2026
Connecting with urban biodiversity
Community co-design workshops
Connecting with urban biodiversity
Community co-design workshops
Our design-led urban nature connection workshops explored how creative, participatory activities can strengthen people’s relationships with urban nature in public gardens
Overview
The workshops were informed by the Transformative Sustainability Learning (TSL) framework, bringing together understanding, emotional engagement and practical action to investigate how people notice, interpret and respond to biodiversity in place.
The workshops were informed by the Transformative Sustainability Learning (TSL) framework, bringing together understanding, emotional engagement and practical action to investigate how people notice, interpret and respond to biodiversity in place.
Developed through community co-design workshops, the research responds to a gap in existing studies by examining multiple dimensions of nature connection together, rather than focusing primarily on knowledge, behaviour or wellbeing in isolation.
The workshops combined guided observation, personal reflection and collaborative discussion to explore how creative and informational experiences might support connection and care.
The findings show that closer connection often begins with pausing and noticing, and can be strengthened by information that reveals relationships between species, seasons and place. They also highlight the importance of connecting curiosity with realistic and locally relevant opportunities for action.
The workshops were developed by Nature Kin and hosted by Test Garden, Fed Square.
