Landscape Journal - Winter 2016

Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

Landscape Institute Awards/ 17 Reassessing Jellicoe/ 9 Annual Review/ 75

Winter 2016

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Landscape Winter 2016

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Editorial

By Ruth Slavid

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Talk to the people is a pity in a way that the residents of Hanham Hall near Bristol, profiled on pages 56-64, are likely to move home so infrequently. Of course this means that they are happy where they are, and that Hanham is a truly successful development, not just in terms of winning prizes and hitting its energy targets, but – and this is the crucial part – in making the people who live there happy.

But their very contentment means that they are unlikely to spread the word among new neighbours and to talk about new ways of living.

Our visit to the development showed that, even if not all the technical achievements are repeatable for financial reasons, there is a great deal to learn from the scheme in terms of community. And that community exists thanks, as much as anything, to landscape in the broadest sense.

Where does building end and landscape begin?

You could say at the boundary of the building plot. But that would exclude the front garden, and at Hanham front gardens are part of the street.

So at the building line? Even then there is a certain permeability, with people sitting out within the curtilage of the building, under shading louvres.

1 – © Tom Lee

IT

For HTA, which was both architect and landscape architect on the scheme, there was no distinction, and it had as much influence on the environment just outside people’s houses as on the swales and allotments and orchards.

But perhaps in the midst of all this intelligent, impressive work the practice didn’t communicate quite enough. Two of the residents looked at their front garden, planted with a range of spiky plants, and thought it was ‘just grass’ and decided to change it. They may have decided to change it anyway – that was their prerogative. But, they said, nobody had told them what was planted there. Similarly, teething problems with the initial compost area were largely due to nobody having been told what they could and could not compost.

After New Year it became a dumping ground for unwanted (and uncompostable) Christmas trees.

If we are going to live in new ways, then we need to be helped to do so. While the world is often overflowing with instructions (have you tried to learn to use an office chair or a radio recently?), people, even if willing, cannot just be left ‘to get on with it’. Many people love the countryside and love gardens, and those who choose to move into an eco-development obviously have their hearts in the right place.

At the end of this issue, in ‘A word’, Tim Waterman, in his last column as honorary editor, talks about the profession’s need to communicate what it does and to tell stories. What he intends is a way of persuading the world of the value of their work, and of the importance of the profession.

But helping people understand how best to live within the landscape that surrounds them is an equally important communication skill.

And communicating about landscape is what I have been doing since I took over the editorship of Landscape. My infelicities have been my own; but much of the knowledge I have acquired has been thanks to the gentle help and guidance of Tim Waterman. A new regime is always exciting, but it is a shame to say goodbye to Tim, even if it is not a true adieu. He has been a great friend to this publication and will continue to be so.

Landscape Winter 2016

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Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute 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 Editor Ruth Slavid landscape@darkhorsedesign.co.uk T 020 8265 3319 Editorial advisory panel Tim Waterman, honorary editor David Buck 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 Landscape Institute CEO Daniel Cook To comment on any aspect of Landscape Institute communications please contact: Paul Lincoln, Deputy CEO paull@landscapeinstitute.org ––– Landscapeinstitute.org @talklandscape landscapeinstitute landscapeinstituteUK

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The Landscape Institute is the chartered body for the landscape profession.

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The LI’s aim, through the work of its members, is to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit.

The Landscape Institute provides a professional home for all landscape practitioners including landscape scientists, landscape planners, landscape architects, landscape managers and urban designers.

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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.

Regulars 3

Features

Editorial

Talk to the people

Bigger picture

6 Water colour 9

Essay

eassessing Jellicoe R Tom Turner

67

Technical

SuDS and permeable paving Bob Bray

72

A word

‘Storytelling’ Tim Waterman

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56

Green living Hanham Hall was much praised as a beacon of green living, but how does it work in practice?

Landscape is the official journal of the Landscape Institute, ISSN: 1742–2914

© 1 – Tom Lee

©2016 Landscape Institute. Landscape is published four times a year by Darkhorse Design.

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Landscape Winter 2016

The Landscape Institute Annual Review 2015/2016

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75

© 2 – Barry Willis Photography 3 – Nick Caville BDP 4 – Derek Mackinnon 5 – Nicholas Robins and James Trevers

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Landscape Institute Awards 2016

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See all the winning and highly commended schemes, with insight from LI president Merrick DentonThompson, and from the judges

Landscape Institute Annual Review 2015-2016 Our official report on the last year, reminding members of the way the LI has worked on their behalf.

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Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

Landscape Institute Awards/ 17 Reassessing Jellicoe/ 9 Annual Review/ 75

Winter 2016

landscapeinstitute.org

Cover image

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Image submitted as part of the President’s Award winning project in the LI awards. © Dr Tim Rich

Landscape Winter 2016

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Bigger Picture

By Ruth Slavid

Water colour

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Landscape Winter 2016

© Balmori Associates

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his drawing by Diana Balmori of New York based Balmori Associates is both a seductive image and an illustration of a fascinating piece of work. Called GrowOnUs, it is special partly because it is extraordinarily hands on – the practice not only designed but also built it – and partly because it is experimental and an attempt to solve a really pressing problem.

The scheme was developed for the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, one of the most polluted stretches of water in the United States. The floating culverts that can be seen in the images are used for phytoremediation, planted with a range of plants that are aimed at cleaning up the water as well as desalinating it.

The plants are being monitored in association with New York Botanical Garden to see which will thrive and also if it is possible to grow ‘construction crops’ such as hemp and bamboo. The idea is that the learning from this project, by its nature smallscale, could be rolled out to other filthy stretches of water to make them not only cleaner but also productive.

Landscape Winter 2016

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Landscape Winter 2016

Essay

By Tom Turner

Reassessing Jellicoe Twenty years after Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s death, an academic and admirer looks again at his work and sees his achievements freshly.

1 – Jellicoe, lecturing on Draughtsmanship in 1982 © Tom Turner

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i r Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900–1996) was a founder of the Institute of Landscape Architects (ILA) and founding president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). When president of the ILA from 1939–49 his advocacy work built the profession’s non-garden workload and his generosity in passing on jobs helped the new profession’s

leaders establish their practices (Sylvia Crowe, Brenda Colvin, Peter Youngman, Derek Lovejoy and others). But my reason for claiming that Jellicoe was ‘the most important landscape architect of the 20th century’ has a firmer base: he brought intellectual, artistic and institutional clarity to what remains an ill-defined professional activity of uncertain parentage.1

Olmsted’s approach to landscape architecture Frederick Law Olmsted is known as ‘the father of landscape architecture’2.

His achievements, though brilliant, were more practical than artistic or theoretical. He did little to explain the profession’s aims, objectives, history or design approaches. Charles Waldheim, following Joseph Disponzio, believes Landscape Winter 2016

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Update

2, 4 – Motopia was described, by Bill Bryson, as ‘the dream of Geoffrey Jellicoe… a single giant building in the shape of a lattice, standing in a kind of blue and green Eden… the lakes were to be fashioned out of the old gravel pits’. (Bryson, B, The Road to Little Dribbling, 2015 Penguin p 96.) © Estate of Geoffrey Jellicoe 3 – Studies in landscape design © Tom Turner

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that Olmsted’s use of the term ‘landscape architect’ derived, via Alphand, from Morel3. This is possible. But further research is needed and I think it more probable that Olmsted’s use of the term ‘landscape architecture’ came, via Loudon, Downing and Vaux, from the title of Gilbert Laing Meason’s 1828 book on The Landscape Architecture of the Great Paintings of Italy4.

Whichever ancestry is correct, the etymological principle was to integrate architecture with landscape and cities with nature. ‘Landscape’, in the new profession’s name, referred to the design style characteristic of English gardens in the century before 1860.

Olmsted’s conception scarcely defined a new art and he remarked that ‘Landscape is not a good word, Architecture is not; the combination is not’, and ‘Gardening is worse’5.

Similarly, Jellicoe told an IFLA meeting in that ‘The landscape architect, who was first called a landscape gardener, is still surely wrongly named.’6 Jellicoe made use of the word ‘landscape’ but not to characterise a design style7.

Jellicoe’s approach to landscape architecture Jellicoe’s decision to study architecture followed a meeting with Charles Voysey, who was an Arts and 10 Landscape Winter 2016

Crafts ‘complete designer’ with a zest for modernism. Studying at the Architectural Association, Jellicoe was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, Classicism and Modernism. A tutor pointed him to Italian Renaissance gardens and this led to a book8. Like Dan Kiley a decade later, Jellicoe interpreted Italian gardens as abstract spatial compositions of solid and void.

Jellicoe’s enthusiasm for gardens led to his involvement with founding what became the ILA and is now the LI. The original idea had been to establish a ‘British Association of Garden Architects’, or of ‘Landscape Gardeners’9. Following Olmsted, Mawson and Adams persuaded the founding group to change its name to the Institute of Landscape Architects.

Mawson hoped this would lead to the type of work he had called Civic Art in the title of his 1910 book. They saw the number of private commissions falling and hoped public commissions would fill the gap. Jellicoe designed gardens for seven decades and his practice grew to include work on the landscape of industry, roads, new towns and urban design. To him, they were part of the ‘landscape’ we should ‘design’, as he did for Hemel Hempstead New Town and for Motopia10.

