Bringing resilience to the landscape profession

Landscapeled proposed accommodation for adults with autism and special needs at Englishcombe Lane, Arcadis with Bath & North East Somerset Council. © Arcadis

Landscape Institute joint Chief Assessor Aydin Zorlutuna explains that people skills are as important as technical skills on the increasingly numerous pathways to Chartership, and calls on existing members to get involved and help support those at the start of their LI journey.

I have been with Arcadis since 2008, a global multidisciplinary company with Dutch origins dating back to 1888. During most of my time at Arcadis I have also been an Assessor for the Landscape Institute’s (LI) Pathway to Chartership (P2C). I have been fortunate throughout my career to gain experience in multidisciplinary projects across the whole range of the P2C syllabus. A proud recent highlight is a landscape-led detailed planning application on a complex site in Bath, for 16 houses for adults with autism and special needs.

As UK Director for the Arcadis Landscape, Masterplanning and Urbanism team, containing around 100 staff, I know that people skills are as important as technical skills. I have found during my years of assessing that both are essential to support the P2C attainment process. P2C candidates are diverse and unique, many are nervous, some are neurodivergent, and all require assessors to balance their personal attributes and circumstances with the qualities, attitude and professionalism expected of a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (CMLI). Part of the assessor’s role is to give candidates the confidence in the assessment interview to do their best.

In more recent years, and in tandem with the introduction of the Landscape Competency Framework (CF), I was invited to support the pilot scheme for the then new Technician Member of the LI (TMLI), aimed at widening the membership opportunities to complementary disciplines, such as GIS consultants, exclusively through the Experienced route (E2T). With the success of the pilot scheme, TMLI has been further expanded to support an Apprenticeships route (A2T). With the introduction of the CF, the experienced route to Chartership (E2C) and to Fellowship (E2F) were also opened, resulting in what is now a wide variety of membership assessments that the LI community supports. As such, I was invited in 2023 to join Nick Harrison as an additional Chief Assessor, initially for E2T and A2T, but latterly for all but E2F assessments. Since the volume of assessment requirements have grown, we also welcomed John Flannery to the Chief Assessor team in 2024.

In broadening its membership opportunities the LI is evolving. Supporting this evolution by volunteering some of your time as an assessor, monitor, mentor or supervisor, and by bringing your knowledge to help the next generation of members, is a truly rewarding experience. In doing so you will be building greater resilience in the professional membership community, and helping to shape the future of the LI. I would highly recommend it.

Aydin is a Fellow and joint Chief Assessor of the Landscape Institute, with over 33 years of experience in the private and voluntary sectors. He also holds a Permaculture (Full Design) qualification and is the UK Director of Landscape, Masterplanning and Urbanism at Arcadis.