This project emphasizes habitat and trail design, habitat restoration, and environmental
education, through the lens of narrative storytelling, in order to understand the role of narratives
in ecological education and park design. The project site is seventy-five acres of land, adjacent to
the White River and immediately west of Potter’s Bridge Park in Noblesville, Indiana. Fifty
acres of this land was restored from existing agricultural land. A narrative nature park provides a
stimulating way to learn about and become immersed in nature by using environmentally based
short stories, which have been written and abstracted into outdoor spaces for the park.
Nature Tales examines how to create a more engaging and impactful nature park as well as how
to develop effective environmental education. To better understand how to create an immersive
narrative design, research was conducted on topics such as ecological issues in Hamilton County,
educational trends, storytelling methods, and park design strategies. From this conceptual
designs exploring how to implement the stories were created before a final masterplan design.
This project resulted in the creation of a masterplan, site restoration, and site-specific design for
the proposed park space. Four seasonal based short stories were developed as the base
framework that the park design was based on. Four trails were then developed to follow with
story motifs and educational aspects throughout. Through the narrative story and engaging
educational aspects, this project examined creating meaningful connections to nature to inspire
environmental stewardship.College of Architecture and PlanningThesis (B. Arch.
