Landscape Journal - Autumn 2016

Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

The Middle East tackles its future / 9 Revisiting Michael Branch’s garden / 24 Housing Design Awards / 16

Autumn 2016

landscapeinstitute.org

DESIGN TANK PHOTO CHARLOTTE SVERDRUP

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Landscape Autumn 2016

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Editorial

By Ruth Slavid

It is time for clear thinking in a post-EU country

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1 – © Agnese Sanvito

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s we become used to the idea that the UK will be leaving the European Union, there are, despite the current uncertainty, two things of which we can be sure.

The first is that the country will be going.

And the second is that there is an awful lot of sorting out to do. For the landscape professions, this means looking at both short-term and longterm consequences.

The Landscape Institute produced a briefing in July which clarified some important points, while acknowledging how much there is still to learn. The first point is a reminder that current EU legislation on issues such as habitats, birds, clean water, and environmental impact assessment has been transposed into UK law and will remain valid until a future UK parliament decides otherwise.

That will not change for at least two years after article 50 is activated by the UK government.

Similarly, since the UK is still a member of the EU, LI members are still entitled to work and bid for contracts in the EU, and EU citizens can still come to work here.

In terms of technical matters, the UK is a full member of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and adopts its standards as UK national standards. Once the UK leaves the European Union, UK organisations will still be subject to European Standards, in the same way as other non-EU members of CEN. The British Standards Institution (BSI) will still be a voting member of CEN, like European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members, and there is no suggestion this will change.

However leaving the EU will mean the UK won’t be party to any discussions between CEN on the specific needs of the EU in relation to a given standard, nor to the discussions about mandates or decisions about harmonised standards.

Education is another area of concern. The LI is a leading member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA World), of which IFLA Europe is an integral part. A condition of IFLA Europe membership is the mutual recognition of accredited academic qualifications across the European region of IFLA. This means that LI-accredited academic qualifications are recognised by IFLA Europe members, and academic qualifications accredited by IFLA Europe members are recognised by the LI. This recognition will continue regardless of Brexit, and graduates of LI-accredited courses will continue to have a valued, portable qualification.

More worrying is the fact that the long term future of UK participation in European science programmes will be decided as part of the UK’s exit negotiations.

Since the LI is a globally recognised professional body, supporting its members across 45 countries, it has strong international links that will not be affected directly by Brexit. Chartered membership of the LI will continue to be a highly valued and portable professional qualification.

Both those who were bitterly disappointed by the result of the referendum and those who could hardly contain their glee will agree that what landscape professionals need are clear-headed, influential and accountable people who can put forward cogent arguments to guarantee the best future for this country. After such a tumultuous time, it is unsurprising that emotions ran high on both sides. But after a while we will realise that emotion is the last thing needed in this situation.

Clear heads, commitment and intelligent questioning by the Landscape Institute will be essential if it is not only to add its voice but to be heard as the future of this country is determined.

Landscape Autumn 2016

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Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

Editor Ruth Slavid landscape@darkhorsedesign.co.uk T 020 8265 3319 Editorial advisory panel Tim Waterman, honorary editor David Buck Joe Clancy Edwin Knighton CMLI Amanda McDermott CMLI Peter Sheard CMLI John Stuart Murray FLI Eleanor Trenfield CMLI Jo Watkins PPLI Jenifer White CMLI Jill White CMLI Landscape Institute president Merrick Denton-Thompson To comment on any aspect of Landscape Institute communications please contact: Paul Lincoln, Acting CEO paull@landscapeinstitute.org ––– Follow the Landscape Institute on twitter: @talklandscape Advertising, subscription and membership enquiries: www.landscapeinstitute.org/contact ––– The Landscape Institute is the royal chartered institute for landscape architects.

As a professional body and educational charity, it works to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit.

––– Landscape is printed on FSC paper obtained from a sustainable and well managed source, using environmentally friendly vegetable oil based ink.

The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and advertisers and not necessarily those of the Landscape Institute, Darkhorse or the Editorial Advisory Panel. While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and validity of the information given in this publication, neither the Institute nor the Publisher accept any responsibility for the subsequent use of this information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it.

Landscape is the official journal of the Landscape Institute, ISSN: 1742–2914 ©2016 Landscape Institute. Landscape is published four times a year by Darkhorse Design.

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Landscape Autumn 2016

Regulars

Features

Editorial

3 It is time for clear thinking in a post-EU country

Bigger picture

6 Photographer on the edge Quintin Lake

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Technical

Welcome to the drones club Peter Wilder

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Technical

Uncovering hidden glories John Pegg

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Technical

Border control Keith Sacre

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Technical

Change for the worse?

Paul Shaffer

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Practice

BIM – The end of the beginning?

Alastair McCapra

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Practice

Pathway to Chartership results Alice Knight

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A word

‘Expectation’ Tim Waterman

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All change for Dubai As the Middle East faces up to the fact that its current lifestyle is neither sustainable nor desirable, landscape will have a major role to play.

© 1 – Mable So Photographs

Publisher Darkhorse Design Ltd 21 Mann Island, Liverpool L3 1BP T 0151 649 9669 52-53 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HP T 0207 323 1931 darkhorsedesign.co.uk tim@darkhorsedesign.co.uk

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The best of housing

© 2 – Alison Brooks Architects 3 – Tom Lee 4 – Survey Drone

A selection of projects from the Housing Design Awards shows just how good housing can be, and the importance of the role of landscape.

Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

The Middle East tackles its future / 9 Revisiting Michael Branch’s garden / 24 Housing Design Awards / 16

Autumn 2016

landscapeinstitute.org

Cover image View of Constitution Monument inside Al Shaheed Park in Kuwait City. © Iain Masterton / Alamy Stock Photo

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Root and Branch Michael Branch’s Berkshire garden has not only stood the test of time: it has improved, demonstrating how much the ‘fourth dimension’ can add to first rate design and maintenance.

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Welcome to the drones club Drones will revolutionise the way in which we gather and process data about our environment, but anybody thinking of using them needs to be properly trained and licensed.

Landscape Autumn 2016

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Bigger Picture

By Ruth Slavid

T

he decision for Britain to leave the EU has focused attention on what it means to be British.

And one of the things that most defines us, for good or bad, is that we are an island nation. So a project by photographer Quintin Lake, started well before the referendum, has a particular resonance.

Quintin, whose work has featured here before, has set himself the task of walking around the coast of Britain. On 17 April, he set off from St Paul’s Cathedral in London, walking along the Thames estuary – and will return along the opposite bank. But he is nowhere near achieving that goal, having

© Quintin Lake

Photographer on the edge

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Landscape Autumn 2016

in bursts, interspersed with his other commitments and work, walking in total for two to three months a year.

All of the photos are beautifully composed. Many are free of people or much trace of human existence, but the photos shown here, of Dungeness on the left and the Channel Tunnel ventilation facility on the right, show

how much impact we have had on the edge of our country as well as elsewhere. They provide an equally lovely and perhaps a more realistic portrayal of this island where no area is entirely free of human intervention.

Read more about Quintin Lake’s project, The Perimeter, at www.theperimeter.uk

© Quintin Lake

calculated that the entire project will take him five years. That is a long time, given that it is possible to do the entire route in about six months.

This is not because Quintin is slow, although his 20-40km per day is less than the rapid clip that some achieve – but he does need time to take photos. It is because he is walking

Landscape Autumn 2016

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Landscape Autumn 2016

Update

By Peter Sheard

All change for Dubai As the Middle East faces up to the fact that its current lifestyle is neither sustainable nor desirable, landscape will have a major role to play.

1 – 21st century oases: Royal Mirage Hotels grounds. © Peter Sheard.

T

e United Arab Emirates h (UAE) thrives on good news: it’s what visitors expect.

Every hotel lobby in the UAE has at least one government-sponsored newspaper declaring some new innovation or other: usually it’s to do with a new tourist attraction, or an even taller building, but lately the subject of new parks and open spaces has been making the headlines.

Already the Government of Abu Dhabi, for example, has announced the construction of nine new parks and 1.2 hectares of ‘urban greenery’ together worth more than 9 billion dirhams (£1.7 million). Similarly, Dubai is launching a series of new initiatives to create a more ‘connected public realm’. What is behind this new phenomenon? As so often, the answer lies in the past.

Most cities grow organically, and the provision of parks and a useable public realm was part of that process.

Not so in the UAE. The past 50 years saw a dizzying rate of growth with the main aim being to establish new cities with airports, skylines, highways and buildings, preferably very tall and ‘iconic’. This approach succeeded in establishing a touristic and commercial hub between east and west, to ‘future proof ’ the region when the oil ran out. However it also created cities which consumed huge amounts of power and water, and were totally car dependent. The human scale was lost and, for many Emeratis, so was an important cultural link with the past.

Consequently, there are three broad categories of landscape: firstly,

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greenery seen from the highway at speed; secondly, peripheral landscape around development plots; and lastly, those 21st century oases of greenery that exist within hotels and theme parks. Beyond these categories there

is very little walkable, usable public realm for social interaction and well‑being.

It is primarily this concern about well-being which has prompted the change in Government policy in the Landscape Autumn 2016

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Update

2 – Mushrif Park has had an extensive makeover, becoming a multifunctional, well-connected park that acts as a cultural hub. © Mable So Photographs

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UAE; and, like the earliest pioneering projects, to ‘green the desert’, it is politically driven. Sedentary lifestyles, high levels of obesity, and cities that are unsustainable in terms of social cohesion and connectivity are seen as something to recalibrate and redesign; and with this new approach comes an examination of the role of the landscape architect in creating these new environments. Potentially, it is a very important role.

As part of this changing approach, the Government and Municipality of Dubai sponsored the ‘Smart Landscape Summit’ in April, bringing together more than 500 government bodies, developers and design professionals to examine new approaches to greening cities in order to create sustainable, contemporary landscapes using forward-thinking design and techniques – what was described as a ‘new paradigm’ in landscape design for the region.

It has to be said that plenty of ‘buzz-words’ were used during the 10 Landscape Autumn 2016

two days of the summit, including ‘naturalistic’, ‘sustainable’ and even ‘ecological’. There were good examples of new park and open space provision which attempted to rectify the faults of the past; but the event was a little light on the more fundamental issues of what a landscape architect can contribute to enable a more intelligently planned city to respond to its environment and its cultural heritage. Instead, there was a struggle by many speakers to identify an appropriate design ‘brand’ which was contemporary UAE (despite all the overwhelming environmental and climatic factors); and a disconnect between creating an international landscape for the tourist, as opposed to an evocative landscape which would make every Emirati misty-eyed. It was not so much a ‘new paradigm’ as an old paradox.

