UltraWild
Steve Mushin
Allen & Unwin


Subtitled An Audacious Plan to Rewild Every City on Earth, this large format book is truly mind-blowing. One can only feel wonder at the brain of its creator, Steve Mushin.


Perusing the endpapers of this book brought to mind the work of Leonardo da Vinci and W. Heath Robinson. Both let their imaginations run wild, the former designing machines like the helicopter, submarine and bicycle centuries before their time; and the latter, any number of odd and outlandish contraptions to perform simple tasks. Steve Mushin, an industrial designer, inventor , illustrator and teacher from Down Under invites his readers to think outside the box and employ their talents to the task of rewilding our cities.

This comic-style book is crammed with his own ideas. There’s a prologue, ‘Ludicrous ideas are bootcamp for brains’, fourteen chapters presenting more than one hundred inventions/projects ranging from mechanical megafauna,

3D printer replacement birds, converting every lamp post into armoured luxury hotels for native animals,

the sewer sub, to extreme flying mountain bikes and compost cannons.


Truly thought provoking; there is huge potential for STEAM learning at every level and countless hours of entertainment. Packed with accurate scientific and technical information, most importantly it is concerned with saving our planet. Why not take up the challenge presented in the epilogue, “Over to you for the greatest design project in history.’


Back matter includes acknowledgements, a select bibliography, glossary, index and an afterword from the author. Brilliant!