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Previously encouraged to industrialise to increase food production, common land on the fells in the Lake District have been overgrazed. Under new post-Brexit legislation farmers are under pressure to diversify, intensify, or retire.
Located in Grasmere, in the central Lake District, this project proposes a tentative prototype dividing portions of common land into distinct rotational grazing regimes. Novel boundaries and distinct habitats are created and restored with vernacular technique, traditions and native livestock species.
Main design elements separate Grasmere Common in two main zones, where local material, livestock, visitors and farmers all contribute in agri-environmental farming subsidy.
Livestock flow across and between this pastoral feature inspired by vernacular Cumbrian building techniques.
Re-planted with native moorland trees, sheep are herded to a shearing barn where wool is processed and stored.
Blanket bog habitat is preserved with wool plugs, carried from the woodland. Peat dye is extracted back to local farms to paint Herdwick sheep’s wool during sheep shows, a tradition since time immemorial.
Grasmere’s past, present and farming future, focused on recovering nature and biodiversity, is represented in this dynamic model.