However, there were many pertinent observations which defined how the region could change its ways and should be of interest to any

landscape architect working in this dynamic place. Jason Turner of Dubai-based GHD made the case for re-examining how to plan for a city like Dubai which is now a multicultural hub of 9 million people and a top-five tourist destination in the world but has ‘manifestly failed’ to provide an ‘international quality of environment’.

His solution was to use the example of biophilic city growth where a more organic approach was de rigueur and where the built and green environment occurred concurrently and were indistinguishable. This point was well made, but would have to involve retro-fitting existing open spaces to really work. This has actually happened at the Mushrif Park in central Abu Dhabi which has undergone an expensive makeover, turning an isolated open space into a multifunctional, well-connected park that now acts as a cultural hub for the city.

Similarly. Geoffrey Sanderson of AECOM, who has spent 30 years in

3 – City Walk, Dubai is a pedestriandominated environment, which is a welcome change. © Peter Sheard

the region, argued for a cultural reconnection to the landscape of the oasis, which defined culture and calm, together with the adoption of native planting and attitudes. This would adopt the philosophy of the Anthropocene Era movement which argues that the major dynamics of the 21st century, such as global urbanisation and climate change, are landscape-architectural in nature and that landscape architects can and must address them with both scientific knowledge and artistic imagination. Geoffrey called many of the designs that he witnesses ‘fundamentally dishonest’ and said that they will prove to be ‘a rod for our own backs’. In addition, he suggested that the landscape industry was not fit for purpose when it came to supplying appropriate plant material. These were brave words in the context of Dubai, but compelling nevertheless as it was his premise that the answer lay in the correct planning

of the urban environment not in its ‘greening’. The answer lies in the past.

It was evident that park planning is becoming smarter in the UAE, if smarter means less energy-demanding.

Al Khazan Park in Abu Dhabi is lit by low-energy LED lighting, including its sports pitches, while more than 60% of its water is treated, and many of its furniture elements use local recycled materials. In Sharjah, the Al Noor island park retained all its existing trees despite pressures to remove them, supplementing them with native species, and creating a wildlife reserve of considerable charm and individuality.

Misha Mittal, an urban planner with the Abu Dhabi municipality, observed that although the city faced challenges with exponential growth, many opportunities were arising from re-planning whole districts which were now more than 50 years old and no longer sustainable. Garden city principles were proving adept at

giving more people accessible neighborhood parks and a hierarchy of shaded streets, totally reversing the harsh and traffic-dominated urban grain of the past.

Dubai is similarly re-learning.

For example, whereas Dubai Marina, which dates from the height of the boom years, is an exercise in public realm as a setting for retail therapy with its unshaded, tree-less public realm (which simply forces you to go shopping), the newer ‘City Walk’ is far more sympathetic to the pedestrian, and creates an environment largely without cars with a distinct, if rather North American, street scene. It’s not perfect, but at least the cars have been tamed and it encourages people to walk and jog.

Another example is the Dubai International Financial Centre, which was envisaged as a walkable, pedestrianfriendly environment where the vehicle was banished underground. Its ‘Gate Village’ creates a network of narrow

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Landscape Autumn 2016 11

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4 – Dubai International Financial Centre has some excellent buildings and has become a centre of he arts scene.

It has a walkable environment. © Peter Sheard 5 – Constitution Gardens in Kuwait is, in part, a clean and rich oasis. © Nelson Garrido, NG Photography

shaded streets with contemporary buildings (designed by Hopkins) which has become a centre of the arts scene in Dubai.

The summit examined other precedents in landscape design but too many were not from the Middle East and used examples (of Singapore in particular) which were at odds with the challenges facing the UAE. This was due to a combination of a paucity of local examples, and the tendency of various speakers to market themselves, however unwisely.

However, examples do exist in the Middle East: In terms of parks, the Constitution Gardens in Kuwait designed by SdARCH Trivelli & Associati of Italy, has significant cultural resonance with its two gardens reflecting the ‘old era’ (without a constitution) and the ‘new era’ (with) of the country. The first garden is untidy and rugged with native plants; whilst the second ‘new’ garden is a clean and rich oasis with water reflecting the sky. At the fulcrum is a large totem sculpture representing the constitution and the plurality of the society. It is, in the words of the designers, ‘a garden of meanings’ that would grace any city.

In terms of planning, consider Msheireb Downtown in central Doha, Qatar, where a 7 hectare, dilapidated city block has been demolished and a new piece of town is being carefully inserted. Its streets are narrow and shaded, with the buildings’ massing

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Landscape Autumn 2016 13

Update

designed to funnel cooling winds.

Open spaces are small, serendipitous and sparse in their detail and moreover accommodate trams, cyclists and pedestrians.

Finally, and remarkably, the only compelling example of the sort of city planning to which so many speakers at the summit aspired, was provided

by Perkins + Will’s Qatar Research and Development Complex which, although a campus, is a city-scale block. The plan’s adoption of a tight urban grain, limited traffic access, and a spatial order which promoted a pattern of open spaces of different characters and design, made this a very intelligent planning exercise.

The social interaction it encouraged was very Qatari; and the scale and nature of the landscape created a comfortable, stimulating and usable environment. Furthermore, street trees provided shade and filtered dust; whilst the streets encouraged walking and cycling and attenuated storm water.

The challenges facing the UAE’s cities are not unique: rapid urbanisation, climate change, and a dawning realization that the way they have been planned in the past, is not going to be a viable model for the future. The solutions are multi layered and multi-disciplinary; and involve reconnecting to the human scale and experience. Places like Dubai, the host of the summit, are truly global: its

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6 – Msheireb Doha is a deliberate design for a piece of walkable city in the centre of a metropolis. © Gensler 7 – Salwa Development in Dubai, showing a city that is in love with ‘icons’. © Perkins + Will

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architecture, the scale of its roads and parks, the developers and designers employed, and most significantly, its residents and visitors are international.

The city is a mega-oasis, and a mirage. The most popular visitor attractions are its shopping malls, iconic buildings and its hotels: not, unfortunately its parks and open spaces. This is a situation which cannot continue if Dubai is to avoid becoming ‘yesterday’s’ destination: a sort of arid Morecambe. As John Smith, professor of architecture at the American University of Dubai said, the region is ‘at a generational moment’ where demands for a different quality of environment

are becoming difficult to ignore.

Meanwhile, billboards in the UAE still portray rather dispiriting tableaux of residential towers surrounded by acres of distinctly unsustainable greenery which would look more at home in Florida or Turkey. The solution, only touched on at the summit, is multilayered and complex, but if they are bold enough, landscape architects are well placed to provide leadership in guiding this process, and creating an external urban environment which embodies an alternative future for the UAE. Peter Sheard is a freelance landscape architect, garden designer and writer based in London.

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Landscape Autumn 2016 15

Feature

A selection of projects from the Housing Design Awards shows just how good housing can be, and the importance of the role of landscape.

The best of housing

BY RUTH SLAVID

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1 – Goldsmith Street, Norwich, by Riches Hawley Mikhail with BBUK. © BBUK

at the AJ100 Awards in June this year, academic, architect and critic Peter Cook ruffled some feathers by talking about the prevailing ‘biscuit’ character of much contemporary design. He was being deliberately controversial, but he has a point as there has been a resurgence of beige brick in many projects, particularly housing.

You can see this here in a selection of projects from the Housing Design Awards, announced at the beginning of July.

SPEAKING

Those who seek a less sensational architecture than Peter Cook does may see this as no bad thing, and the projects awarded, while having their fair share of baked earth, show just how good and how interesting housing can be. Much of it is urban and much is medium rise. While there are some individual houses with private front doors, most still work as a part of a whole. When recognising the best of housing, these awards steer away from bland suburban boxes to favour, quite rightly, schemes with cohesion and the ambition to foster a sense of community.

Look at some of the plans and you will be struck by the dominance not of beige or of taupe but of green. With the interiors of housing pretty much determined, design effort goes into not just the exteriors but the environment, the interrelationship and the planting.

This is the preserve, or should be, of the landscape professionals, so it is a little disappointing that initially so few of those making submissions actually acknowledged the landscape architect.

But these schemes show just how good placemaking can be. Most are award winners, but there are initially also a couple that may have missed the gong on some account, but excel in terms of landscape. In particular, there is a scheme for the RNIB where wayfinding is dominated not by signs and traffic lights but by sensory planting – a development that is truly set in a garden and where the consideration that is given to the blind and partially sighted creates an environment where the surroundings should be loved by all.

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The work is divided into built schemes and those that are still at the project stage. We present them here to show that, whatever the shortcomings of the housing market in terms of both volume and quality, there is some excellent and inspiring work taking place that should be an inspiration for all.

Landscape Autumn 2016 17

Feature

Completed projects The Malings, Ouseburn, Newcastleupon-Tyne – Overall winner Architect and landscape designer: Ash Sakula Developer: Carillion Igloo LPA: Newcastle City Council Contractor: Gentoo

One would have expected to see an apartment building in this edge of city regeneration. Instead every unit has its own door to the street, thereby avoiding the management costs associated with lifts and other common parts such as lobbies and corridors. The double-stacked maisonettes reinvent the ‘Tyneside flat’ where two doors at ground-floor level next to each other lead to one unit with access to a yard, the other above without any outdoor amenity. Here the uppermost duplexes have mostly SW facing terraces big enough for the entire household to take meals in good weather. As well as shared-surface pedestrianprioritised streets, there are pedestrian paths, and a larger triangular piazza in the heart of the scheme, containing a communal refuse and recycling area and a residents’ terrace and play area. Within the scheme there are shared micro-allotments.

Ely Court, South Kilburn, London NW6 – Mayor’s Housing Design Award jointly with Kilburn Park

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Architect: Alison Brooks Architects Developer: Catalyst Housing LPA: London Borough of Brent Contractor: Willmott Dixon Housing Landscape architect: Churchman Landscape Architects

This scheme, which revitalises a former builder’s yard with a frame of new blocks, creates a new public garden square of 1500m2 with embedded play space. The scheme reinstates the coherent block and street pattern of 19th century Kilburn by reintroducing a mews, a shared surface with parking and new street trees. The mews brings public access to a previously hidden backwater, creating street frontage for mews houses and Gorefield House. All new homes have private front and rear gardens, and all public spaces are overlooked by windows, residents’ balconies, and roof gardens.

2 – The Malings. © Ash Sakula 3 – Ely Court. © Alison Brooks Architects

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Kilburn Park NW6 London (formerly Cambridge & Wells Court) – Mayor’s Housing Design Award jointly with Ely Court Architect: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands Landscape architect: Churchman Landscape Architects Developer: Catalyst Housing LPA: London Borough of Brent Contractor: Willmott Dixon Housing

Each unit has a private garden, terrace or balcony, and there are also communal gardens and play areas. The boundaries between public and private space have been made legible with green spaces linking the two developments along a restored nineteenth century ‘spine route’. Car parking totals 95 spaces for the whole ‘Kilburn Park NW6’ site, while a designated homezone and travel connections prioritise pedestrians.

