It is a conventional approach to believe that humans are the most important entities when it comes to making impactful change. However, non-human participants play an equally – if not more so – significant role in the introduction of change in our cities.

This project develops the subversive concept of destructive construction to regenerate post-industrial sites across Sheffield. When trees fall, their trunks and branches decay, providing nutrients to the earth, supporting and accelerating the growth of the forest itself. Is it also possible to make our built artefacts support their ecologies, like the fallen tree?

With guided citizen actions through destructive guerrilla greening and the participation of nature’s force acting on the imperfect relics, this proposal is an opportunity for citizens to engage in the city-making process for their well-being and sense of belonging. It is also a way to acknowledge and encourage an understanding of our entangled existence with nature, to build up a collaborative effort to develop a biodiverse and climate-resilient city.

Eventually, these abandoned spaces with different temporalities will resurrect to make the city bloom with greenery on the skeletons of industrialisation, celebrating the unique history of this Steel City.