Studies in Landscape Design Published in three volumes between 1960 and 1970, Studies in Landscape Design contains Jellicoe’s most profound writing. The books integrate history, theory and design ideas. Jellicoe explains the art of landscape design as ‘the artificial shaping of the land to accommodate the innumerable activities of the modern world’11.

Jellicoe’s study of the ‘Landscape of allegory’ is a good example. It opens with a discussion of Zen Buddhism, Stourhead, Homer, Virgil and

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Giorgione. This leads to a concise and inspirational account of his own design for the Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede. Here is an edited version of the designer’s account: ‘The stages in the composition were something like the following: 1 . The decision that the landscape, and only the landscape, was the memorial.

2 . Because the memorial stood for harmony between two nations, there should appear to be no boundaries

between the territories. This led to the adoption of the ha-ha or sunk fence.

3. The stone is symbolic of a catafalque, borne on the shoulders of the multitude. The lettering on the stone covers the whole surface, so that it is not so much an inscription upon it as an expression of the stone itself; it is as if it were the stone speaking.

4. The recognition that the genius loci depended first upon the green undisturbed slopes. The wood through which the path gropes its way upwards is symbolic of the virility and mystery of nature as a life force. It is appropriate that it is not very good as forestry, and in fact in order to emphasize the cycle some trees have been retained beyond their reasonable maturity. It is a natural ecological system that is based on selfregeneration and, beyond a few repairs and encouragement to the ground cover, has been largely left undisturbed.

5. The setts represent the multitudes for whom Kennedy stood as champion for individual freedom. The informal path winds its way upwards through a primitive wood, avoiding hazards.

Occasionally it breaks into steps.

Several sample lengths were laid on

orthodox lines, but were unsatisfactory and he was asked to imagine that they were a crowd attending a football match – the steps to be like the front of such a crowd. With this in mind the craftsman went ahead and virtually positioned every sett himself. They are, I think, a considerable work of art12.’

I have never read a better account of a landscape design.

The Landscape of Man The crowning achievement of Jellicoe’s work on the nature of our profession was The Landscape of Man. He argues that: ‘The world is moving into a phase when landscape design may well be recognized as the most comprehensive of the arts. Man creates around him an environment that is a projection into nature of his abstract ideas. It is only in the present century that the collective landscape has emerged as a social necessity. We are promoting a landscape art on a scale never conceived of in history13.’

Waldheim’s Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory takes the art of landscape architecture back three centuries, from Olmsted to the Renaissance14. Jellicoe’s Landscape of Man traces our art to thirty millennia

before Olmsted. While the first buildings date from c10,000 BCE, ‘the first landscapes’ appear in cave paintings dating from c30,000 BCE. Landscape advocacy As President of the ILA, Jellicoe oversaw a dramatic change in the editorial direction of its publication.

The title changed from Landscape and Garden to the Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects (JILA). The content policy changed from articles about horticulture and gardens to the advocacy of landscape architecture.

The eight issues of the Wartime JILA campaigned for the full involvement of landscape architects in public projects. This included the protection of agricultural land, concentrating building on poorer land, multipurpose forestry, parkways linking cities to the country, new towns on garden city lines, the design of trunk roads and restricting urban sprawl.

JILA also had book lists, obituaries of members (including Edwin Lutyens) and commentary on the County of London Plan – on which ‘our two members, Mr J H Forshaw and Professor Patrick Abercrombie, are to be congratulated’. Jellicoe declared

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Landscape Winter 2016 11

Update

that there were two essentials for the future of the Institute. ‘One was to know what we wanted, to have a policy; the other to know that the people would be there to carry out the work’15. This remains true.

The ‘lost videos’ To mark the 20th anniversary of Jellicoe’s death, four videos have been published on the Landscape Architects Association (LAA) website16. Two of them are recordings made in the early ’80s, which were also Jellicoe’s early 80s. This is when he began to apply his mature philosophy to design projects.

After letting the recordings gather dust

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in my attic for 35 years, because of their disappointing audio quality, I enjoyed listening to them again and trying to make them watchable. They show Jellicoe as the kindly, thoughtful, perceptive and widely knowledgeable man he was.

For seven years Jellicoe was a distinguished visiting lecturer at Thames Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich). I recommend this arrangement to landscape courses: Jellicoe’s role was to give occasional lectures, as in the two videos, and to attend design crits throughout the final year. This allowed him an Olympian overview, quite separate from everyday

studio student-staff interaction and valuable to both groups. His comments were always positive, pointing out what was of merit and suggesting improvements.

Landscape urbanism I was surprised to discover, in the 1990s, that Jellicoe had adopted a postmodern approach some 40 years before Charles Jencks applied the term to architecture. In 2016 I was equally surprised to discover that in the 1980s Jellicoe was making the case for an approach to urban design which has since become fashionable. ‘Landscape urbanism’ is explained as ‘a theory of

5 – Occasionally the informal path at the Kennedy Memorial breaks into steps © Smuconlaw

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6 – Jellicoe traced the art of landscape design to Europe’s prehistoric cave paintings.

The Chauvet paintings date from c32,000 years ago (Wikimedia Commons) © Tom Turner 7 – The Blue Plaque on Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe’s house © Tom Turner

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urban planning arguing that the best way to organise cities is through the design of the city’s landscape, rather than the design of its buildings’17.

Reflecting on his urban design work in Modena, Jellicoe comments that: ‘Now we come on to what I think is the most interesting thing in the history of landscape. The mayor wanted it so much that he actually came to see me in London... he made it clear that they want this to be a landscape conception and not an architectural conception... [Similarly, Virgil] inverses the relative thing that you expect... We now inverse values that are accepted. The most comprehensive of the arts is obviously landscape architecture18.’

Conclusion What should we learn from Jellicoe’s life and work?

We should seek close integration between theory, practice and the world of ideas; we should help students and fellow professionals when we can; we should draw; we should not retire; we should be of good cheer; we should keep open minds about institutional

innovation; we should remember our Institute’s central role in ‘promoting a landscape art on a scale never conceived of in history’.

References 1 For a discussion of three alternatives, please see www.landscapearchitecture. org.uk/most-important-landscapearchitect-20th-century 2 Thompson, I., Landscape Architecture: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press 2014 p.100

3 w ww.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/ the-origins-of-landscape-architecture-aprofessional-title-and-an-art/ 4 On the Landscape Architecture of the great Painters of Italy. By G. L. M[eason], Esq.1828 5 Ranney, V.P., ed., The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, vol. 5, “The California Frontier, 1863–1865” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 422 6 Jellicoe, G.A, ‘A table for eight’, p.18, in Crowe, S., ed. Space for living: landscape architecture and the allied arts and professions. Amsterdam: Djambatan, 1961 7 For a discussion of design styles and their naming, see Appendix 1 and 2 of Turner, T., British gardens: history, philosophy and design Routledge 2013 8 Jellicoe, G.A., Shepherd, J.C. Italian gardens of the renaissance Benn, 1925 9 Aldous, T., Landscape by design, Heinemann, London, 1979, p.120 10 Jellicoe, G.A., Motopia: A study in the evolution of urban landscape Studio, 1961. For commentary, see www. landscapearchitecture.org.uk/geoffreyjellicoe-urban-landscape-design-formotopia-housing/ 11 J ellicoe, G.A., Studies in landscape design, OUP, London, Vol 1, 1960, p. xv 12 Jellicoe, G.A., Studies in landscape design, OUP, London, Vol 3, 190, pp. 26–7 13 J ellicoe, G and S, The landscape of man, Thames and Hudson, 1975. The quotation appears on the dust jacket.

14 w ww.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/ waldheim-landscape-urbanism/ 15 Wartime Journal of the Institute of Landscape Architects October 1943 (p.3) 16 w ww.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/ lost-lectures-geoffrey-jellicoe-published/ 17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Landscape_urbanism 18 w ww.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/ geoffrey-jellicoe-lecture-relationshiplandscape-architecture-architecture/

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Landscape Winter 2016 15

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Winners President’s award p20

Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators, South-east Wales

Adding value through landscape p24 Sidcup High Street revival programme, London Communications and presentation p26 B|D landscape architects Review Journal 2010–2015 Design for a small scale development p28

Rotunda Community Campus, Liverpool

Design for a medium scale development p30

Policy and research p40

Trees and Design Action Group

Local landscape planning p42 Woodside, Firhill & Hamiltonhill Development Framework, Glasgow, informed by the ‘What Floats Your Boat’ charrette Strategic landscape planning p44 South Downs National Park: View characterisation and analysis Student dissertation p46

Phenomenology within Design

Student portfolio p48

Piazza Gae Aulenti ‘A new vibrant heart for Milan’, Italy

Peter Kennedy, University of Edinburgh

Design for a large scale development p32 Royal Stoke Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent

Torpoint Vision, Cornwall

Urban design p50

Design for a temporary landscape p34

Client of the year p52 Nene Park Trust, Peterborough

Science management and stewardship p36

Fellows’ award for climate-change adaptability p53 Life+, Hammersmith & Fulham, London

The Hive at Kew Gardens, London

The Crown Estate London Ecology Masterplan

Heritage and conservation p38 Pulham Gardens at Worth Park

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President’s introduction

An inspiring year © 1 – Tom Lee

How good it would be to see the best schemes replicated across the country.