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Extra Care Housing, Weale Road, Chingford – HAPPI Award Architect and landscape design: PRP Architects Developerand: Circle 33 Housing Trust LPA: London Borough of Waltham Forest Contractor: Higgins

The building encloses a secure garden to the west and parking court to the east. Large mature trees to the northern boundary have been retained and hedges strengthened to provide an established landscape setting for the new garden. The garden provides an accessible space for the residents to enjoy outdoor activities as well as a visual amenity space from the communal spaces and open deck circulation. A simple and controlled soft landscape palette complements the existing landscape setting, contributes to local biodiversity and minimises future maintenance.

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Frampton Park Baptist Church & Apartments, London E9 – winner Architect: Matthew Lloyd Architects Landscape architect: James Blake Associates Developer: Telford Homes LPA: London Borough of Hackney Contractor: Telford Homes

There is a large south facing communal garden for the apartments, and surrounding streets have been re-landscaped as ‘home zones’. The new church is accessed from Frampton Park and the cafe opens onto a new green space which can also be used by residents. All apartments above ground have private balconies, and ground floor apartments have a small private patio area and direct access to the communal garden. The site is well located for public transport and cycle storage is provided.

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4 – Kilburn Park. © Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands 5 – Extra Care Housing. © PRP Architects 6 – Frampton Park. © Matthew Lloyd Architects

Landscape Autumn 2016 19

Feature hoUSe, New Islington, Manchester – Graham Pye Award for Plan Forms Architect and landscape designer: ShedKM Developer: Urban Splash LPA: Manchester City Council Contractor: SIG

In this innovative project, households get to choose their house plan through computer modelling, then have it manufactured. There is a range of facilities nearby, including Cotton Field park close to the canal. The mix of architecture at New Islington adds to the sense of place. Each hoUSe has an allocated parking space, based in a private courtyard sitting behind the back garden of each property.

The Scene, Walthamstow, London – London Sustainable Development Commission award for sustainable higher density

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Architect: Pollard Thomas Edwards Contractor: Hill Partnerships Developer: ISHA and Hill Residential Landscape architect: AREA LPA: London Borough of Waltham Forest

The scheme creates two areas of amenity space, one at ground level and another semi-private space at podium level. The building line on the high street has been set back to create a new public space. The area is designed as a shared space with street furniture and signage forming an integral part of the landscape design. The podium garden, intended for use by all residents, has shrub planting, lawn, trees in planters to define edges and provision for play.

Trafalgar Place, Elephant & Castle, Rodney Road, London Architect: dRMM Associates: Grant Associates Developer: Lendlease Landscape architect: Grant LPA: London Borough of Southwark Contractor: Lendlease

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Permeability is a key feature with 46% of the site delivered as high-quality, publicly accessible space.

Public and/or private space comprises a new landscaped pedestrianised street (New Paragon Walk), a communal courtyard and ‘grow garden’, a private roof terrace for residents, a new woodland habitat and play area and 2,000 sq ft of retail space.

In addition, all 235 homes have either a private balcony, terrace or garden.

7 – hoUSe. © ShedKM 8 – The Scene. © Pollard Thomas Edwards 9 – Trafalgar Place. © dRMM 10 – Creekside Wharf. © Assael Architecture 11 – Goldsmith Street. © Riches Hawley Mikhail 12 – Heartlands Custom Build. © xxxxxxxxx.

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Projects Creekside Wharf, Greenwich – PRS Award Architect: Assael Architecture Developer: Essential Living Landscape architect: BCA LPA: Royal Borough of Greenwich

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This is the first-ever UK PRS (private rental sector) scheme designed for families, putting very large apartments in one point block among a cluster of medium rise-builldings. Shared faciltiies include a nursery, also open to non-residents, as well as a special activities room for kids’ messy play.

The building designed for families has some threebed apartments and all have oversized balconies big enough for families to eat al fresco. More than 70 per cent of the site is devoted to public space, including a new pocket park.

Goldsmith Street, Norwich – Award (presented by Landscape Institute) Architect: Riches Hawley Mikhail Landscape architect: BBUK Developer: Norwich City Council LPA: Norwich

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In this reinterpretation of the traditional East Anglian terraced street, where everybody has their own front door, there are a number of key social and communal spaces, and connects existing southern parkland area and transport links on Dereham Road into the site.

A safe and pleasant shared environment for play and general amenity has been created for both new and existing residents.

Heartlands Custom Build, Pool, Cornwall – Custom build award Architect: HTA Design Landscape architect: HTA Design with Hugo Bugg Landscapes Developer: Carillion-Igloo and Coastline LPA: Cornwall Council Contractor: Various

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All the houses have a private garden of a minimum 50m²; some with an additional roof terrace.

An open space called ‘Not the Village Green’ is proposed in the centre of the custom-build masterplan, and will be designed and managed in collaboration with the new community. An edible landscape strategy within the site has also been developed with local gardeners and ecologists.

It will provide a variety of landscape features which will be accessible to residents and have an ‘edible’ aspect that is tailored to the specific ecology of the site. The new homes will also benefit from the variety of landscaped spaces at the adjacent Heartlands Park.

Landscape Autumn 2016 21

Feature Northwest Cambridge Lots M1 and M2 Architect: Alison Brooks Architects Pollard Thomas Edwards Landscape architect: Robert Myers Associates Developer: Hill LPA: Cambridge Contractor: Hill

The arrangement of buildings along the streets has been designed to create a network of public and private open spaces and streets across the site.

These spaces include a landscaped pedestrian street, tree-lined mews and streets and a new square.

The homes have private front and back gardens, courtyards and terraces. There are two ‘garden streets’.

Older Women’s Co-housing, Barnet, London – HAPPI award and Richard Feilden award Architect: Pollard Thomas Edwards Developer: Hanover Housing Association Landscape architect: Clarke Associates LPA: London Borough of Barnet Contractor: Quinn London

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The heart of the scheme is a new garden, designed by the women of the co-housing group and overlooked by 21 of the 24 new homes.

Most of the flats are accessed via a sociable rear courtyard where laundry drying space and car parking will ensure constant activity. In addition, every flat has a private terrace or balcony.

RNIB Redhill, Surrey Architect: Gardner Stewart Architects Developer: RNIB and Countryside Properties LPA: Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge District Councils Contractor: Countryside Properties

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In re-imagining the site as an integrated community fit for the 21st Century; it has been essential to ensure that residents’ needs are met, whilst enhancing the rich landscape legacy. The public realm is designed to provide an exciting sensory experience for all residents. A sensory trail provides a safe access across the site, where pedestrians are prioritised. Sensory nodes along the trail stimulate the senses by use of aromatic plants, bursts of colour, sound, texture underfoot, and site features.

13 – Northwest Cambridge. © Alison Brooks Architects 14 – Older Women’s Co-housing. © Pollard Thomas Edwards 15 – RNIB. © Gardner Stewart Architects

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Feature

Root and Branch

BY PETER SHEARD

Michael Branch’s Berkshire garden has not only stood the test of time: even more since receiving a favourable review from Peter Youngman in 1998.

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appropriate that in this 300th anniversary year of Lancelot Brown’s birth, we reflect on that fundamental and guiding principle of great landscape design, time, to see just how visionary and adept Mr Brown was in realizing its significance.

would say it had ‘great capabilities’. Contrary to popular belief, the moniker referred to the site, not the man. Even now, an appreciation of the genius loci, as well as of a site’s ‘capabilities’, is fundamental to all good landscape design; and all good landscape architects.

Uniquely in the design professions, landscape architecture embraces the passage of the years and uses the ‘fourth dimension’ as an inspiration. We are fortunate indeed from our position in the 21st century to see for ourselves what Lancelot Brown was able to just dream. He took Arcadia and made it into an English landscape, and was largely instrumental in establishing a distinctive, new landscape style which would influence the world.

Brown always stated he did not make gardens; rather he made landscapes, and on seeing a site he

Fast forward more than 200 years and we encounter the post-War challenges: the growing New Towns; new infrastructure projects; and the reconstruction of shattered city centres. A whole generation of landscape architects rose to the challenge, amongst whom was Peter Youngman, an erudite Yorkshireman who developed a particular compositional approach to designing these new landscapes that was firmly rooted in 18th century principles of landscape design, and enabling new structures to be accommodated into the landscape.

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Cumbernauld New Town, Sizewell ‘B’ and Milton Keynes all benefitted, in the latter case by having its initially rigid grid of roads deflected by the gently rolling landscape. Peter became the head lecturerin-charge at University College London where he first came into contact with Mike Branch, a young and keen landscape student and the protagonist of this article.

Significantly, Mike started his career running a landscape design-and-build company, getting his hands dirty, mainly implementing private gardens, before setting up Landscape Design Partnership.

When this entity joined forces with Highpoint Rendell Group in the 1980s, Mike developed a very reputable portfolio of work across many fields which he continues to supplement to this day.

Meanwhile, back in the late 60s he and his wife Pat moved into Lephins, a picture-windowed, timberclad house, sitting on a bare 1.5 acre plot on a chalk ridge just south of Wantage, and the story of the garden began.

It must have been a daunting challenge: the plot had an open aspect with few trees, exposed to the harsh winds from the east; with a thin chalk and flint soil. However, the views were, and remain, spectacular providing a prospect over the Berkshire Downs. Throughout his career, Mike always understood the relevance of the site: like Brown and Youngman before him, he would search out what the site was telling him before designing anything. In his garden this proved both essential and inspirational.

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The garden was the subject of an article in the Landscape Institute’s magazine back in 1998 by, of all people, Peter Youngman. He called the design ‘an individual combination of flowering and rigid patterns that owe no particular allegiance to past styles or contemporary fashions... where plantsmen’s skills and interests are guided with artistry’.

The garden Youngman saw in 1998 has remained largely unchanged from Mike and Pat’s original design intent to this day. It is in the ‘artistic guidance’ that the clue lies to its success and its value.

The garden has a deceptively strong framework and it is not quite as random as Youngman stated.

Mike himself says that the main elements of the garden were established from the beginning: the challenge has been to allow them to develop and to manage them.

