Wildheart Animal Sanctuary invites expressions of interest for the world’s first School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture, at Sandown on the Isle of Wight.
The Wildheart Trust is launching a limited competition to identify an architectural practice to help it realise its ambitions to establish the world’s first School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture at Sandown on the Isle of Wight.
The shortlist will be drawn exclusively from practices who participate in the 2025 Regenerative Architecture Index, a joint venture between Architecture Today and Architects Declare, that requires practices to submit detailed and wide-ranging information demonstrating their track record and commitment to regenerative design.
The International School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture (ISoRaRA) is a charitable organisation that will act as a global centre for practical and academic research and innovation in environmental sciences and engineering, serving three key groups:
- Academic institutions – The ISoRaRA will act as a shared resource for universities and other academic institutions hosting field studies, conferences and lectures, and offering opportunities for conservation research.
- Land stewards – The School will also host industry workshops and symposiums to educate those most able to deliver rewilding projects – including landowners, farmers and agents – about implementing and resourcing initiatives to bring long-term economic and environmental benefits. This programme will be delivered with partners, including the Community Landownership Association (CLA), which has expressed the need for a central educational hub focused on rewilding and regenerative farming.
- Local communities and schools – the ISoRaRA will allow the Wildheart Trust to build on its strong track record of educating young people about the biosphere and its wildlife.
The Isle of Wight Biosphere
The Isle of Wight Biosphere is one of only seven biosphere reserves in the UK.
UNESCO defines biosphere reserves as “learning places for sustainable development. They are sites for testing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and ecological systems, including managing biodiversity”.
Biospheres are built around three core pillars:
- Conservation
- Economic development
- Research and innovation
They are places that:
- Allow flora and fauna to thrive in a sustainable way whilst benefiting and supporting the often remote or deprived communities that live within them
- Connect people with the natural world around them
- Showcase next generation solutions to global challenges, on a local scale
The site
The site for the proposed International School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture lies immediately to the north west of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, with views across the Sandown Meadows Nature Reserve.
The proposed location for the ISoRaRA is a 70-hectare site, including an old golf course and an overlooked area of reedbed habitat, that sits to the rear of – and is connected to – the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, allowing it to draw on the Sanctuary’s existing infrastructure and profile.
The reedbed habitat will be the first UK site to be rewilded by European Elk, a long-forgotten native species that will re-wet the wetlands, enabling the site to be self-managed with no need for mechanical intervention. Incorporating new boardwalked footpaths and lookouts, this new wild area will showcase new methods of habitat restoration to visitors to the Sanctuary and the School. The project will include the creation of a native species breed-and-release centre as recommended by the LNRS (Local Nature Recovery Strategy), linked to both the Sanctuary and the School.
The site will also be used as a testbed for regenerative and innovative practices in agriculture and to grow produce for the catering facilities in the Sanctuary and the School.
Architectural approach
The School will evolve as a series of discrete, low-impact structures that touch lightly on the ground and allow for close observation of – and coexistence with – the surrounding landscape and wildlife.
The design will evolve as an iterative process, with the design team working closely with Wildheart and ISoRaRA stakeholders and funders to develop a phased and flexible delivery programme.
Accommodation is likely to take the form of a collection of standalone low-rise buildings allowing for phased delivery, maximum interaction with the landscape, and iterative learning from one building to the next. Key spaces include: multi-purpose lecture/workshop/event spaces; lab spaces; student accommodation for residential courses and lodge-style accommodation to provide additional income streams.
The competition will set out to identify an architect to work with Wildheart and the ISoRaRA stakeholder and funders to develop initial design proposals but also to commit to a long-term partnership to monitor the project’s performance and the on-going relationship between wildlife, people, ecology and landscape and to develop and evolve the campus as required.
Wildheart has developed a reputation for the innovative use of waste products and natural materials to deliver buildings that are low in embodied carbon and efficient to build and run. Notably the two lemur domes were the first bamboo structures to gain building control approval in the UK. We will expect the selected architect to work closely with the engineer to research materials and techniques that build on this work.
Diagrams showing indicative masterplan for the International School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture and its relationship to the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary.
The Wildheart Trust
The lemur domes at Wildheart Animal Sanctuary were the first bamboo structures to obtain building regulations approval in the UK.
The Wildheart Trust is a charitable organisation embodying the principles that have earned the Isle of Wight’s designation as a biosphere reserve. Based by Sandown Bay, on the site of the former Sandown Zoo, Wildheart is a charity that rescues animals, champions native species conservation, and educates future generations of ecologists and conservationists.
The animals act as ambassadors to front local and national campaigns to:
- Restore nature
- Bring about an end to animal cruelty
- Connect all sectors of society with the natural world and the challenges it faces
- Act as an exemplar for regenerative placemaking, prioritising recycling, re-use, natural materials and a culture of innovation and experimentation with new materials and techniques
- Educate and inspire future generations of ecologists and conservationists
The Wildheart Trust lies at the heart of a network of forward-thinking environmental organisations and an extraordinary collection of natural assets.
Find out more about Wildheart in COO Lawrence Bates’ My kind of town.
Expression of interest submission requirements
Commitment to regenerative architecture
Your RAI entry will be assessed as evidence of your commitment to regenerative architecture and the values exemplified by The ISoRaRA.
Enter the Regenerative Architecture Index 2025
Motivation and fit
Outline your preliminary thoughts about this project, your motivation for applying and why your practice is a good fit for the job.
(maximum 300 words)
Team
Please supply brief CVs for up to three members of the practice who will be responsible for leading and working on the project day-to-day.
Case studies and references
Please supply two case studies of previous projects alongside contact details for an associated client reference.
WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR DESIGN IDEAS AT THIS STAGE.
Deadline
The deadline for Expressions of Interest is 23rd May 2025.