MERRICK DENTON-THOMPSON 1

Daniel Cook, our new chief executive, and I had the opportunity to visit each of the judging panels for this year’s Landscape Institute Awards. For Daniel it was a terrific opportunity to see the impressive array of submissions from the landscape profession, giving him a unique view of the depth and breadth of influence the profession is having on society, and on the landscape of both town and country.

Once again we were inundated with exemplary examples of the profession at its

very best, from master planning to management planning, from detailed exquisite designs to effective delivery. It was so good to see the public sector still driving the commissioning of new design ideas and schemes for regeneration. We were also impressed by the numerous examples of collaboration and of partnership working across so many related disciplines.

However, what struck us most forcefully was the number of projects and great ideas that could be replicated all over the country, benefitting so many

different communities. In a way it would be rather irresponsible to ignore an opportunity to market these ideas more widely to benefit both the applicant and the wider public we all serve.

Of course nothing can be done without the relevant authority of all involved but this is something the Landscape Institute must explore. We must make as much use as possible of such talent and the investment made by the applicant, their client and the Institute itself in running the awards.

May I take this opportunity

to thank the judges who took time away from their busy schedules to take part in identifying the winners and the highly commended schemes. To all those who put in submissions, investing time and money, and standing up to be counted – I admire you all. Thanks also to the awards committee for all it does to make this event so successful and to our staff colleagues for all the effort and thought they put in to make the whole event run like clockwork.

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President’s award

Winner

Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators, south east Wales

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Every year, the President makes an award, selecting from the best of the best. Usually the award goes to a category winner, but this year Merrick DentonThompson, president of the Landscape Institute, chose a project that had been highly commended in the strategic landscape planning category.

He said, ‘I am sure I speak for all past Presidents when I say that trying to select the President’s Award from a list of 20 Landscape Winter 2016

outstanding winners is a real challenge and truly humbling bearing in mind the quality of best practice on display.

However this year I have broken the mould in making my award by adding another winner to the list already determined by the judges.

‘The project is the Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators in south east Wales – it does what it says on the tin, it sets out to transform the

number of pollinating insects, looking at the whole lifecycle, across numerous landscape types – from schools to roadside verges, from public parks to private gardens. There is a strong commitment to monitoring success by both landscape scientists and unqualified citizen scientists. The project has produced a range of advisory booklets to help the public participate in the programme, covering numerous different

landscape settings. Here is an outstanding example of best practice that could so easily be replicated across the country and I will do my best to give it the publicity it fully deserves.’

The Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators in south-east Wales is part of the wider Pollinators for Life project which is funded through the Welsh Government’s Nature Fund. This fund was established to try to address the decline

in Welsh biodiversity through landscape-scale projects, recognising the interdependency of maintaining biodiversity with socio-economic factors.

The study area comprises Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Torfaen Local Authority areas. However, the action plan has been developed with the intention of being applicable to other local authority areas as well.

The action plan seeks to address the decline of pollinators throughout the study area by measuring the baseline conditions, identifying measures to benefit pollinators and drawing up a series of management action plans.

These action plans are focused towards implementation on publicly owned areas of green infrastructure in order to encourage the spread of and raise awareness of the importance of pollinators for health and wellbeing.

Stakeholders from within local authorities, housing associations, statutory and nonstatutory bodies were consulted during the process of producing the action plan and a review of good practice was carried out.

An action plan needs to be a workable document and this one was designed as an easy-to-use set of management actions with two primary approaches; a bottom-up and a top-down approach.

The top-down approach is most useful for those wishing to develop resources for pollinators at a strategic level; it allows for the identification of a suitable site or series of sites which could add most value to the pollinator resource without any prior bias as to site location.

The bottom-up approach is more suited to those who are already managing one or more specific parcels or areas of land and who wish to identify what

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actions would bring about a site-based increase in resources for pollinators.

The step-by-step process reduces the number of management actions to those that are most suitable to a given combination of green infrastructure and land type.

This means that the action plan is highly scalable, with the capacity to be relevant to the whole of Wales yet still being applicable on a site-specific level.

Information is collected on a GIS database which contains approximately 120 relevant baseline and derived datasets.

It is used throughout the action plan to: −−facilitate the initial identification of a site for further investigation (when taking a strategic approach); −−confirm land ownership; −−identify the land classification and green infrastructure type; and,

−− outline the likely constraints to pollinator planting and identify the physical conditions that can be expected.

The database is not intended to be a replacement for the knowledge and experience of those working in the area and nor is it intended to replace site visits. Rather, it

is intended to bridge the gap between the baseline data and the Green Infrastructure Action Plans, providing a data-driven point-of-entry into them and an evidence base to support selected actions.

One of the strengths of this project lies in the simplicity of application. When planning green infrastructure projects

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Presidents award

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for pollinators, it is important to assess the value of the existing resource for pollinators before making changes, so that poor resources can be targeted for improvement and good resources are not accidentally replaced with new infrastructure. Pollinators have a huge range of requirements and assessing the value of a habitat is complex. As it may not be practical to have an ecologist with knowledge of pollinators to assess each and every site before work is planned, some guidance is needed for non-specialists.

To address this, the team drew up a simple grading system based on the general principles that structural diversity and floristic diversity will be good for pollinators; this is called the pollinator evaluation and grading system (PEGS).

Many actions presented in the action plan relate to changes to management regimes such as cutting grass to different heights and/or at different times of the year. Some actions require more extensive changes and include the development of wild flower meadows or formal planting areas. Where these are suggested, opportunities have been identified to attract additional funding.

The team has worked hard to make its work as easy to follow as possible. Action plans are linked throughout to other relevant action plans and management actions using hyperlinks and colour to guide the user and aid their navigation through the process.

Case studies underpin and explain the process with real examples of how it may be used, what changes could be made and the potential benefits these may bring about. These case studies are distributed across the four local authorities and cover heritage sites, schools, general amenity land and office grounds.

A series of guidebooks has been produced which are designed to be used as publicity and communication aids, and to inspire different groups or users to take action to improve pollinator provision. The guidebooks are focused and aimed at the following sectors/ groups: −−Managing Green Spaces for Pollinators – an introduction for managers −−Managing Highway Verges for Pollinators – an introduction for highway managers −−Managing Residential Areas for Pollinators – an introduction for estates managers −−Managing School Grounds for Pollinators – an introduction for head teachers.

The guidebooks have been provided to the four local authorities in a format that can

be edited in Microsoft Publisher in order that they can update and add to the series should they need to in the future.

Monitoring the delivery of the action plan is necessary to ensure its successful implementation and to enable changes and refinements to be made. Both scientifically recognised methods and citizen science approaches are proposed. Scientifically recognised methods are important to objectively rate the performance of the action plan, and developing citizen science is critical if the public is to be successfully engaged.

Adopting a citizen science approach would lead to better public perception of the actions implemented and further promote the benefits associated with reversing the decline in pollinators. This is important

for attracting additional funding which in turn will lead to more robust science-based approaches being carried out.

Addressing issues of public perception is essential to the successful implementation of the action since publicly-owned land is a) just that, owned by the public and b) very much in the public eye. Where suitable, it is recommended that local communities are involved throughout the development of new, or improvement of, existing green infrastructure.

With schools, sports pitches and play areas forming a significant component of publicly owned land, the action plan represents a great opportunity to engage with young people on this important issue.

Merrick Denton-Thompson said, ‘This submission touches a raw nerve with me, it tackles the

appalling state of the biological quality of so many landscapes and it demonstrates that whatever we do as a profession we have to raise the biological health of every landscape we are commissioned to transform.

‘For me what was so exciting about the project is that it took a national policy through to local delivery, through collaboration across a number of local authorities, through collaboration across a number of professional disciplines. At the same time as empowering the non-specialist, members of the public, to participate in delivery.

‘Many congratulations to all those involved, from the Ministerial commitment to effective legislation, from the local authority members and officers, from the landscape architects and ecologists working so effectively together.’

1 – Advantage of a pollinator in action – Bombus lucorum on a poppy © Dr Tim Rich 2 – This butterfly on a flower is another example of a pollinator in action © Dr Tim Rich 3 – Example of a pollinator in action © Dr Tim Rich 4 – Bee on flower © Dr Tim Rich 5 – Blaenavon Heritage Visitor Centre community engagement © Blaenavon Heritage Visitor Centre

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Landscape practice: TACP; clients: Monmouthshire County Council, Blaenau-Gwent County Borough Council, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Torfaen County Borough Council; project manager: Mackley Davies Associates Landscape Winter 2016 23

Adding value through landscape

Winner

Sidcup High Street revival programme, London

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24 Landscape Winter 2016

strategy improves overall access, use and appearance across the high street and restores the civic and social fabric. It has driven regeneration, bringing confidence, enterprise and additional inward investment.

The public benefits from a healthier, higher-quality setting with enhanced functionality and safety, renewed market confidence and increased employment. Environmentally, the scheme reduces the albedo effect and flood risk, improves air quality and micro-climate, and supports biodiversity.

The judges said:

A clear winner of best practice and an excellent case study.