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1 – Mike Branch admires the view. © Tom Lee 2 – Mike Branch in the garden that he made. © Tom Lee 3 – The garden as it looked in the 1990s. © Michael Branch 4 – Mike Branch has let the landscape guide him in the design of the garden. © Tom Lee

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Feature The house itself is tucked away in the north-east of the site, enveloped by vegetation which encourages a sense of mystery and discovery. The principal space, when viewed from the house, is the main lawn which stretches down the sloping ground to the south, visually linking the plot to the paddocks and landscape beyond. As a counterpoint to this view, there is another contrasting vista from the house directly eastwards along a semi-formal grass path through the wooded part of the garden. This is not an avenue as such: rather a gap between the trees which loosely define the path, and which evokes the Ridgeway path across the chalk ridge.

Well over half the site is given over to the woodland: a random mixture of ash, cherry, field maple, hawthorn and Austrian pine. In 1998, this area was an ‘open area of trees in grassland’, but has evolved to be the small copse and shelter belt which was originally envisaged. This growth has also allowed the creation of small and, at times, enchanting clearings, which contain a variety of garden ornaments: a pair of blue benches; a small ‘tump’ for viewing the landscape; or a secretive, mossy, stone table from Ireland. These are ornamental for the visitor; but memories for Mike and Pat.

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The pattern of woodland and clearings has allowed a variety of microclimates to develop which respond to careful management and reflect tiny variations in the site. After years of toil, Mike now knows which areas will grow certain plants better than others: ‘Nature will always win in the end, and you have to go with the flow’, he says sagely.

The other major organising elements are hedges.

Again, these were established early on to provide shelter to the site and define the scale and structure of the garden. There are loose, native hedgerows on the north boundary, spiked every now and again with ash and beech trees; whilst in the centre of the garden are tall hedges of beech and box. These have the effect of creating a sequence of garden rooms, each with their own character and planting palette.

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5 – The house looks out onto the main lawn.

6 – The trees that Mike Branch planted have evolved into a small copse and shelter belt.

7 – A carefully positioned bench in one of the clearings in the woodland.

8, 9, 10 – Hedges create a series of ‘garden rooms’ each with their own individual character.

All images © Tom Lee

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This has been a huge undertaking on such an exposed site, and has ultimately allowed the establishment of two of the most interesting spaces in the whole garden. Firstly, the ‘gravel garden’ with its closely cropped dwarf pines, rocks and sentinel stag’s horn sumach (Rhus typhina), now entirely secluded from the house, and partly sheltered by one of the old beech trees. Secondly, perhaps the most delightful part of Mike and Pat’s creation, the ‘box garden’: its 1.5 metre high box hedges providing refuge for a rich variety of shrubs and herbaceous plants, all closeted behind the green walls.

On my visit, sitting in full sun on a timber bench, with the air buzzing with bees, surrounded by the gentle blues, yellows and greys of the plants, one could close one’s eyes and be transported to Eden.

The gentle sounds of bleating sheep in the distance only magnified the slightly unreal quality of this space. When I told Mike of this magical experience he answered (with a knowing grin and a twinkle in his eye), ‘yes, we feel it’s special too.’ But that’s the reward you get after 50 years of effort I suppose.

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Landscape Autumn 2016 29

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11 – The fern garden.

12 – A blue timber screen enlivens the suntrap space.

13 – Vistas connect the garden to the surrounding Berkshire countryside.

All images © Tom Lee

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Other more incidental, though no less interesting, spaces include the fern garden with its timber steps, moss and frogs (a welcome by-product of a small pond in the southern corner of the lawn); and, to the west, a small suntrap of a space with raised planters with bamboo and Glyceria, enlivened by a blue timber screen and several esoteric sculptures.

Indeed, the whole garden had a series of eyecatchers, mainly of stainless steel, placed around the site: an elaborate gateway here, a metal and glass sculpture there; but the most impressive was the pair of shiny metal totems at the end of the woodland axis. In Youngman’s day this was a confection of shiny tubing, but now the vista is completed by what look rather like a pair of giant hands reaching up to the woodland canopy and the sky, their mirrored surface reflecting the greenery and the light.

Mike’s own summary of his garden is that ‘it is an asymmetrical layout grounded in the Berkshire Downs’. The lack of a strict balance makes for a more interesting linkage between the main garden elements, ‘and the fun is in the subtlety of the linkages’.

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The original concept has altered very little, and has only become stronger since Youngman’s review nearly 20 years ago. The woodland has become a woodland; the hedges have grown to maturity; and the few existing trees have been cut and shaped according to the changing passage of light and shade.

Management, Mike insists is the key: ‘I had an intention, an ambition when I started out... but modifying the design has to be permitted’. There were things he would do differently: for example the preponderance of ash in the woodland makes its management extremely challenging; but the impact of establishing a small wood has been an ambition fulfilled. Additionally, the hedgerows have created shelter and habitats, but the hawthorn they contain also spreads into the clearings. This has only engendered an admirably stoical attitude in Mike: ‘a mature garden has to work as a concept, but that concept has to keep changing and developing’. Looking around he smiled and said: ‘Nature will make you bend’.

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Feature This attitude permeates his approach to landscape architecture in general. A good plan has to have strong initial design moves which can survive the test of time. Mike has witnessed many schemes which were well designed and established but too delicate to withstand the ravages of time and bad management. Some schemes he said were ‘too good’ to last’: his design at Channel 4 HQ in central London (in collaboration with Richard Rogers), being an example where his own management plan was ignored and the resultant overgrown landscape replaced. Meaningful landscape design needed to be robust yet flexible to last the test of time: and it is time as a dynamic process that demands to be understood and embraced.

Back in 1998 Youngman said Mike and Pat’s garden showed no particular allegiance to past styles.

I disagree: in many ways it’s rooted in the sort of ‘compositional landscape’ so beloved by ‘Capability’ Brown and the Post-War pioneers in the landscape field. Mike’s own practice’s work is similarly influenced; and for the better I might add. As for Mike and Pat’s garden; it is a testament to a design with a strong concept and effective management over the last 50 years or so. Just as they are a part of the garden, so it has become a part of them: which is how it should be.

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14, 15 – The garden is both timeless and very much of its time.

16 – Carefully chosen sculptural elements punctuate the garden.

All images © Tom Lee

Peter Sheard is a freelance landscape architect, garden designer and writer in London.

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Technical

By Peter Wilder

Welcome to the drones club Drones will revolutionise the way in which we gather and process data about our environment, but anybody thinking of using them needs to be properly trained and licenced.

1 – The Delamore Estate in Devonshire, surveyed by Peter Wilder’s company. © Survey Drone

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s landscape architects we are used to viewing the world from above, be it looking at topographical maps, aerial photos or masterplans. Until the advent of Google Earth and the explosion of site information available on the internet, information was a precious commodity, jealously guarded by the few that had access to it.

The proliferation of drones or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology is set to revolutionise the way in which we gather and process data about our environment.

Whereas Google Earth can provide aerial images that are updated with ever increasing frequency, drones can capture highly accurate and low-level data in the space of a few hours. But far more than just an aerial photography platform, drones are now able to perform tasks that have up until now required expensive satellite or LIDAR (light detection and ranging) imagery from aircraft.

Fixed-wing drones have long been employed in agriculture for the survey of crop health and have also been used widely in land survey.

Although drones are capable of covering vast areas autonomously, the greatest restriction on their flight range at present comes from CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) guidelines stipulating that even autonomous flights must be conducted within the visual line of sight (VLOS) of an authorised pilot. Special licenses have been granted to certain operators, particularly those operating over private land, to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) to capture even greater amounts of data with drones that have extended range.

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Multi-rotor aircraft have proved to be the most successful platform for aerial capture as they offer vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) as well as high-speed flight. Whilst quadcopters are often associated with hobby operators, they have also become a key component on film sets.

The market now offers sophisticated aircraft with multitudes of technology for remote sensing, and highdefinition cameras for both still and video capture. So how does this all fit into the landscape profession and how will it change the way that projects are delivered?

Built-environment professionals now have the ability to capture highly accurate aerial images, with embedded GPS data to 13 decimal places and altitude data to the nearest centimetre, which can be assembled into data sets called point clouds. This is where corresponding points from adjacent images are matched and merged into collection of coherent coordinates to create a 3D entity. This information can then be assembled into a digital model over which aerial images are mapped. The applications for such data are almost endless. The civil-engineering professional can

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create a geo-referenced 3D site model in a fraction of the time and cost of a topographical survey in order to carry out preliminary site assessment for issues such as flood risk, topography, and site vegetation. This data can also be loaded into civil-engineering software such as AutoCAD Civil 3D or Revit in order to undertake more complex modelling such as cut-andfill assessment or gradient analysis.

We are currently using our UAV in LVIA assessment in order to construct 3D virtual landscapes that enable the

site to be viewed from various angles and the ability to reconstruct views.

It doesn’t yet replace a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) with a 50mm lens but it does prove useful in establishing accurate height and position of our camera when plotting viewpoints. Some of our clients now expect us to present our site assessment internally and at planning meetings as a virtual model that members can manipulate in order to discuss certain points of the site or the concept. The site information can even be uploaded to the internet or to a cloud-based server so that it can be used to inform overseas investors’ decision on the purchase of a site.

We are now looking into the application of point-cloud data in comparing site volumes for a client who is a landfill operator so that we can assess gate receipts against volume, but it could also be applied to site capacity assessment during purchase negotiations over a site, since volume equals revenue.

Many of our architectural clients are excited by the possibility of introducing thermal cameras in order to construct 3D thermal envelope maps of their buildings either prerefurbishment or in post-construction evaluation. But thermal imaging opens up other opportunities such as inspection of solar panels, detection of leaks in waterproofing membranes and even carrying out deer herd

2 – DJI Inspire 1 drone. © DJI 3 – Peter Wilder giving a demonstration at the University of Greenwich. © Survey Drone

4 – Survey Drone surveyed Chestfield in Kent as part of a planning exercise. © Survey Drone 5 – Image of a site survey, including the point cloud. © Survey Drone 6 – The sort of terrain model that can be built up from a drone survey. © Survey Drone

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counts in Scotland. Many police and fire services are now using drones in search and rescue operations or in fire detection, thanks to the ability to be in the air quickly and the fact that the equipment can be carried in any vehicle to the incident.

The tipping point in our decision to invest in a commercial drone was the advent of DJI’s Inspire 1 in 2014.

A mid-range drone with a flight time of 22 minutes and a top speed of 50mph, it broke the boundaries of high-end capability for under £5000.

Since its emergence it has become a feature on many film and aerial photography shoots due to its ability to carry a variety of camera types including thermal and micro fourthirds formats. Our decision to set up a separate company was also the right one as it enables us to operate as a sub-consultant to other landscape and architectural firms without a conflict of interest. But the real opportunity for drone operation is the ability to get involved with a site right at the outset and to work with a client on the assessment and early evolution of the masterplan.

