Temperate rainforest, one of the most rare and lesser-known rainforest habitats, is native to the United Kingdom. Yet, existing patches of temperate rainforest in the UK are highly fragmented and under threat from human activities.

Through strategic regional planning and multiscale landscape designs, a system of landscape infrastructure and new afforestation techniques is developed to cultivate Rainforest Commons. Multipurpose landscape interventions are designed to support the development of temperate rainforest over an extended period of time and eventually cultivate a self-sustained rainforest.

The design consists of a perpetual process which expands and evolves with time. Wigford Down, a common land in Southwest Dartmoor, is selected as the pilot site for cultivating rainforest commons. As time goes by, well-established rainforest commons could not only benefit Dartmoor environmentally, ecologically, and socio-economically, but also bring back a lush and green landscape to a currently moorland-dominant Dartmoor.