Landscape practice: Untitled Practice; client: London Borough of Bexley; transport engineer: Urban Movement; graphic design: Studio April, Designed by Good People, Polimekanos; artist/maker: Kieren Jones; business support: Retail Revival; contractors: FM Conway, Shades Group, All London Signs

© 1 – Barry Willis Photography

Sidcup’s town centre was suffering from market failure, causing economic and urban decline, and it needed multi-faceted investment to support regeneration. The solution took advantage of the fact that Sidcup’s curving high street follows a hill-top ridge, providing views over the Thames and Cray River valley landscapes. The high street’s hinterland includes key commercial, recreational and cultural attractions, which it needed to connect with and relate to better. The design

Highly commended

Highly Commended

Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland

Life+, Hammersmith & Fulham, London

The Wild Atlantic Way is Ireland’s first long-distance driving route, developed to present the varying landscapes from north Donegal to west Cork as one marketable and accessible tourism offer. The Paul Hogarth Company developed the brief with the concepts of ‘landscape’, ‘people’ and ‘place’ agreed as the unique selling point. As the world’s longest designated coastal driving route, the innovative Wild Atlantic Way is now widely celebrated and sits alongside the great driving routes of the world.

The judges said:

The scale of this project is impressive and has raised the profile of this beautiful landscape.

Landscape practice: The Paul Hogarth Company; client: Fáilte Ireland; ecologist: CAAS; research and writing: Elspeth Wills; project management and masterplanning: The Paul Hogarth Company

The LIFE+ climate proofing social housing project has delivered packages of low‑cost retrofit climate-change adaptation measures across three social-housing estates in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.

By targeting social housing estates, the project has helped to reduce these relatively deprived communities’ vulnerability to climate change. The techniques used are also applicable to other types of development.

The judges said:

It is obvious that the role of the landscape architect has been critical in successful delivery.

3 Landscape practice: Groundwork London; client: Hammersmith & Fulham Council; Project funders: EU LIFE Programme, Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Greater London Authority; engineering support: Engineering, Design & Analysis, Environmental Protection Group; consultancy support: Green Infrastructure Consultancy, The Ecology Consultancy; community engagement: Groundwork London; contractors: Greatford Garden Services, Mitie, Warwick Landscaping, Organic Roofs, Groundwork London Green Teams; performance monitoring: Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), University of East London

2

Highly Commended

Larbert Woods is the UK’s first woodland-based rehabilitation programme for cardiac patients in hospital grounds. The brief was to transform and revitalise the woodland and green space surrounding Forth Valley Royal Hospital, bringing it back into sustainable management and realising the grounds as an asset for health improvement for patients, visitors, staff and local people.

The judges said:

This has taken an important issue of the health benefits and given good value for money, in a modest but compelling way.

4 Landscape practice: Ian White Associates; client: NHS Forth Valley /Forestry Commission Scotland; landscape practice (interpretation and detail design): Central Scotland Forest Trust (CSFT); contractor: CSFT/Forestry Commission Scotland; additional stakeholders: Falkirk Council, Green Exercise Partnership (A partnership between Forestry Commission, NHS Health Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage) Landscape Winter 2016 25

© 2 – TPHC 3 – Lucy Millson-Watkins 4 – Ian White Associates

Larbert Woods, Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert

Communications and presentation

Winner

B|D landscape architects Review Journal 2010–2015

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26 Landscape Winter 2016

was even published in a notable book ‘Visual Communication for Landscape Architecture’ in 2013. The practice decided to try to produce a yearbook each year and the submission for the LI Awards is a 5-year collective review of its time in practice since inception. University of Sheffield and Leeds Beckett University have used the book as part of their careers advice.

The documents has resulted in a number of new commissions.

The judges said:

We chose this as our winner because we felt it set a high bar to professional leadership and promotion.

Landscape practice: B|D landscape architects; client: B|D landscape architects; graphic design: Passport; printing: Team Impression

© 1 – B|D Landscape Architects / PASSPORT

B|D landscape architects was established in November 2008.

In its first full year of consultancy it produced a ‘Yearbook’ that captured its thoughts, aspirations, competition entries and live projects in one 24-page A6 size document – a reminder of time well spent and an opportunity to remind existing clients and introduce potential clients to the possibilities in collaborating with B|D landscape architects.

The yearbook was a success and

Highly commended

HERE+NOW one-year publication, Edinburgh To celebrate one year of activity as Scotland’s first not-for-profit landscape architecture and co‑design studio, Here+Now created the ‘HERE+NOW One Year Publication 2015’ in order to share its approach, tools, learning, projects and process during 2015. The aim was to promote not only the practice’s work but also the work of the landscape profession in general.

The judges said:

This was a refreshing insight into an innovative approach to community engagement.

3 Landscape practice: Here+Now; client: Here + Now, and Cultural Enterprise Office ‘Starter for 6’ Development

Highly commended

GLVIA3 masterclasses and training events The brief was to deliver training on the new publication GLVIA3 (guidelines for landscape visual impact assessment) published jointly by the LI and IEMA in 2013. The success of the training, which more than 600 people attended, has led to bespoke training for other professionals as far afield as New Zealand. The LI has adopted the approach as a template for other training sessions.

2

The judges said:

The communications balanced the technical requirements of the work without letting go of the strategic goals the processes were aiming to achieve.

Landscape practice: WYG with Prof Carys Swanwick Hon FLI; client: Landscape Institute

Highly commended

Madrid + Natural The judges said:

This is an impressive presentation of a vision for greening a major European city.

Landscape practice: Arup; client: Ayuntamiento de Madrid (City of Madrid) – Energy Agency and climate change department

© 2 – HERE+NOW 3 – Julian Jones 4 – Arup

This project provides a bespoke strategic plan, supported by a programme of practical, nature-based solutions, in response to the effects of climate change on Madrid. The project demonstrates how other cities could tackle the effects of climate change in a practical way that would also improve the quality of life for citizens and visitors.

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Landscape Winter 2016 27

Design for a small scale development

1

Winner

Rotunda Community Campus, Liverpool

28 Landscape Winter 2016

With a modest initial budget, BCA Landscape worked closely with the client to tap in to additional funding from a cocktail of sources.

The scheme has directly regenerated a forgotten and derelict area of land, while also continuing and enhancing outreach to the local community.

It puts environmental education at the heart of the approach, while the extensive planting of scented flowers will attract pollinators that will kickstart a mini ecosystem.

The judges said:

This is a garden with a heart and soul and is not just an outdoor room but an outdoor house with a kitchen, living room, larder and playroom.

Landscape practice: BCA Landscape; client: Rotunda Community College; funders: Jo Malone London, Mersey Forest, Biffa, Atlantic Gateway, Liverpool Mutual Homes, and First Trans Pennine Express

© 1 – Derek Mackinnon

On a piece of semi-derelict brownfield land next to Rotunda Community College, BCA Landscape designed a new campus to further the college’s objectives of providing training and qualifications for garden volunteers, improving community links, enabling wheelchair access and incorporating a kitchen garden to link with the college’s café. Through the garden, the project promotes the idea of growing and eating fruit and vegetables.

Highly commended

Crossrail roof garden Located in the North Dock of London’s Docklands, between the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf and the residential neighbourhood of Poplar, this garden sits on top of a new Crossrail station (not yet open) and the development above it.

The designers based their design on the idea of biophilia (love of the living world’) providing a rare space where visitors can interact with nature at high level.

The judges said:

The landscape scheme is as much a part of the building as the elegant roof structure and addresses and embraces some difficult technical challenges.

Landscape practice: Gillespies, with support from Growth Industry; client: Canary Wharf Group; specialist planting consultant: Growth Industry; architect: Foster and Partners; collaborating architect: Adamson Associates; structural and M&E engineer: Arup; main contractor: Canary Wharf Contractors; landscape contractor: Blakedown Landscapes

2

Highly commended

A garden for Maggie’s Lanarkshire

Highly commended

New Ludgate, London The landscape design for New Ludgate unites two distinct buildings by reintroducing a historic existing alleyway and incorporating a new public ground-level piazzetta, whilst additionally developing a south-facing roof terrace on the development’s fifth floor. This terrace has dense and colourful planting, setting the standard for terrace gardens through London.

It provides important habitats for birds and bees, supporting biodiversity in the City.

The judges said:

Like a Paul Smith suit, it is immaculately tailored with a strong form complemented by a floral lining.

Landscape practice: Gustafson Porter; client: Land Securities; architect: Sauerbruch Hutton; executive architect: Fletcher Priest; engineer: Waterman; contractor: Skanska; lighting designer: Speirs + Major; cost consultant: Gleeds

Landscape practice: Rankinfraser landscape architecture; client: Maggie’s Centres; architect: Reiach and Hall Architects; structural engineer: SKM; M&E engineer: KJ Tait; lighting designer: Speirs and Major; main contractor: John Dennis

The judges said:

There is a beautifully restrained palette of materials chosen for colour, texture and warmth which complements the elegant building form and makes a sympathetic canvas for the sparkling light and shadows.

© 2 – Justin Kase 3 – Tim Soar 4 – Rankinfraser

3

This is the latest in a series of Maggie’s cancer caring centres, designed to provide support for patients in a domestic and informal manner. The garden represents a significant evolution in the design of Maggie’s’ gardens, being based on research findings about the therapeutic effects of domestic-scale gardens, This exceptional therapeutic environment has especial significance in Lanarkshire, which has one of the highest cancer rates in Scotland.

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Landscape Winter 2016 29

Design for a medium scale development

Winner

Piazza Gae Aulenti ‘A new vibrant heart for Milan’, Italy

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30 Landscape Winter 2016

textured to increase the water’s vigour before it cascades down two floors, where not only does the sound mitigate noise pollution of surrounding roads, but also helps to integrate light and ventilation requirements.