The software required for processing imagery into point-cloud maps or digital terrain models can be very expensive. with popular platforms such as PIX4D and Agisoft Landscape Autumn 2016 37

Technical

Photoscan costing up to £6,000. Those processes are now being challenged by new approaches such as Drone Deploy where mission planning and photography is automated and the images uploaded to the cloud to be processed. Once processing has been carried out, the finished virtual model can be downloaded from the cloud server for a fee. The service is paid for on a site by site basis depending on the size and number of images that require processing. This not only saves on the purchase of software but also on the purchase of the serious processing power required to produce the millions of calculations required to calculate the geometry.

It seems that the only things standing in the way of the adoption of drones at present are the perception of the risk that they pose to aircraft and the fear of invasion of privacy.

There are strict guidelines in place for use of drones. Operators must obtain a Permission for Aerial Work (PFAW) from the CAA in order to carry out commercial work and obtain public liability and professional indemnity insurance. The CAA only grants permission to operators who have passed an accredited theory course, a flight test involving site evaluation and emergency procedures, and have had an operations manual approved.

There are strict limits on ceiling heights (currently 400ft or 121m) and minimum distances from people and vehicles. On top of this there are also restricted air spaces in major cities including all airports, prisons and military installations.

7 – A drone was used for this music video shoot. © Survey Drone 8 – A green footprint near Stonehenge. © Survey Drone

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We see drones or UAVs as a logical extension to the work that we already carry out in digital terrain modelling and surface-water management for large-scale civil engineering or masterplanning projects. This year I introduced aerial mapping as part of the curriculum at the University of Greenwich. Having been around long enough to see the transition of cut and fill modelling from the drawing board to the computer, it is only a logical step to see the survey and aerial capture technology become a part of the site analysis process.

Peter Wilder is director of Wilder Associates and Survey-Drone Ltd and a BRE Associate.

He is a CAA licensed UAV pilot and a member of the Association for Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems. He also teaches digital terrain modelling, sustainable drainage and hydrology principles at the University of Greenwich in his spare time.

Drone Facts Technically speaking, a drone is any aircraft that has the ability to fly autonomously and without a pilot. Not all multi-rotor craft have the technology to fly autonomously and CAA guidelines stipulate that even when operating autonomously a qualified pilot must have the ability to take manual control at all times.

Although commonly referred to as drones the preferred terminologies are defined below.

RPAS – Remoted Piloted Aircraft Systems UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle SUAS – Small Unmanned Aerial System As of 20 May 2016, there were 1769 CAA approved commercial Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA) operators.

There are several National Qualified Entities (NQE) to offer training in UAV operations including EuroUSC and RUSTA (Rheinmetal Unmanned Systems Training Academy).

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Landscape Autumn 2016 39

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40 Landscape Autumn 2016

Technical

By John Pegg

Uncovering hidden glories A technology that is becoming increasingly popular allows us to understand far more about the history of sites than was previously possible.

1 – Wicksteed Park played an important part in the history of play, as it was the first place in the world to manufacture dedicated play equipment. Š Wicksteed Park

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n an age when the disturbing ubiquity of place and design response has become an alarming characteristic of globalisation, the British landscape remains a rich and multi-faceted canvas for landscape architects. The tightly woven fabric of a geological and cultural stratigraphy, etched and documented for centuries, provides a myriad of opportunities

for the designer but comes with a deep responsibility to preservation and interpretation of the land itself.

This dual characteristic of drawing opportunity and responsibility in the design process from specific knowledge of the land has been at the core of most landscape architectural practices’ work, but the opportunity, pace of change and

necessity for informed understanding are advancing at an alarming rate.

Remote sensing in its many guises has been an integral part of site understanding for decades, from poring over stereoscopic photosets to capturing the most recent satellite aerial photography. But today it is undergoing a revolution.

As a practice we have used text,

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2, 3, 4 – The delightful history of Wicksteed Park, which was a prototypical theme park as well as a manufacturer, masked its earlier incarnations. © Wicksteed Park

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historic mapping, geological evidence and aerial photography as tools in the field of archaeological prospecting.

Work in the field has led us to the creation of public art, Radio 4 comedy and an ongoing engagement in the hunt for the site of the Battle of Watling Street. But now the nature of this type of study is changing rapidly and changing in a way that will impact significantly on how landscape master planning is undertaken.

Anyone professionally interested in the characteristics of land would have to have made a special effort to have missed the recent highly publicised work of Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dubbed by the media a ‘space archaeologist’, Parcak has enjoyed a high public profile, utilising satellite-based technologies of LIDAR and multispectral analysis to unpick complex archaeological sites from seemingly innocuous landscapes in Egypt and Canada.

Originating in the 1960s, as a military technology, LIDAR (Light 42 Landscape Autumn 2016

Detection and Ranging) uses ultraviolet, visible or near infrared light to image objects. Working on this range of spectrums, the imaging is able to penetrate tree canopies to reveal the terrain, objects on the terrain and, significantly, minor anomalies in the terrain that would be invisible to the naked eye or other mapping techniques. These characteristics give LIDAR images the characteristics of aerial photographs on steroids.

2015 marked a revolution in the capacity of UK users to access data.

In June 2015 Liz Truss, then the Environment Secretary, announced the release of a substantial number of Government-held data sets for free public use. These data sets included the Environment Agency’s 1m and 2m resolution LIDAR data sets. Whilst the coverage of the UK is incomplete, leaving frustrating holes in parts of the country, it is still significant.

The year 2015 also corresponded with an exciting opportunity to use this new freely available data in a professional context on the

master plan for Wicksteed Park.

Most British landscape architects who are serious about the development of parks and play will be aware of Wicksteed Park. The site where manufactured children’s play equipment made its global debut, it is also reckoned to be the earliest amusement park on mainland UK. The park, on the outskirts of Kettering, is undergoing a renaissance funded by its own commercial arm and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The core of the park dates from the 1920s but its wider boundaries encompass some classic English landscape typologies, recording more than 2000 years of history from an Iron Age settlement, through a classic medieval manorial settlement and a Repton Red Book to a Second World War garrison.

Faced with preparing a large scale landscape master planning project there were obvious concerns that the development of the landscape should not compromise historic landscape features, including those

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Technical

5 – The Lidar image of Wicksteed Park shows evidence of earlier fortifications. © Craft Pegg

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as yet unknown and unrecorded.

After exhausting the traditional sources of site information, maps, photographs and aerial images, we commissioned a series of Lidar maps from geophysics consultant, BandaArc Geophysics. The team at BandaArc used the available Environment Agency data to create a number of plans and the results were astounding.

Far from merely identifying simple areas to avoid due to archaeological risk, the images threw the park’s topography and unknown

archaeology into clear relief.

At a broad scale, the image above demonstrates how the data reinforced the site’s position as a bridging location.

The image of the known fortified manor site provided a great deal more resolution. Mapped and documented elements were augmented with a number of previously unknown features. Tantalisingly, this includes a set of apparent annex features suggesting what had been previously described as a fishpond complex might be a second fortification

pre-dating the fortifications licenced to Nicholas De Seagrave, the Marshal of England in 1310 AD. In 1794 Repton created a Red Book for a section of the park which has been subsequently dubbed the Repton Park. However the evidence of the Lidar image shown overleaf dispels the idea that Repton’s principles were followed in any meaningful way.

One of the most-eye catching features, unknown from any previous map or aerial photograph, consists of the sharp rectangular edges of an extant Landscape Autumn 2016 45

Technical

6 – One of Repton’s famous red books. © wikimedia commons/northetpit

medieval fish pond. This feature is one of a number Repton railed against in his text and, whilst invisible to the naked eye, is clearly a feature that the park has unknowingly retained.

The new image pinpointed the location of a pre-Repton avenue leading from Barton hall to the River Ise. Intriguingly, the locations of other individual trees were identified in other long-lost avenue locations. This drilling-down cartographic accuracy from vague 19th century map symbols to 21st century georeferenced plots enabled a very specific authenticity to be brought to the replanting plans.

Elsewhere in the park, the smooth rolling contours of the existing parkland were rolled back to reveal an intricate web of ridge and furrow ploughing, in many cases overlaying

7 – Lidar at Wicksteed Park revealed a number of previously unknown features as shown below. © Craft Pegg

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earlier cultivation terraces of as yet unknown date. Combined with historic research, this allowed longlost trackways to be found and named and individual strips to be linked to specific tenants dating back centuries.

The LIDAR mapping provided us with a tsunami of previously unknown site information which we continue to use in developing the site master plan. The information provides a guide to avoid damage but also direct creative strategies in both planting and site interpretation.

However these are not tools that can be used by all. Competence in terrain analysis at this level is patchy at best in the professions of landscape 46 Landscape Autumn 2016

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1 Remnant ridge and furrow 2 Probable fishpond 3 Probable building platforms 4 Pre-Repton Avenue tree pits

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architecture and archaeology, as it is often left untaught in many of our universities. One cannot assume when provided with LIDAR information in this form that all professionals are competent to use it in a positive manner. The maps will only ever be as good as the interpreter that uses them.

In addition we know that the resolution of such maps can fall short of identifying key elements of archaeological heritage. In this case a complex of 16 Iron Age roundhouses is barely visible and a complex of Roman cellars does not register at all.

The future of unpicking the stratigraphy of sites across the

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country is extremely exciting. The low-resolution data sets provided by the Environment Agency will soon be overtaken by high-resolution, sitespecific LIDAR surveys undertaken by the now ubiquitous drones. This will mean that sooner or later it may well become incumbent on site master planners to reconnoitre their sites by LIDAR as a matter of course, prior to making any big decisions.

Indeed as this technology is dispersed further and deeper across society it would be a very naïve master planner who risked development proposals when faced with an opposition potentially packing their own

Lidar interpretation, information that could introduce critical new site information when well into a development proposal.

As professionals with a hand in the process of directing development it would be foolish, verging on the negligent, to not take advantage of all of the fantastic new tools that are becoming available to us in the process of investigating and making sound decisions regarding the future of our precious landscape.

John Pegg is a founder of Craft Pegg landscape architects.

8, 9 – Comparison between government Magic survey material, aerial photography and LIDAR. © Craft Pegg

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Landscape Autumn 2016 49

Technical

By Keith Sacre

Border control We must all be vigilant about the way that we specify and buy trees if we are to try to stem the influx of unwanted immigrants in the form of tree pests and diseases.

T

1 – Plane trees are a vital feature of London streets. © ppppenguin

h e London i-tree study published in late 2015 provided a detailed snapshot of London’s tree population and assessed it as having an asset value of some £6.2 billion.

