The Golden Gates project, for the Essex Wildlife Trust Thameside Nature Discovery Park, forms a picnic area and ecology focused gardens, which will create a destination point in the park with strong links to the site's industrial heritage.

This project has been developed by Writtle Design graduate, Sharon Chilvers, for her dissertation entitled 'Industrial Wilds’, has now been written into the nature park’s future vision. Sharon approached us to work alongside her - we have pushed each other hard to create an immersive visitor experience, that showcases sustainable and ecological design, also alluding to the nature park’s former industrial past. Our aims were to implement design for future sustainability, enhancing the significant ecological assets, and demonstrating what can be achieved for anyone at any scale. The picnic area features experimental beds with different low-nutrient substrates to offer a view of what is possible to be grown on brownfield sites. The majority of greening on site will be achieved through seeding wildflowers to kickstart the plant colonies, while allowing time and nature to take over, developing successionary planting groups over years and decades.