Responding radically to the twin climate and biodiversity crises, atelier Some Kind of Nature attends to the entangled fate of organisms. We acknowledge the impact of homo sapiens on the physical, chemical, and biological systems of the planet and engage with contemporary discourses around the Anthropocene. Interdisciplinarity is at the core of our pedagogy and approach; SKN staff are architects, landscape architects, and social scientists. SKN is for students of landscape and architecture; our final year masters’ students can work in interdisciplinary collaboration. We extend our collaborative ethos to more-than-human actors, redefining our engagement with the environment as a multi-voiced or polyphonic narrative. By de-centering humans we act in humanity’s best interests. We are, after all, biological too.

This year we generated interspecies empathy; studying the unfathomable and tiny life forms which live on brick or inside moss patches with scientists and artists. Our focus territory was suburban South Manchester including Didsbury, Northenden, Withington, Northern Moor and part of the Mersey Valley. Suburban and peri-urban areas are often overlooked areas in the strive for decarbonisation and increased biodiversity due to numerous pressures, particularly housing provision. What space is there for humans and non-humans who are not the target market? SKN asks our students to consider what our world could look like if we decentred humans and designed for all life.