Few can have visited London without being inspired and sometimes awed by the London plane population. Its significance to London cannot be missed. The replacement cost, even were this possible, of London plane, should the species be lost, would be over £350 million.

Yet hovering in France is a fungal disease called Ceratocystis fimbriata x platani which is lethal to London plane. Where it is present, the only recourse is to fell and not replant London plane.

Individual specimens of Asian longhorn beetle have occasionally been found from time to time in the UK, but in March 2012 a breeding population was confirmed by Forest Research scientists in the Paddock Wood area near Maidstone in Kent.

More than 4700 potential host trees were surveyed and 2166 host trees were removed. A total of 66 infested trees were detected,

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2 – London’s tallest plane tree, in Richmond, could be threatened along with all the others. © Amandajm via Wikimedia Commons

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3 – The Asian longhorn beetle. © J. E. Appleby, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via WikiCommons 4 – The emerald ash borer. © Benjamin Smith via WikiCommons

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of which only 24 were found by visual inspection, the remaining 42 only being detected after they were felled. Fortunately this outbreak was detected before the 2012 adult beetle emergence period, which provided time to inspect and deal with infested trees.

The known host species list is extensive and is worth listing here: Acer spp, Aesculus spp, Albizia spp, Alnus spp, Betula spp, Carpinus spp, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, Corylus spp, Fagus spp, Fraxinus spp, Koelreutaria paniculata,Platanus spp, Populus spp, Prunus spp, Robinia pseudoacacia, Salix spp, Sophora spp, Sorbus spp, Quercus palustris, Quercus rubra, Ulmus spp. The London i-tree report estimates that Asian longhorn beetle could impact on some 3.8 million trees which represent 31% of the total population.

Replacing these trees, were it possible, would cost in excess of £23 billion.

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Landscape Autumn 2016 51

Technical

‘Bio-security is an important consideration. To minimize the risk of pests and or diseases being imported directly into the UK, all young trees produced abroad but purchased for transplanting should spend at least one full growing season on a UK nursery and be subjected to a full pest and disease control programme.

‘Evidence of this control programme, together with a comprehensive audit trail of when imported trees were received and how long they have been on the nursery, should be obtained from the supplying nursery. The audit trail should extend beyond the nursery after dispatch, allowing for full recall in the event that any pest and/or disease problems manifest themselves in the landscape.’

These words were written in the first draft of BS 8545 Trees: From Nursery to Independence in the Landscape which went out to consultation in late 2013. The standard was published in 2014 but the above paragraphs were absent.

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Unlike the two cases described above, and there are many more including emerald ash borer, pine processionary moth and Xylela fastidiosa, oak processionary moth is already present in the UK. First identified in west London in 2006, it cannot be eradicated and containment is the only available strategy now open to tree managers.

The caterpillar is a defoliator but the real threat is to human health. Hairs, which are produced at the third instar stage of the caterpillar’s development, contain an urticating, or irritating, substance called thaumetopoein.

Contact with the hairs can cause itching skin rashes and, less commonly, sore throats, breathing difficulties and eye problems.

The story of ash dieback is well known and does not need to be repeated here but it is undeniably present in the UK. The full and potentially devastating implications of its introduction have yet to manifest themselves.

52 Landscape Autumn 2016

What can be stated with certainty is that both oak processionary moth and ash dieback have been imported to the UK on trees planted directly into the UK landscape. The introduction of oak processionary moth can be traced back to a single tree planted in west London. This means that someone, an individual or group of individuals, is responsible, although probably inadvertently.

The number of trees, particularly large trees, imported for prestigious landscape schemes and planted directly into the UK landscape, is unknown with government figures not revealing any detail, but it is considerable and can be verified by a walk around almost any new development in the UK. It can therefore be stated that bio-security should be a priority when trees are imported into the UK. As shown above the implications and costs are dramatic but experience suggests that the question of biosecurity is largely ignored.

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5 – The felling of an infected lane tree, the only course of action when the fungus is discovered. © Keith Sacre 6 – Characteristic staining shown on the cross section of a plane tree infected with plane wilt. © Keith Sacre 7 – Symptoms of ash dieback. © WTPL/ Mike Ryder

8 – A plane tree infected with plane wilt showing characteristic death on one side of the overall canopy. © Keith Sacre 9 – On a recent study tour to Italy, a group of UK arboriculturists wear full sanitation kit while watching an infected Ppane tree being felled. © Keith Sacre

No new standard published in the EU can be seen to inhibit free trade.

Yet the problems associated with imported pest and diseases have, if anything, grown, since the above paragraphs were written.

There seems to be a clamour for action by well-meaning politicians, usually too late, and unidentified, anonymous others from government who jump onto emotional bandwagons fuelled by often inaccurate and hysterical reporting in the media. Action is called for from hastily gathered teams of advisors and experts who are often divorced from what is happening on the ground.

Resources limit what government agencies can achieve; protected zone status has some impact; plant passports are effective but can be doctored and the sheer volume of imported trees coming into the UK is actually unknown. Individual nurseries in most cases carry on with business, largely, as usual.

There has been little focus on the end user, the person who actually specifies and or buys the trees, but it is here that the choice is made, whether to use imported tree stock transplanted directly into the UK landscape, and perhaps where the greatest impact on bio-security can be made. Surely it is up to every user of trees to look in the mirror and consider their own working practices with regard to biosecurity and then act in a responsible fashion?

So what can the individual purchasing plant material do?

A first stage would be to avoid going directly to a nursery outside the UK for supply of trees that are going to be planted directly into the UK landscape. A second stage would be to ask a UK nursery supplying trees the following questions: −−Do you have a written biosecurity policy? −−How long have the trees been at your nursery? −−What pest and disease control programmes have been applied while the trees have been at the nursery?

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−− Is there a complete documented audit trail which confirms the above and confirms that all legislative plant health requirements have been met? −− Does this audit trail apply to whole batches of trees which may have already been shipped out for planting into the UK landscape where the subsequent emergence of a particular pest and /or disease is identified? Can the whole batch be recalled or destroyed? −− Can I come and see and tag the trees I am ordering at your nursery? −− Do you, as a nursery, make any other provision to ensure that the trees supplied are in optimum physiological health prior to despatch?

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54 Landscape Autumn 2016

To provide the range of species, cultivars, and size of trees required by the UK landscape market, trees will always have to be imported and it is unrealistic to suggest otherwise.

But how many trees are bought from UK nurseries which have been at that nursery no longer than it takes to transfer the trees from one lorry to another?

It is not the importing of trees that is the problem. It is the importing of trees which are then planted directly into the UK landscape and so provide the route for imported pests and diseases to escape and then potentially devastate particular species within that landscape. Surely it is not too much to ask, given the implications of carrying on with a ‘business as usual’ approach, that the paragraph which did not appear in BS 8545 be implemented on a voluntary basis, by individual businesses, as part of a defined bio-security policy document.

It is salutary to think that an individual or small group of individuals are directly responsible for the importation of oak processionary moth and the problems associated with it. Will it happen again with

10 – A traceable label used by Barcham Trees. © Barcham Trees 11 – A mature quercus palustris. © Barcham Trees 12 – Trees in the nursery at Barcham Trees. © Barcham Trees

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plane wilt, Asian longhorn beetle or any of the other pests/diseases not yet present in the UK? Possibly it will, but would you want it to be you or a group you were associated with to be the ones responsible?

Just think of London without its plane trees. The choice really is yours.

Keith Sacre is sales director of Barcham Trees. He is also vice chairman of the Arboricultural Association and a trustee of the Trees and Design Action Group.

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Technical

By Maria Grant, Sam Oxley, Kate Ahern and Nick James

Change for the worse?

Widespread tree disease could have a dramatic effect on the character of our landscape. Landscape professionals may be able to mitigate the effects and even come up with solutions that improve biodiversity.

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sh dieback has been prominent in news reports in recent years, although many other British tree species are under threat from a wide variety of tree pests and diseases. These can take many forms (the primary causes are fungi, bacteria/viruses or insects) and include horse chestnut canker, acute oak decline and Phytophthora pathogens which infect a wide variety of plants, including British native species. Recently there has been

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56 Landscape Autumn 2016

an increased emergence of the oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea processionea) in south east England, which can also have a damaging effect on human health.

The late 20th century saw the loss of 25 million trees from the British landscape as a result of Dutch elm disease, and the subsequent effect of these losses, particularly on lowland English landscape character, is well documented. Ash trees make up around a third of Britain’s woodland

resource (approximately 80 million trees), and are found across most of our landscapes. Therefore a decline in ash trees is likely to have a more profound effect than Dutch elm disease in landscape terms.

The implications of these emerging threats have the potential to be severe, widespread and to damage some of Britain’s most iconic landscapes. This article aims to help readers visualise these potential landscape scale impacts.

1 – The Yorkshire Dales would lose much of their character with the disappearance of stunted and windsculpted ash trees. © Sam Oxley

2 – Limestone pavements in the Yorkshire Dales, with and without their characteristic stunted ash trees. © LUC 3 – The summer view of Yorkshire’s Dent Dale would be very different with the loss of trees. © LUC

Visualising and illustrating the effects of tree loss on landscape The threatened species occur across a wide variety of the UK’s landscapes, for example: Uplands The limestone pavements and escarpments of the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria are characterised by stunted and wind-sculpted ash trees, the loss of which could drastically change landscape character by exacerbating the woodland losses that have arisen from grazing pressures.

The remnant wildernesses of Scotland’s Caledonian pinewoods could be threatened by red band needle blight. These unique woodland landscapes support a number of species of junipers, birches, willows, rowan and aspens, some of which are found nowhere else in the British Isles.

Juniper woodlands are a relatively rare yet highly valued habitat concentrated at locations in Scotland and Teesside, and are susceptible to Phytophthora rot. The loss of juniper could also threaten gin making in the UK, an element of our cultural landscape.

Forested valleys and plateaux The extensive larch plantations in the coal mining valleys of Wales have been a characteristic feature of this landscape since the mining era, when the timber was used for pit props.

Six million infected trees are to be felled due to widespread infection by Phytophthora ramorum. As well as the visual changes in the landscape, the large-scale felling will also will have an impact on recreational usage of the affected areas. For example, Cwmcarn Forest is popular for its mountain biking trails and the seven-mile Forest Drive is likely to be influenced by the extensive movement of heavy forestry machinery. Phytophthora ramorum is also affecting larch within forestry plantations on the strath-sides in Scotland, for example Strath Glass, where the landscape is simultaneously suffering the loss of riverside alder trees through Phytophthora alni. The general impression is of an unhealthy and changing landscape.