The piazza’s sculptural seating showcases the potential for digital fabrication in the public realm. Light wells connect the square with the retail floor and car parking below, whilst also allowing light and air to penetrate the surrounding towers’ deep footprints.

The judges said:

An excellent response to the client brief with a strong masterplan concept that brings life to a successful peoplefocused urban landscape.

Landscape practice: AECOM; client: COIMA SGR; design architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli; lighting design: Castiglioni; waste management: Montana; executive architect: Adamson Associates; local architect: Tekne; quantity surveyor: J&A; water feature: Wed Fontane; local landscape architect: Land; MEP engineering: Ariatta/Buro Happold; facade consultant: Studio ingegneria Rigone; urban quality: Gehl Architects; structural engineering: MSC; fire protection: GTP; traffic consultant: ATM

© 1 – Jonathan Ardu

This landmark new square at the heart of the Porta Nuova Garibaldi development provided an incredible opportunity to create a new urban quarter, creating a space that would showcase the vision for Milan as an innovative, sustainable and people-oriented place.

Sustainability was integrated into the heart of the design, ensuring longevity by enabling the piazza to be used for temporary art and cultural installations. The centre of the piazza is flooded, creating a dramatic 60m reflective water skin that becomes highly

Highly commended

Crawter’s Brook Park, Crawley, West Sussex The judges said:

It is a simple intervention with a light touch yet achieves a high level of design and quality using well-crafted simple elements and soft landscape features in an unexpected location in the urban fabric.

Landscape practice: Allen Scott; client: Manor Royal Business District; steering group: Crawley Borough Council, West Sussex County Council and Sussex Wildlife Trust; engineer: Waterman Infrastructure & Environment; contractor: Edburton Contractors; subcontractors: Katsura Gardens; fabricators: Laddingford Engineering (metal work); Albion Architectural (concrete); Adam Kershaw (timber elements); and Arc Creative (interpretation).

© 2 – Allen Scott

The brief was to provide a new public park in the Manor Royal Business District, which had been formed with the designation of Crawley as a new town.

It emphasised the need to find new and more co-operative ways of looking after projects once they are completed and involving local people. Innovation in the design included incorporating photovoltaic cells and a battery in signs to power uplighters and the chipping of wood that was removed to create wildlife habitats.

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Landscape Winter 2016 31

Design for a large scale development

Winner

Royal Stoke Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent

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32 Landscape Winter 2016

the hospital experience and combined them with smooth functionality to minimise stress.

It liaised closely with clinicians and created: insideoutside experiences that brought nature deep indoors; strategic green movement routes including covered walkways; gardens for break out, contemplation and recreation for patients, staff, friends and families; green views for people spending long periods of time in wards, dialysis and oncology.

The judges said:

We are impressed that this scheme will clearly deliver many public benefits to the local population and has great potential to act as an exemplar to other healthcare schemes.

Landscape practice: Colour; client: University Hospital of North Midlands NHS Trust; equity provider: John Laing Social Infrastructure; FM provider: Sodexho/ Project Co; contractor; Laing O’Rourke; quantity surveyor: Cyril Sweett; architecture: Ryder HKS; civil and structural engineering: WSP; traffic engineering: Scott Wilson/UBS; planning consultant: GVA Grimley

© 1 – Mandarin Oriental

Colour, the landscape practice, developed Dr Roger Ulrich’s globally replicated evidence that patients with green views recover faster than those without, require less strong drugs, less frequently, and that perceptions of treatment improve. Stress could also be reduced through interaction with nature, and staff retention improved.

The practice created departmental-specific models and also applied them to car parking, arrival and circulation areas to set

Highly commended

Mandarin Oriental, Bodrum, Turkey Mandarin Oriental, Bodrum is on a waterfront site, set on a series of levels in the resort’s hillside, surrounded by ancient olive groves and pine trees. The landscape vision was to create a seamless connection between the architecture and landscape that charts the romantic journey from Mediterranean pine forest and the garrigue shrubland, to olive groves and grassy plains.

The judges said:

The scheme is visually impressive with beautiful detailing.

Š 2 – Mandarin Oriental

2

Landscape practice: Scape Design Associates; client: Astas Holding; operator: Mandarin Oriental; project manager: Arup; architect: Metex; interior designer: Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel & Partners; lighting designer: Metis; signage consultant: Jackson Daley; irrigation consultant: Irritech; kitchen designer: Humble Arnold Landscape Winter 2016 33

Design for a temporary landscape

1

Winner

The Hive at Kew Gardens, London

34 Landscape Winter 2016

after two years at Kew Gardens.

The landscape needed to provide Kew with an event space to hold external classes and talks, set within a landscape typology unique within Kew. As the meadow develops and various plant species come into flower, the sounds and sights of bees within The Hive will be accompanied by real bees within the meadow, creating a multi-layered, multi-sensory experience.

The judges said:

The submission uses the temporary opportunity of the installation to engage thoughtfully with the purpose, and short and long term needs of the site.

Landscape practice: BDP; client: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; artist and creative lead: Wolfgang Buttress; principal contractor: Stage One; structural, electrical and civil engineer: BDP; structural engineer, the Hive: Simmonds Studio; acoustic consultant: Hoare Lea

© 1 – Nick Caville BDP

Following the success of the UK Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015, the UKTI and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew reached an agreement for the main sculptural piece of the pavilion, the Hive, to be relocated to Kew Gardens for a period of two years.

An important element of the landscape design was to provide a setting for the Hive that would have a meaningful and functional legacy once the sculpture has been moved

Highly commended

Mobile Garden City, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London The Mobile Garden City responds to the growing pressure on land in big cities, where construction can dominate everyday life, by developing a community space and a growing hub on a piece of land lost between purposes.

The Mobile Garden City has been instrumental in creating

communal space and activities where local networks can grow.

Through its design and concept, it succeeds in developing fledging communities of the Olympic Park, and offers a replicable model for ‘meanwhile’ sites amid the constant flux of modern cities.

The judges said:

This project provides an engaging space where connections can be developed between old and new communities.

© 2 – Groundwork London

2

Landscape practice: Groundwork London for Our Parklife with Public Works / Somewhere; client: London Legacy Development Corporation; design champions: (public works) Andreas Lang; (somewhere): Nina Pope, Karen Guthrie, Laurent Mot, Nic Laurent, (graphic design) Koby Barhad; structural advice on design for relocation: Blue Engineering; site development and enabling works: Chobham Manor LLP; landscape contractor/ design consultant; The Landscape Group Landscape Winter 2016 35

Science management and stewardship

Winner

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Š 1 – Arup

The Crown Estate London Ecology Masterplan

In July 2015, The Crown Estate, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, Shaftesbury, the Howard de Walden Estate and The Portland Estate, announced that they had formed a unique collaboration to promote green infrastructure through an ecology project entitled ‘Wild West End’. The Crown Estate kick started Wild West End with the London Ecology Masterplan.

The masterplan targets were developed through consultation with the London Wildlife Trust, and target Westminster’s priority species. Through a holistic estate-wide approach, the masterplan provides a long-term, flexible strategy for enhancing landscape and ecological value through the delivery of multifunctional green infrastructure features that provide a range of ecosystem services. It links green spaces with new features to create a green corridor through the site.

Following the implementation of the masterplan, Arup’s project team have provided regular monitoring and quarterly reporting to track the success against the short term targets and review the projected trajectory towards the long term objectives.

The judges said:

Landscape practice: Arup; client: The Crown Estate

© 2 – Arup

An inspiring vision to deliver ecosystem service benefits straight into the heart of the capital city.

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Landscape Winter 2016 37

Heritage and conservation

Winner

Pulham Gardens at Worth Park

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38 Landscape Winter 2016

LI design stages, working with the friends, county archaeologist, CBC and experienced crafts­ people experienced in restoration.

The two most challenging problems were the restoration of the main fountain, which had not worked for 70 years, and the geologically correct re-building of the Pulham scenic rockery.

An overgrown, indistinct local park has become one of national interest. Major vegetation clearance coupled with significant ornamental and native planting have improved biodiversity, as shown by ecological monitoring.

The judges said:

The quality of the restoration, and in particular the elaborate Pulham terracotta and rock work, shone thorough.

Landscape practice: Allen Scott; client: Crawley Borough Council; engineer: Waterman Group; quantity surveyor: PT Projects; project management: Glevum Consulting; main contractor: Blakedown Landscapes; specialist crafts: Pulhamite Reconstruction, Alan Bishop Associates; Pulham terracotta fountain restoration: The Fountain Company; camellia walk: Green Oak Carpentry; Pulham advisor: Claude Hitching

© 1 – Allen Scott

A 1950s ‘new town’, Crawley is often derided for its lack of heritage. Following research it conducted, Crawley Council (CBC) became aware that Worth Park was an original James Pulham and Sons design, containing remnants of many features.

The project aimed to restore the near-derelict legacy within an improved setting, as well as improving the amenity value of the wider neglected park, substantially smaller than its original form.

Allen Scott led the project, developing and guiding the restoration through HLF and

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Highly commended

The restoration of Kennington Park Flower Garden, London

The judges said:

The submission is an exemplar for such projects and the project experience could usefully be captured as technical advice.

