Kings Cross, a northern-London borough with an industrial history, has been undergoing massive redevelopment efforts since the turn of the millennium. Since then, the area has been referred to as an ongoing construction site, as a university, schools, affordable housing, and a public swimming facility have cropped up. And on July 22nd, undergraduate students at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture unveiled seven structures built into a new public garden in the area.

The structures were built in collaboration with an urban community garden project called Skip Gardens – referring to the “skips” or “dumpsters” (as they’re known in the US) where the flora was planted, making the Gardens mobile. Now, the students’ projects have been installed in the midst of Skip Gardens, and are open to the public, offering new facilities for educational vents, cooking, farming and dining.

The structures are varied, but often feature reclaimed materials. There’s a chicken coop made from bamboo, a hydroponic herb garden planted into old wine bottles, and an office space insulated with earth-stuffed coffee sacks. According to Julia King, a Bartlett instructor who spearheaded the Skip Garden collaboration, the partnership was to get students thinking about the full extent of their projects in the field: “Full-scale making exposes students to real world challenges. Building your own structure and then inhabiting it engages you with your work in a very visceral manner”.