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Landscape Autumn 2016 57

Technical Lowlands Quintessential trees of the British countryside are found in lowland areas including oak, elm, ash and horse chestnut which are characteristic hedgerow and in-field trees of the classic English landscape, and are also important within broadleaved woodland communities. The loss of these as well as of majestic individual ‘champion’ trees will have a widespread effect on landscape character.

Riverine landscapes Alder trees are a common feature along river corridors as a pioneer species which has an important role in stabilising river banks, flood control and moderating the temperature and nutrients of water bodies. Alder trees are threatened by Phytophthora alni which results in the dieback and death of alder trees and can also have a negative impact on

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adjacent water bodies. Implications for landscape character therefore go beyond tree loss, with bare eroding river banks giving the impression of a degraded landscape.

Designed landscapes and street trees Avenues composed of a single species are likely to be particularly vulnerable to disease from both a biological and landscape perspective.

One prime example comes from the Royal Parks of London which often have single-species avenues, such as lime, beech or horse chestnut. The latter is vulnerable to bleeding canker, commonly caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv aesculi.

Parkland trees within historic estates are often characterised by veteran specimens, whose loss will be particularly noticeable within the landscape since these trees are,

to a degree, irreplaceable. Some of Britain’s most famous individual trees which are well known within parkland landscapes and are important in a historical and cultural context, for example, the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest.

Plane trees are under threat from massaria disease, which can cause damage to the major boughs of the tree. Although they are a cultivated species, they are a popular choice in parks and urban areas because of their high tolerance of pollution and water shortages. Due to their presence in the public realm, trees infected with massaria disease, caused

by Splanchnonema platani, can pose a hazard to public safety because of the risk of branch drop. There are implications for the townscape character and parks of London for example.

4 – An image produced for Scottish Natural Heritage, showing the impact of tree loss in the landscape. © LUC

5 – It is not only ‘wild’ landscapes that would suffer, as this visualisation of tree loss in Scottish farmland indicates. © LUC

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Technical 6 – Struggling but magnificent: a tree on the Cumbria coast. © Sam Oxley 7 – An oak tree in a field. © Sam Oxley

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Wider implications of climate change and compound or secondary effects The resilience of trees to these threats is likely to be affected by additional pressures resulting from a changing climate and a shift in land uses.

Climate change is suspected to have a role in the spread of pests and disease, with warmer weather in particular facilitating the spread of pest species from warmer climes. The emerald ash borer is a beetle of Asian origin which has had devastating impacts on ash trees in the US and Europe and is expected to arrive in the UK in the coming years.

Additional pressures on trees may involve but are not limited to increased wind, storms, rainfall and flooding events, as a result of climate change.

Knock-on effects include: −−The reduction or loss of many of the ecosystem services provided by trees, including air cooling, the provision of shelter or creation of micro-climates, carbon attenuation and improving water quality.

impacts, eventually culminating in altering the composition of local ecosystems, as well as vast change to the visual qualities and character of our landscape.

−− Changes to soil structure which may occur through lack of stabilisation by tree roots, leading to soil erosion and potential slope collapse, notably along river banks where tree loss can compound the effects of erosion due to increased flood events.

These pressures may also interact with each other, exacerbating the problems that trees face and altering other aspects of the landscape.

Changes to the physical aspects of the landscape are likely to have cascading

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8 – Example of LUC management proposals for the Royal Parks. LUC is helping Royal Parks plan and manage for future change in the character of our parklands and designed landscapes. © LUC 9 – Trees frame the landscape in Scotland. © Nick James

The role of landscape professionals and a positive outlook Whilst the primary weapon against these potentially devastating changes to landscape character lies in preventing the spread of these diseases, including vigilant screening of plants, biological control by predators and the development of genetically resistant cultivars and hybrids, landscape professionals can play a number of roles by helping land owners and managers to plan for and adapt to change.

Since the advent of Dutch elm disease, biological understanding and techniques have advanced significantly and there are projects aimed at increasing elm numbers – the Great British Elm experiment (in collaboration with the Conservation Foundation) has planted thousands of genetically resistant specimens and periodically gathers data on their condition, which may prove useful in the battle against these emergent diseases. Most elm trees are genetically identical which creates a high susceptibility to disease.

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That is why Dutch elm disease was catastrophic. Biologists from John Innes Centre in Norfolk have made progress in identifying trees which could be genetically resistant to ash dieback, which it is hoped can be propagated. Research programmes into a number of tree pests and diseases are being undertaken by the Forestry Commission and the

Woodland Trust.

The role of landscape planners, designers and managers in preventing a lasting adverse impact on landscapes must not be understated. Landscape designers can help restore and improve landscapes that have suffered from tree loss by selecting resilient species, with an appropriate landscape and ecological fit. Designers and

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Landscape Autumn 2016 61

Technical managers can also recommend and plant a diverse range of trees in both urban and rural environments to ‘future-proof ’ our landscapes of trees against diseases, planning perhaps 100 years or more ahead, for changes to our avenue and veteran trees of the future. Planting a diverse range of species from a variety of families to ensure greater genetic diversity can also increase the resilience of tree communities to pests and disease.

Forward thinking and planning plays a key role in managing the process of change, avoiding dramatic change and providing a phased approach based on selective replacement and advanced planting. However, this approach is only effective if it is put into practice before large-scale tree losses are apparent in the landscape.

The extensive larch felling occurring in Wales opens up an opportunity to increase the cover of native broadleaved woodland in these areas and also to make the landscape less homogenous and more diverse, by reinstating open areas within the landscape. This process will be assisted through the planting of native species including birch, rowan and oak with the goal of producing

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10 – Trees in the Scottish borders. © Nick James 11 – Dead larch trees in Strath Glass – a taste of things to come? © Sam Oxley

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a richer semi-natural habitat, which also has the added benefit of being less vulnerable to future disease outbreaks. Increased diversity in tree communities has a positive effect on resilience, biodiversity and landscape, although the selection replacement species in these communities is key for an appropriate landscape and ecological fit.

Landscape character is by no means a static entity, as is recognised by the European Landscape

Convention, and threats to valued landscape features such as trees are part and parcel of the planning and management of landscape change.

Whilst these issues have the potential to be devastating, with appropriate planning and action being taken early, these events can also create opportunities to enhance and diversify landscape character for the future.

The authors all work for LUC

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Practice

By Alastair McCapra

BIM – The end of the beginning?

The LI’s new book on BIM helps practitioners adapt to the rapid changes that are occurring. But these are only a first step, as the rise of artificial intelligence is set to transform the profession.

F

ive years ago the LI began its journey of exploration with BIM. Since then a lot of work has gone into ensuring that LI members are well-prepared for the challenges that BIM poses, and the recent publication of BIM for Landscape shares the fruits of that work across the whole profession.

What has changed over the last five years is that back then, BIM looked like the big new horizon, whereas now it looks more like only the first stage of something much larger.

In that time we have seen the emergence of driverless cars, wearable technology, contactless payments,

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64 Landscape Autumn 2016

and the internet of things. But behind much of this lies a deeper level of technology – artificial intelligence (AI). For the first time, we have machines which can do more than perform specific tasks which they are programmed to do – they can learn as they go along, just as we do. For AI to work, it needs data – big data. By searching quantities of data which it would be impractical for humans to digest, it can find correlations and patterns which would not normally be obvious.

It can make life easier for humans by choosing the best route to drive; it can write natural-sounding text

1 – Driverless cars are an obvious application of artificial intelligence. © www.123rf.com 2 – Wearable technology is a common example of the internet of things. © www.123rf.com

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or speeches. Potentially it can also evaluate and improve a design.

The BIM process creates a data model of a project, and allows the performance of a design to be measured against its specification.

3 – The advent of artificial intelligence will transform routine office work. © www.123rf.com 4 – In law, e-disclosure is replacing long hours of research by junior staff. © www.123rf.com

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Just as a modern car or aircraft self-monitors and can provide data which is used to generate new designs, a modern building will generate a stream of data about factors such as physical stress, material change, flow of people, and environmental performance. AI can be deployed to learn from this data, and modify the BIM data model to incorporate improvements for future projects.

Up until now the design process in the built environment has made use of various technical tools such as CAD, but these tools only support and facilitate a traditional design process rather than replace it – in much the same way that over the years cars have developed more sophisticated dashboards, but until the advent of driverless cars, the act of driving remained essentially unchanged since the days of the model T Ford. As AI begins to be deployed in the built environment it will assimilate data from BIM models of built designs, combine it with data flows from completed projects, and propose new optimal solutions for the designer to consider in future.

Beyond landscape architecture and the built environment, AI is poised to play a rapidly-expanding role in all kinds of professional contexts – wherever it can offer greater scale, speed or savings over traditional human processes. Use of AI is already particularly advanced in the field of law, where expensive hours of junior staff reading documents to identify issues in a case can already be

replaced by e-disclosure, where they are read and annotated by machines1.

AI is increasingly being used in the news media as well – a piece of software called Wordsmith2 created more than a billion news stories from raw data in 2014. (The firm which produces the software employs fewer than 40 people).

1 http://cyfor.co.uk/ 2 http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/20/9572975/automatedinsights-wordsmith-natural-language

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Landscape Autumn 2016 65

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5 – Landscape architects are believed to be slightly more at risk from AI than vets. © www.123rf.com 6 – Physical therapy is the profession under the least threat. © www.123rf.com

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It is sometimes supposed that the jobs most at risk of automation are those involving repetitive office work, while roles which are more intellectual, more creative or involve the exercise of greater professional judgement are relatively secure.

Repetitive office tasks are certainly at risk of automation, but so are many others. In 2013, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne produced a paper for the Oxford Martin School on the future of jobs, which concludes with a list of 702 roles ranked in order of likelihood that they will be automated in the near future.3 Those least at risk, in their view, are recreational therapists (1), while those most at risk are telemarketers (702).

Landscape architects are ranked at number 133, making them slightly less at risk than mathematicians or editors, and slightly more at risk than vets, writers, or astronomers.

In reality, three years after that paper was written, most commentators now think in terms of AI replacing sets of tasks rather than entire jobs, so for professions whose work involves 3 h ttp://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/ The_Future_of_Employment.pdf

66 Landscape Autumn 2016

a range of different kinds of task, the question is which of those tasks it will be necessary or worthwhile for humans to continue doing, and which will be done to a satisfactory degree by AI. I say ‘done to a satisfactory degree’ because another misconception is that as long as humans can produce work of higher quality or greater

6

distinctiveness, they will not be replaced by machines. This is what handloom workers believed during the great industrial revolution, but all experience since then shows that while there is always a niche market for bespoke creations, mass production meets most market needs. For most clients in any market, quality and distinctiveness are usually

7 – Telesales is the profession under the greatest threat. © www.123rf.com 8 – The design of buildings will become more akin to aircraft design – customised from a standard. © www.123rf.com 9 – Artificial intelligence should greatly improve the practice of medicine. © www.123rf.com

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lesser considerations than speedy delivery, basic serviceability and price.