Landscape practice: LUC; client: Lambeth Council; client partner: Friends of Kennington Park; quantity surveyor: Huntley Cartwright; conservation architect: Rees Bolter; engineer: The Morton Partnership; CDM co-ordinator: Brian Bulfin Associates; landscape contractor: Gavin Jones

3

Highly commended

Felixstowe Seafront Gardens Felixstowe has suffered from a declining tourist economy. A key site in its restoration strategy was the gardens, which were in a state of dilapidation with many elements comprising complex and often unstable assemblages.

The gardens now comprise a series of interconnected spaces, rockwork and water features which together with ornamental planting, impart great diversity of visual interest.

The judges said:

The restored gardens are obviously enjoyed by many, and there are some super Trip Advisor reviews.

Landscape practice: Mott MacDonald; client: Suffolk Coastal District Council supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF); employer’s agent: Concertus Property Consultants; project manager: Castons; cost consultant: Gleeds; artist: Valerie Osment; HLF application consultant: Lanarca; community liaison: Felixstowe Forward; Felixstowe strategic masterplan: David Lock Associates; principal contractor: Breheny Civil Engineer Landscape Winter 2016 39

© 2 – LUC 3 – Mott McDonald

Kennington Park Flower Garden lies within the Grade II registered Kennington Park in south London which was originally opened in 1854. The project has revived the neglected and run-down flower garden, with its 1930s heritage as the basis of the scheme, thus creating a new resource for all generations to enjoy. The high degree of consultation meant that the community became involved with the garden, and took an interest in the meticulous research and a new pride in the history of the garden.

Policy and research

1

Winner

Trees and Design Action Group

40 Landscape Winter 2016

that must be addressed for maximum economic, social and environmental returns.

Each principle is supported by explanations of benefits and delivery mechanisms. 34 case studies provide real-life examples of the principles in action.

Trees in Hard Landscapes.

A Guide for Delivery, published in 2014, explores the practical challenges and solutions to integrating trees in 21st century streets, civic spaces and surface car parks, detailing process, design and technical options.

The judges said:

The guide encourages a collaborative approach across the planning, design and engineering professions.

Landscape practice, project and client team: Trees and Design Action Group Trust and Capita Lovejoy land planning team

Š 1 – Michael Murray

The Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG), founded by Capita Lovejoy in 2007, draws together the knowledge and experience of all stakeholders involved in the urban tree agenda, and is a vehicle for the free dissemination of expertise and good practice.

TDAG has published two seminal research studies. Trees in the Townscape: A Guide for Decision Makers, published in September 2012, offers 12 action-oriented principles, spanning planning, design, works and management issues,

Highly commended

Highly commended

The SuDS Manual

The Bath Pattern Book

The landscape architect’s role in the collaborative approach to the design of SuDS (sustainable drainage systems) is strongly emphasised in CIRIA’s new C753 SuDS Manual (2015), which demonstrates that using the correct team upfront in the design of SuDS will support the delivery of multiple benefits.

The manual promotes landscape architecture as playing a central role within interdisciplinary teams involved in the masterplanning, design and development of open space.

The judges said:

Exceedingly thorough and applicable internationally.

2

Bath and North East Somerset Council commissioned The Bath Pattern Book to provide publicrealm design guidance for the city centre. The Pattern Book, which is the result of more than three years’ work, reinvents the idea of a city built around the pleasure to be found in sharing the public realm. It draws on archive evidence of the elements of the Georgian city and combines this with research into people-centred place-making and current best practice in pedestrian-priority public realm design.

The judges said:

Inspiring research, analysis and presentation result in a public-realm framework standing a step beyond other guides of its type.

3 Delivery team lead author: HR Wallingford; client: CIRIA (Construction Information and Research Association); delivery team authors: EPG Environmental Protection Group, EcoFutures/University of Sheffield, Grant Associates, Illman Young Landscape Design

Landscape practice: Landscape Projects; client: Bath and North East Somerset Council; co-consultants: Civic Engineers, Gehl Architects, Research Design Architecture, Spiers and Major, Working pArts

Highly commended

The Edible Roof: A Guide to Productive Rooftop Gardening to contribute to the greening of the city. It addresses the unique challenges of urban farming on high-rise buildings, providing best-practice to help community groups establish roof-top farms on under-used urban roof spaces at minimal cost.

© 2 – Grant Associates 3 – Landscape Projects 4 – Julian Cho, HKU

The objective of the four-year research project that resulted in this book, was to empower communities to establish their own urban rooftop farm projects, to promote healthier high-density urban lifestyles and to allow urban roof farms The judges said:

This has far-reaching potential for wider use in fast-growing, dense cities.

Landscape practitioner and author: Mathew Pryor, The University of Hong Kong; publisher: MCCM Creations, Hong Kong

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Landscape Winter 2016 41

Local landscape planning

Winner

Woodside, Firhill & Hamiltonhill Development Framework, Glasgow, informed by the ‘What Floats Your Boat’ charrette

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42 Landscape Winter 2016

The key innovative approach was the intensive and creative charrette engagement process that involved a variety of engagement techniques, over an intensive four-day period, including a significant art outreach programme, and involved dialogue with more than 300 people. Unconventional approaches such as the use of a paper boat as a symbol of change were successful. The process established priorities for the area, such as the

importance of a cohesive green infrastructure area. An area of ‘vacant and derelict land’ has now been re-designated as a local nature reserve.

The judges said:

The project demonstrated an approach which ensured that the public were fully engaged and involved in an area of high deprivation in Glasgow.

Landscape practice: LUC; client: Glasgow Canal Regeneration Partnership (Scottish Canals & Glasgow City Council); architect: LDN; charrette facilitator: Kevin Murray Associates; art coordinator: Matt Baker; engineering and transport consultant: AECOM; ecological support: Envirocentre; socio-economic consultant: PBA

© 1 – Scottish Canals

The aim of this project was to establish a vision and development framework for the Woodside, Firhill, and Hamiltonhill areas of north Glasgow which are adjacent to the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal. The Vision, Development Framework and Masterplan were prepared in close liaison with stakeholders and the local community via a ‘charrette’ process and informed by a rigorous understanding of the area.

Highly commended

Highly commended

Assessing a Cornish sense of place

Pellant Road Estate regeneration

The public-space team, working with the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit, recognised the need for Local Landscape Character Assessment (LLCA) to underpin Neighbourhood Development Plan policies and piloted a methodology with the Roseland NDP through 2014. This included discussions, workshop sessions and training for volunteers, as well as advice on the content and wording of environmental policies in the wider neighbourhood plan.

The judges said:

We are aware of the shortage of staff in local authorities for this kind of work, and so the training programme made this entry stand out.

Landscape practice: Cornwall Council Public Space Team, Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit; client: Cornwall’s Parish and Town Councils who wish to carry out a landscape character assessment as part of a Neighbourhood Development Plan

2

When Allen Scott was brought in partway through the redevelopment process, it realised that the purely cosmetic changes that had been proposed would have little impact.

Instead it proposed more radical changes, which include demolishing a large proportion of the existing concrete podium and a warren of underground garages. The demolished garages will be replaced with SuDS (sustainable drainage systems) paving, vegetated swales and safely lit car parking spaces.

The judges said:

This scheme introduced some very original designs which were the result of clear objectives and which were deliverable and realistic.

Landscape practice: Allen Scott; client: Hammersmith and Fulham Council; building surveyor and lead designer: GDS; project management: Mitie; BREEAM assessment: NuPlanet; ecologist: FOA Ecology; structural engineer: Cornerstone; quantity surveyor: Moony Kelly

3

Highly commended

AECOM was asked to create a benchmark for innovative and active 21st century living that was in line with the high aspirations of the worldrenowned institution that is The University of Cambridge.

The site is highly sensitive and in a city with extremely high standards and history. AECOM ensured that the project was developed hand in hand with the community. Innovations include the UK’s largest non-potable

surface-water recycling network, which is integrated with enhanced ecological habitats, open spaces and cycling and walking routes.

The judges said:

This was an exemplar in how landscape architects can lead and influence the design approach and outputs for a significant new development.

4 Landscape practice (planning, landscape architecture, masterplanning, engineering, sustainability): AECOM; client: North West Cambridge Development, University of Cambridge; ecology: MD Ecology; transport engineer: PBA Landscape Winter 2016 43

© 2 – Julien Jones 3 – Allen Scott 4 – AECOM

North West Cambridge Development ‘creating a positive community’

Strategic landscape planning

Winner

South Downs National Park: view characterisation and analysis on views to ensure this aspect of the park’s special qualities could be understood, conserved and enhanced for future generations, resisting the pressures for development in this most populous part of the country.

The study forms part of the landscape evidence base for the South Downs National Park Plan and is actively being

1 Landscape practice: LUC; client: South Downs National Park Authority 44 Landscape Winter 2016

used to support development management decisions and assess the impacts of proposed land-use change.

The project produced a series of user-friendly interactive tools that are widely accessible to the general public, and could be used widely elsewhere to enhance accessibility and understanding.

The judges said:

This piece of work translates an esoteric statement into a means of objective evaluation of views, plugging a gap in the decision-making process.

© 1 – LUC

The first of the seven special qualities of the South Downs National Park are defined as its ‘diverse, inspirational landscapes and breathtaking views’, but at the time of commissioning this study there was no evidence about what these views were or what makes them special.

