Proposals for a park on the site of a former steelworks on the river Don, Sheffield. The project combines flood alleviation, habitat creation, leisure and economic regeneration objectives.

Concept diagram

Pyramids

Piranesi - the aesthetic of ruins

Industrial spoil heaps colonised by vegetation

Masterplan. A large mount (top) uses spoil excavated to create a lagoon and series of reed beds. An education centre sits astride the lagoon with observation platforms

View of the site from the new earth mound. The lagoon (top) detains flood water from the river Don. The square depressions hold reed beds and open water ponds, through which water circulates.

Pyramid mounds composed of different natural and manmade materials from the site act as sculptural objects and test sites for the ability of vegetation to colonise different substrates. They highlight and dramatise the process of land remediation and ecological succession.

View along reed beds (left) and spoil pyramids (right), with the monumental earthwork top left.

Each pyramid is comprised of a different material from the site: earth and slag, earth, alluvial clay, sand and gravel. The pyramids will be left alone so that vegetation colonises them to form different plant communities in response to the site conditions, a combination of sculptural art installation and ecological planting trial.

View from the bridge entering the site over the River Don, towards the earthwork mound

Diagram showing water circulation through the site. Pumped by wind turbines on the mound, water enters a series of ponds and reed beds, then the main lagoon. Sluice gates control water flow between the lagoon and the river, enabling the lagoon to retain large water volumes during flood events.

Detail from masterplan, showing proposed hexagonal education centre with green roof, sited on a peninsula in the new lagoon. Observation platforms and a deck surround the building.