The rise of AI poses all kinds of new challenges to the professions. For one thing, the value of accumulated human knowledge and experience will fall, enabling relatively sophisticated tasks to be performed by more junior staff. For another, earlier generations of software such as Sage Accounts or AutoCAD were bought by the professional for use in their office.

Emerging AI systems like Wordsmith and Cyfor are however provided as an outsourced service. This distinction could have profound implications for professionals’ self-perception and status, because if they use outsourced AI services, they are transformed into

consumers of the services they used to produce. Likewise, the ability of the current generation of professionals to provide expert high-level analysis and interpretation derives, at least in part, from their years of experience in sorting, processing and analysing the material that supports key decisions.

In the future, AI is likely to replace humans in these processing roles.

How then is this expertise to be built?

BIM has evolved primarily to improve engineering processes, and has developed to encompass first architecture, and then landscape architecture. In contrast, AI did not develop in response to specific professional challenges, but it is beginning to have an impact on

a number of them, including in architecture and urban planning4 5 6.

When BIM and AI intersect fully over the next few years, the result will be transformational for all disciplines in the built environment. We can imagine a future in which large construction firms have live data models of dozens of built schemes of different types, and use them effectively as a menu of oven-ready designs which can be modified as necessary to suit client requirements.

The role of professionals working with such models will be to understand and negotiate variations to them, based on the constraints of the site and the requirements of the client. There will certainly be some clients that want a completely new design for a building, but in the future commissioning a building will be much more like buying an aircraft.

There are a limited number of basic

9 4 http://futurearchitectureplatform.org/news/28/ai-architectureintelligence/ 5 https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AAAI/AAAI16/paper/ download/12431/12286 6 http://cindy.informatik.uni-bremen.de/cosy/staff/bhatt/seer/ Bhatt-Freksa-SDC-10.pdf

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Practice

10 – Face to face consultation is one of the key aspects of landscape work that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. © Lynn Kinnear Associates

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designs available from manufacturers, and while client needs can be accommodated, it makes sense for most to buy off the shelf.

What does all this mean for the future of landscape architecture?

Compared with professional activities which are more purely conceptual or analytical, landscape architecture will probably experience change more slowly and partially, so there will be more time to adapt. My guess is that many tasks related to planning, including much of LVIA, could be largely automated in the future, as Site Information Modelling (SIM) develops alongside BIM, and AI helps identify optimal solutions for the siting of turbines, housing developments or other schemes.

At the same time, if the core structure of buildings is going to become more standardised, the role of landscape architecture in ensuring that our built environment does not become uniform and characterless will probably be more important than ever. The critical importance of management and maintenance of completed schemes will perhaps come 68 Landscape Autumn 2016

more clearly into relief, and there may be new tools to help monitor them and highlight the need for remedial intervention. Above all, community engagement work cannot readily be automated, so whatever new technical aids may be deployed, including augmented reality experiences, direct human involvement by experienced professionals will continue to be required in order for successful schemes to be delivered.

BIM effectively opens the door to this brave new world, and ‘BIM for Landscape’ is an essential primer in the methods and technologies which will be used to capture, record and interpret data. Over the next decade, working methods within professions and collaborations between them will change in extraordinary new ways as AI is more widely deployed. It is good that the Landscape Institute is placing itself in the lead for the interesting times ahead.

Alastair McCapra is chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

He is a former chief executive of the Landscape Institute.

BIM for Landscape shows how BIM can enhance collaboration with other professionals and clients, streamline information processes, improve decision-making and deliver well-designed landscape projects that are right first time, on schedule and on budget.

This book looks at the organisational, technological and professional practice implications of BIM adoption. It discusses in detail the standards, structures and information processes that form BIM Level 2-compliant workflows, highlighting the role of the landscape professional within the new ways of working that BIM entails. It also looks in depth at the digital tools used in BIM projects, emphasising the ‘information’ in Building Information Modelling, and the possibilities that data-rich models offer in landscape design, maintenance and management.

BIM for Landscape is published

by Routledge and costs £39.99.

BIM for Landscape was produced with the help and support of the BIM Working Group who steered the project from the beginning. Many companies supported individual BIM Working Group members; and the LI IS grateful to registered practice Colour who were commissioned to write the book and supported and managed Henry Fenby-Taylor to prepare and deliver it.

Practice

By Alice Knight

Pathway to Chartership results

O

ur 58 new chartered members show the diversity of landscape professionals, and we congratulate all of them for getting to this stage in their careers.

Thanks are due to their mentors, and companies, for encouraging them to attain the highest standard in landscape architecture. We are particularly pleased to see that 79% of the licentiates who undertook the chartership exam in May are employed

by LI registered practices. Registered practices have a commitment to supporting the next generation of landscape professionals.

This session saw six candidates from LDA Design passing, which is the record from one company.

A spokesperson for LDA Design said, ‘We’re delighted all our candidates passed. We view chartership as an essential part of professional development. We strongly encourage chartership by providing the mentoring, paying the tuition fees and reimbursing some of the expenses.

We like self-starters here, so although it can feel like yet another exam, if you have already invested that many years in professional training, why not finish the journey? We reward those who successfully complete the exam with more status and a pay rise because it makes you more valuable as an employee.’

New CMLI Mentor

Employer (*indicates an LI Registered Practice)

Aliyu Abdullahi-Mahdi Nicholas Atkinson Alex Bailey Kirsty Barker Erin Basey Thomas Beck Darragh Bellew Rachel Blenkharn Konrad Boncza-Pioro Lori Boulter Laura Bradley Sven Buhnemann Tristram Bushby Jack Campbell Clause Robert Charlton Oliver Clark Rose Cockcroft Matthew Dalby Sarah Earnshaw Beck Zachary Ford Jon Freeman Andrew Gibson Joanna Gopall Abigail Haire Patricia Hawes Emma Hayes Robert Hewitt Mike Holmes Yuechen Hu Agota Kekesi Helen Kirk Rebecca Knjazev George Lilley Jason Malyan John Markwell Julia Matthews Verena McCaig Jonathan McLoughlin Greg Meikle David Muir Simon Murdoch Hannah Murton Robert Park Samantha Paul Phillip Porter Martha Redman Peter Robinson Anna Sieczak Hannah Slade William Smith Robin Taylor Jonny Thomson Sophie Tombleson Ewa Toroj Fiona Walters Kathryn Ward Matilda Winterbottom Ewa Zagorska

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Nicola Hamill Andrew Cottage Clive Self Sophie Thompson Helen Johnson Gregory Collins William Henry Duck Ian Houlston Nick Miller Daniel Clifton Richard Waddell David Price James Hyde Chris Laine Benjamin Walker Paul Swann Philip Reddie Martin Bhatia Silke Gruner Louise Eccles Jim Gibson Charlotte Hayden Chris Laine Carola Enrich Melissa Ralph Simon Brewster Graeme Glencorse Gethin Owens Rory Wilson Paul Miller Robin Beswick Caroline Osbourn Mark Wilson Chris Stanton Eddie Hall Roger Worthington Zosia Mellor Verena Meyer Martin Robinson Liane Bauer Allan Cox Stephanie Cowley Karen Pinckney Matt Wooding Rupali Bhat Maritta Boden Georgina Baines Lucy Chermaz Mark Fletcher David Livesey Stuart Ryder Chris Rankin Richard Walker Mark Elliott Scott Carroll Mark Shaw Susanne Fraedrich Graham Woodward

Landscape Autumn 2016 69

A Word

By Tim Waterman

means, the processes of design, are a busy occupation with the future.

In design for the landscape, the future is also an end, since what we build will grow, change and adapt. It will, we hope, also get better. This is why it is so important to engage with the trinity of human intentions that we call needs, desires and expectations. These terms are so commonly encountered, particularly in community work that we rarely pause to consider their full meaning. If, as geographer Élisée Reclus stated in the late 1800s, ‘humanity is nature becoming conscious of itself ’ (l’homme est la nature prenant conscience d’ellemême), then it is simple to understand the first, our needs, in the largest and most ecological context.

We need food, shelter, water, exercise, reproduction – and all of this is ensured by acting on behalf of a healthy biosphere and the greatest possible diversity of species.

Our desires are more complex, because they are impossible to fully quarantine from needs. Is art a desire or a need? Pleasure? Many philosophers have written that these are basic needs and that the superfluous is hardwired into human consciousness. Indeed, our favourite landscapes, whether to visit or to live in, give us much beyond the basic satisfaction of needs. Play is certainly essential to human development, as it is in so many other species. The immense expense of effort by squirrels, puppies, caterpillars or humans in play cannot be explained in rational, quantifiable terms of efficiency and statistics. Other ‘needs’ are just as hard to separate from desires. What about internet access, motorcars or libraries?

THE

Needs

Desires

Expectations

70 Landscape Autumn 2016

Not all desires are useful or acceptable, of course, and desires can get out of control. A delight in objects may be perverted by acquisitiveness and greed, for example. We might benefit from separating negative desires such as these from positive ones, such as the desire for play. It is less clear that it is worthwhile to separate positive desires from needs, because the ‘bottom line’ might dictate that we cater only to needs, which for a superfluous species on a superabundant planet, is a form of starvation. Years ago I was laughed at by a roomful of bureaucrats for insisting that inhabitants of the Isle of Sheppey were entitled to beauty because they all assumed beauty was an expensive thing. The much-maligned Isle of Sheppey is a place that is already full of moments of great beauty that, in fact, cost little if anything, and I was only asking that these be recognised and amplified through good design.

That entitlement to well-designed places brings me to the last category, expectation. Expectation is ‘to look outwardly’ toward the future – to ex-spectate. People’s expectations are, of course, bound up with their desires and their needs, and also with their experience. Experience tells us we should expect, someday, to die, for example. This is an example of one expectation that is ineluctable.

Most other expectations are more nuanced than this, and this is where designers need to manage expectations. Fatalism is a form of expectation.

A community might expect to continue to live amidst violence and pollution, for example, which is by no means unavoidable, and is a situation that requires, amongst other ameliorants, design.

Another community might expect its children to attend Eton and Oxford or Cambridge. Such situations are also preventable.

Ultimately, the work of the designer is to provide for all of the needs of a population and their environment, working in as many positive desires as possible, and then a few more for good measure. Then expectations are to be managed and, importantly, alternatives sought. Every designer should give, if not what people expect, then something different and better, with an eye on a rosy future.

© Agnese Sanvito

‘Expectation’

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Landscape Autumn 2016 71

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72 Landscape Autumn 2016