Therefore the purpose of this project was to provide evidence

Highly commended

Highly commended

Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators, South-east Wales

Seychelles Strategic Land Use and Development Plan

The Green Infrastructure Action Plan for Pollinators in Southeast Wales (GIAPP) formed a component of Pollinators for Life, funded by the Welsh Government’s Nature Fund supporting landscape-scale projects to address the decline in biodiversity and provide benefits to the economy and communities through creating the environments that favour the

creatures that help to pollinate plants. The GIAPP places an emphasis on the intrinsic value of pollinators to the public, aiming to provide a more colourful, artistic and functional environment.

The judges said: It offers deliverable actions at every scale from personal to organisational.

The plan provides a spatial framework for the future of Seychelles to 2040, providing policy across a range of topics to guide development, inform lower-tier policy, including land use plans, and inform decisionmaking. The plan, approved in September 2015, comprises an integrated national strategic plan, a framework plan for the most populous island (Mahé),

and a detailed masterplan for the capital city Victoria. The plans are supported by a suite of evidence-based documents covering everything from character assessment to security and disaster-risk assessments.

The judges said: There was strong stakeholder and public engagement, and the results were clearly implemented in policy.

2 Landscape practice: TACP; clients: Monmouthshire County Council, BlaenauGwent County Borough Council, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Torfaen County Borough Council; project manager: Mackley Davies Associates

3 Landscape practice: Arup; client: Government of Seychelles; Abu Dhabi Planning Council

Highly commended

Upland Commons of South-east Wales natural resources management plan The judges said: This does the job really well. The solutions arrived at are robust and applicable to the challenge in hand.

Landscape practice: TACP; client organisations: Welsh Government, Torfaen County Borough Council, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Brecon Beacons Natural Park Authority, Forgotten Landscapes Partnership, Monmouthshire County Council, Cardiff University, Gwent Wildlife Trust, Gwent Police, Natural Resources Wales, representatives from Commoners Associations; rural consultant: Cumulus Consultants

© 2 – Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council 3 – Arup 4 – TACP

This is the first management plan for the uplands to focus on an ecosystems services approach.

It covers 380km2 within five local authority areas and provides them, Welsh Government, Commoners Associations, Gwent Wildlife Trust, individual farmers and other stakeholders with clear spatially specific management proposals that can be implemented immediately to benefit local biodiversity, commoners and the wider landscape. It will form the prototype for the preparation of other Natural Resource Management Plans in Wales.

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Landscape Winter 2016 45

Student dissertation

Winner

Phenomenology within Design

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the key principles of landscape phenomenology with landscape architecture through both pragmatic and conceptual arguments. He focuses on the French school of poststructuralism, with discussions revolving around the theories of Deleuze, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida, and how they can be reappropriated in landscape architecture through

the key example of Derrida’s ‘transcendental signifiers’.

The argument posed is that the considerations of self and world developed by phenomenology have an important role in the evolving discipline of academic landscape architecture, especially in a dualized and conflicted place such as Plaszow.

The judges said:

The author went above and beyond the recommended reading to demonstrate a clear passion for his subject.

Student: James Trevers; university: University of Edinburgh

© 1 – Nicholas Robins and James Trevers

By engaging in landscape research through the narrative of the design process, this paper charts a landscape architect’s account of the landscape of Plaszow, Krakow – the site of a former Nazi concentration camp.

Through engagement with the personal negotiations and decisions made through a first-person narrative, the author attempts to combine

Highly commended

Agency and Access: a systemic examination of vacant space access in Dublin

2

the social realities that it creates and the efforts of grassroots initiatives to overcome these realities.

The study includes a series of interviews with specific actors involved in accessing vacant space within the city today.

The judges said:

The author demonstrates excellent underpinning research, with excellent referencing of key academic and neoliberal theory to inform the work.

Student: Callum Watson; university: University of Edinburgh

Š 2 – Callum Watson

This study aims to define measures by which members of the public may achieve access to vacant space within the city of Dublin. It seeks to address the position of the landscape architect within the dynamics of top-down urban policy and

Landscape Winter 2016 47

Student portfolio

Winner

Peter Kennedy, University of Edinburgh

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and ecological growth. In contrast, Plaszów Concentration Camp, Kraków focuses on a complex emotional grain alongside the physical grain of mass graves and killing sites, creating spaces that function as memorials to the past and facilitators for the future.

The judges said:

He shows real skill in digesting information and interpreting it into something engaging.

© 1 – Peter Kennedy

Helguvík Industrial Park, Iceland responds to a physical tactile tectonic field grain where delicate microclimates are in flux with large-scale industry growth. The project devises a way in which the industry itself can alter, hack and enrich the landscape grain for economic

Highly commended

Callum Watson, University of Edinburgh The judges said:

The portfolio is consistent throughout with beautiful welldesigned graphics and presentation.

Š 2 – Callum Watson

In his final year, Callum focused on two project areas. The first demonstrated aspects of landscape architectural design in relation to climatic instability and his personal research explored how a landscape architect positions themselves in relation to the sociological dynamics within the urban development agenda of a city.

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Urban design

1

Winner

Torpoint Vision, Cornwall

50 Landscape Winter 2016

residents in consultation, as well as studying economic indicators and the planning context.

The Vision advocates a flexible approach to regeneration so that the town can respond over time to changing economic circumstances. It puts the environment and sustainable design first and, by generating a positive momentum from the right projects being delivered in the right place at the right time, the impact on the town could be transformational.

The judges said:

This was a robust and deliverable project clearly supported by a fully costed and realistically phased business plan – a delightful piece of work.

Landscape practice: Clifton Emery Design; client: Torpoint Town Council

© 1 – Clifton Emery Design

The Vision for Torpoint sets out a physical vision for the town, with a strategy and 50 ideas that point to how it could be improved.

The vision will now underpin the town neighbourhood plan, providing a physical vision to inform planning policy – giving quality design a high profile in the process of regeneration.

The aim is that the new image will help to support a new civic pride in residents.

The landscape team engaged more than 2000 of the 9000

Highly commended

Highly commended

Barton Park, Oxford

The Aylesbury Estate Regeneration, London

Barton Park will be an exemplary garden suburb designed for the needs of the 21st century; a perfect blend of high quality, healthy, urban living that is in harmony with its natural surroundings. It will provide up to 885 new homes, 40% social tenure, designed to a high level of sustainability. This includes the design of walkable neighbourhoods, multifunctional public open space,

low-energy housing and a focus on naturalistic principles with high levels of biodiversity.

The judges said: The early delivery of the landscape elements is a strength of the project, while it makes a virtue of a traditional approach inspired by projects in the Netherlands and is not striving to be an iconic proposal.

Landscape played a pivotal role in reshaping the council’s Area Action Plan masterplan. HTA recognised the importance of the site’s existing trees, mapped them onto the existing masterplan and reconfigured it, using the location of the trees to indicate where new roads and open spaces should go. This was a distinguishing

factor in the bid and subsequent planning applications, and has added value to proposals in economic, environmental and cultural terms.

The judges said: This landscape masterplan is a rigorous and innovative piece of work for a highly controversial site.

2 3 Landscape practice: HTA Design; client: Notting Hill Housing Group; local authority: Southwark Council ; architects: HTA Design, Mae Architects, Hawkins Brown; civil/MEP engineering consultant: WSP; structural engineering consultant: Price & Myers; consultation specialist: Soundings

Highly commended

Colin Town Centre Masterplan This is one of the most significant regeneration projects to have taken place in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement. The design and planning of a new town centre has not been undertaken in recent times and represents one of the most ambitious programmes to transform a problematic urban area.

Consultation was key, and the people of Colin were involved in every step of the development of this landscape-led masterplan.

The judges said: A rigorous consultation process was used to generate an ambitious and innovative vision for a new town centre within an existing housing area.

4 Landscape practice: The Paul Hogarth Company; client: Department for Communities (formerly Department for Social Development); client partners: Colin Neighbourhood Partnership, Strategic Investment Board; architect: Hall McKnight; planning consultant: Strategic Planning, environmental consultant/ quantity surveyor/ engineering consultant: WYG; traffic/ transportation consultant: JMP; social/ economic sustainability consultant: Sorhill Advocates; arboriculturalist: Philip Blackstock; archaeology consultant: Gahan and Long; peer review: Allies and Morrison Architects; project management and masterplanning: The Paul Hogarth Company Landscape Winter 2016 51

© 2 – Glenn Howells Architects 3 – HTA Design 4 – The Paul Hogarth Company

Landscape practice: Terence O’Rourke; client: Barton Oxford LLP (comprised of Grosvenor Developments Ltd and Oxford City Council); architect: Glenn Howells; town planner and consultation: AECOM; affordable housing and agent: Savills; transport, engineering and EIA coordination: WSP; strategy and sustainability: Urbed; QS and procurement: Arcadis; arboriculture: Lockhart Garratt; soils: Tim O’Hare Associates

Client of the year

Winner

Nene Park Trust, Peterborough

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Meadows. Adam White of Davies White says, ‘The Nene Park Trust understand the value of quality design and an engaged design development process. The first thing they said when we met in 2012 was they wanted a professional that was creative, skilled in strategic planning, delivery and aftercare management. They were clear they needed a landscape design consultant rooted in an understanding of how the environment works and what makes each place unique.’

When a landscape architect is able to say of a client that ‘The success of the projects would not be purely judged on whether they were delivered on time and in budget but on how they created healthy places, natural beauty and diversity, helped address climate change, respect landscape character and have a real quality in both the detail design and delivery’ the committee were able to unanimously award Nene Park Trust the Client of the Year title 2016.

