane, designed a new garden around a victorian villa in Sheffield. The villa now stands as a community library with poor access and…
More info on Broomhill Library Take a look at our projectsLeicester
Urban Wilderness were commissioned to design the landscape and recreational amenity spaces associated with a centre for excellence specialising in the care of visually impaired and blind residents. The design emphasises the existing…
More info on Vista, Care Centre Take a look at our projectsNottingham
Urban Wilderness developed a communal courtyard and landscape setting for an Extra Care scheme in Nottingham. The proposals sought to deliver safe, legible, engaging and beautiful spaces for both independent enjoyment and…
More info on Ellis Grove, Care Home Take a look at our projectsShangdong, China
Urban Wilderness participated in the “Shandong Mines Park” Reviving Mines Competition, organised by Non Architecture. The brief asked participants to explore the potential to transform the barren mines in the Zichuan…
More info on Reviving Mines, Paradise Reimagined Take a look at our projectsChester
This garden, created for Chester Zoo's Wild Worlds Festival, seeks to reveal the often hidden conservation work of Chester Zoo. It is inspired by the Zoo’s work to better understand the…
More info on Dormouse Garden Take a look at our projectsLeicestershire
South Loughborough comprises of a 49 hectare site which has been carefully designed to positively address potential issues relating to its edge of settlement location and the gap between Loughborough and…
More info on South Loughborough Take a look at our projectsLeeds
Urban Wilderness are a key partner in ‘The Holbeck Viaduct Group’, a consortium of local people and businesses who aim to involve the local people of Holbeck, and surrounding areas, in setting…
More info on Holbeck Viaduct Take a look at our projectsNottingham City Centre
A well designed landscape can foster a feeling of belonging, a recognisable identity, a community focus and a sense of place. These factors form part of both Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU)…
More info on Greening The City Strategy Take a look at our projectsHampshire
The historic market town of Andover is situated on the River Anton, 18.5 miles west of Basingstoke, 18.5 miles north-west of Winchester and 25 miles north of Southampton. The vision of…
More info on Andover Take a look at our projectsBrackenhurst, Southwell
In order to realise the Nottingham Trent University’s goal of improving student experience, its wider public image and its standing within the National Student Survey, a ‘Landscape Strategy’ has been developed…
More info on Brackenhurst Campus Take a look at our projectsBarnburgh
A full planning application for a landscape-led scheme within a section of the former Dearne Valley Railway cutting. The landowner has an obligation to undertake essential engineering works to a road…
More info on Railway Reclamation Park Take a look at our projectsGrayshott, East Hampshire
From its humble beginnings as a small farm shop and restaurant, Urban Wilderness worked with Big Apple Ventures to develop proposals to diversify the site into a visitor destination and luxury glamping…
More info on Applegarth Farm Take a look at our projectsWirksworth
The project brief was to create a flexible space that could be used for the town's Saturday markets whilst maintaining the peace and tranquility of a memorial garden. It was important from…
More info on Wirksworth Memorial Garden and Market Square Take a look at our projectsPortugal
Working in collaboration with Munro+Whitten (based in Leicester), Urban Wilderness won the Delegates Choice Award for the Lisbon University Design Ideas Competition. The competition formed part of the Landscapes and Life…
More info on Lisbon University Take a look at our projectsThe construction of new, isolated homes in the countryside requires a rigorous, innovative and context led design approach as outlined in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), Paragraph 80 (previously Paragraph…
More info on Paragraph 80 Homes Take a look at our projectsYork
Urban Wilderness were commissioned to assess the landscape surrounding the Designer Outlet to the south of York and to put forward a strategy of public realm improvements that would unify and…
More info on Designer Outlet York Take a look at our projectsUK
Landscape design at a private residential scale should revolutionise the way that a homeowner engages with their property. Effective garden design should both improve the functionality of your garden and your…
More info on Garden Design Take a look at our projectsHamstreet, Ashford
A landscape led masterplan on behalf of Hallam Land Management Ltd. This proposal sought to create a high-quality, attractive and sustainable community delivering a series of interconnected ‘Greens’, a range of…
More info on St Mary’s Green Take a look at our projectsGrantham
Harrowby Lane is a community-focused residential masterplanning project that seeks to focus pedestrian activity within the centre of the scheme whilst effectively integrating the development with the surrounding amenity assets and…
More info on Harrowby Lane Take a look at our projectsLiverpool
Recently completed landscape project which visually lifts the approach to the Health and Safety Executive's headquarters in Bootle, Liverpool. New planted mounds, featuring semi-mature tree and ornamental shrub planting and uplighting are…
More info on HSE Headquarters Take a look at our projectsKeele
Proposals for Keele University support the universities aims to both grow student numbers by an additional 1500 student accommodation rooms and to provide a sector leading student experience through the introduction…
More info on Keele University Campus Take a look at our projectsPagham
Working on behalf of Hallam Land Management Ltd, alongside LRM Planning and Brookbanks Consulting, Urban Wilderness designed and submitted proposals for a new mixed use scheme for up to 300 houses,…
More info on Hook Lane Take a look at our projects“Over 3 years we’ve challenged the team at Urban Wilderness to help us create a culture of great landscaping at our University. Through a combination of insightful strategic work, creative design and close attention to our needs as a client, we are now starting to realise the benefits that considered landscaping schemes can bring to our University. Our campus is getting greener all the time, and our students, staff and local community are very happy with the changes we’ve made. Urban Wilderness have been an excellent guide on that journey so far.” Chris Pryke-Hendy - Nottingham Trent University.