The obvious trust and enthusiasm the client has placed in the landscape architect’s hands is refreshing and commendable. Community engagement is so often paid lip service to but in this instance the designs literally are user and designer led with the full support of the Trust.

Proposed by: Davies White

© 1 – Paul Upward Photography

Nene Park Trust is a registered charity and was established in 1988. The trust is entirely self-funded through rental income from park properties, concessions and investments at no cost to the taxpayer. The management of the trust is overseen by a Board of Trustees, representing local, regional and national organisations.

In 2012 Davies White won a commission to work with the Nene Park Trust over the next five years, and has carried out a number of projects at Ferry

Fellows’ award for climate-change adaptation

Winner

Life+, Hammersmith & Fulham, London Every year, the fellows of the LI give an award to the project that they feel best represents climate-change adaptation.

This year, when making their choice, they were impressed by what had been achieved on a very modest budget in terms of environmental and social transformation in this project which was part-funded through the EU LIFE+ ‘climate proofing

social housing landscapes’ programme.

They said, ‘There is a need for cost-effective retrofitting of the existing housing stock to be more widely recognised as an essential component of a comprehensive national and international response to climate change. This project will undoubtedly help promote this recognition by demonstrating

in a very practical way what can be done.

‘This submission was convincingly presented with a very clear narrative. The communication skills of the team shone through. Energetic engagement with the residents succeeded in converting initial widespread scepticism into enthusiastic understanding and support.’

© 2 – Lucy Millson-Watkins

Landscape practice: Groundwork London; client: Hammersmith and Fulham Council; project funders: EU LIFE Programme, Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Greater London Authority; engineering support: Engineering, Design & Analysis, Environmental Protection Group; consultancy support: Green Infrastructure Consultancy, The Ecology Consultancy; community engagement: Groundwork London; contractors: Greatford Garden Services, Warwick Landscaping, Organic Roofs, Groundwork London Green Teams

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Landscape Winter 2016 53

Thanks

The Landscape Institute would like to thank all the judges of the awards who gave up their time to scrutinise the entries.

Adding value through landscape – Johanna Gibbons FLI (chair), J & L Gibbons – Paul Best FLI, Hampshire County Council – Ruth Holmes CMLI, The Royal Parks Communications and presentation – Jim Smyllie (chair) – Noel Farrer FLI PPLI, Farrer Huxley Associates – Caroline Macfarland, CoVi Design for a small scale development – Andy Sturgeon (chair), Andy Sturgeon Design – Andrée Davies, Davies White – Chris Moss, Earthenware Landscape Architects – Julia Watts FLI, Groundwork Hertfordshire Design for a medium scale development – Andy von Bradsky (chair), von Bradsky Enterprises – Pol MacDonald CMLI, open – Donncha O’Shea, Gustafson Porter Design for a large scale development – Brian Quinn (chair), Design Council CABE – Célia Guerreiro CMLI, John McAslan + Partners – Neil Mattinson FLI, LDA Design

54 Landscape Winter 2016

Design for a temporary landscape development – James Sale (chair), Pop Up Parks –H olly Birtles CMLI, B|D landscape architects – Mark Walton, Shared Assets Heritage and conservation – J enifer White CMLI (chair), Historic England – Keith Challis, National Trust –L indsey Wilkinson FLI, consultant Landscape policy and research –A nne Jaluzot (chair), GI planning consultant – Fiona McKenzie CMLI, EDP – Richard Sumner CMLI, Natural Resources Wales Local landscape planning – Janet Askew (chair) –K rishanthi Carfrae CMLI, GL Hearn –G raham Woodward CMLI, Atkins Strategic landscape planning – Rosslyn Stuart (chair), RTPI –C lare Brockhurst FLI, Tyler Grange –W endy Lancaster CMLI, Landmark Landscape Planning Science, management and stewardship –N aomi Oakley(chair), Natural England –R obin Gray CMLI, Pennine Prospects –K ate Lynch CMLI, Islington Council

Student portfolio – Dr Saruhan Mosler (chair), Writtle College – Fraser Halliday, HarrisonStevens – James Virgo CMLI, LUC Student dissertation – David Booth CMLI (chair), University of Gloucestershire – Jane Everitt CMLI, Groundwork London – Ian Houlston CMLI, LDA Design – Stuart Malcolm, LDA Design Urban design and masterplanning – Amanda Reynolds (chair), ar urbanism – Dr Phil Askew CMLI, LLDC – Dr Nicholas Falk, URBED –F elicity Steers CMLI, erz –W endy Wright CMLI, Waterman Group Fellows’ Award – Paj Valley FLI (Chair), Atkins – Neil Williamson FLI PPLI, Consultant Landscape Institute awards committee – David Withycombe CMLI (chair), Land Management Services – Rob Beswick CMLI, B|D landscape architects – Anne Evans CMLI, Anne Evans Landscape Architects – Nicola Hancock CMLI, TEP – Paj Valley FLI, Atkins – Jo Watkins CMLI, PPLI

The Landscape Institute is grateful to the sponsors of the awards. They are:

Inspiring Sustainable Spaces

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Landscape Winter 2016 55

Feature

Green 56 Landscape Winter 2016

living Hanham Hall was much praised as a beacon of green living, but how does it work in practice?

BY RUTH SLAVID

Landscape Winter 2016 57

Feature

h ousing development at Hanham Hall in South Gloucestershire has been widely praised. Fulfilling a number of demanding design criteria, it was intended by its designer HTA and its developer Barratt Homes to be not only a scheme that ticked all the boxes but also a real community.

2 – The retained Grade II* building has been converted for community uses and offices © Tom Lee

THE

3 – A strict covenant means that the initial uniformity of appearance will be maintained © Tom Lee

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Fine talk and promotional videos, however much they are backed up by figures on energy performance etcetera, cannot really let you know if this has worked. It is necessary to consult the experts, and in this case the experts are not the various engineers and other ‘interested’ parties – they are the genuinely interested parties, the people who live there and enjoy or struggle with both the planned and the unexpected elements of the project.

The answer is no, and the reason is simply financial. Barrett Homes says that, without the special financial help that it received in this case, it cannot afford to do this again. Environmentally, the impact of Hanham will be greatly reduced in relation to other similar communities – the only real downside is that, as a result of its position, car commuting is common – but we will not see those benefits again, unless financial provision is made for them.

So for this feature we have concentrated on the experience of the residents and discovered that, although there are inevitably niggles, the experience is generally a happy one. There is a fantastic sense of community, and everybody is happy to be living there. So, one would expect to see this repeated, wouldn’t one?

In order to understand why this is, and also what works and what doesn’t work, it is necessary to know what Hanham is. Although it is officially in south Gloucestershire, it is effectively in suburban Bristol. Built on the site of a former hospital, with a retained Grade II* listed building, it has 185 new homes, with a range of tenures. Some 35% are affordable. The density is just over 50 dwellings per hectare.

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James Lord, who leads on landscape at HTA, said, ‘There are a lot of rules and regulations that you need to take into account when you are creating a community like this, but rules and regulations don’t create great places. And we were really focused with Barrett and the HCA on ensuring that this became a really successful community as well as a highly sustainable one.’

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4 – Plan of the Hanham Hall development © HTA 5 – The design of the streets encourages interaction © Tom Lee 6 – Greenhouses have been built against a Roman wall © Tom Lee

Landscape plays a vital role, since there are a total of 3.7ha of meadows, play areas, ponds and allotments surrounding the homes. As well as providing amenity, they serve a number of other functions, including rainwater attenuation and noise protection from the nearby major road.

This was the first development on which the Homes and Communities Agencies was aiming to achieve zero carbon, equivalent to Code Level 6 under the then Code for Sustainable Homes. In addition the aim was to achieve Building for Life Gold, the CEEQUAL standard for sustainability in civil engineering and public realm and the CIBSE overheating standard.

With HTA acting as both architect and landscape architect, there was no division between the two, so the homes are part of the landscape. Southfacing buildings have projecting timber louvres in front of them, creating semi-private spaces for sociability. This is enhanced by the fact that there is no barrier between the small front gardens and the street. In addition, the living rooms, which are on the first floor, have generous balconies that look over the shared space.

5

One of the suggestions that HTA made was that, rather than turning Hanham Hall itself into flats, it should be retained for community use. It houses a crèche and offices as well as a community room.

It has now been sold to a private operator, but the community room will remain, and the other facilities are used both by people within and beyond Hanham Hall.

The scheme has high standards of insulation, large south-facing windows to provide daylight and solar warmth, and water butts to collect rainwater and recycle it for use in the gardens. There is also rainwater harvesting supplying some toilets and all washing machines.

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Landscape Winter 2016 59

Feature In short, the scheme works. So why won’t it be repeated? David Bond, technical director of Barrett Homes, explained, ‘There was no land value generated, which meant that the land had no value.

There was no profit in there.’ This is very much a developer’s way of saying that although the homes cost more to build than a ‘standard’ home, this is not reflected in the price at which they can be sold – and particularly not in the value that mortgage lenders place on them. ‘This kind of development may have more longevity of people staying,’ David Bond said. ‘The housing may be under-valued by the mortgage companies. They don’t give it any greater value.’

Despite the overall non-reproducibility of the project, there is much that has been done there that Bond believes will be, and already is being, reproduced on other developments.

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In fact, the project as built was not quite as onerous as it appeared that it would be, thanks to a change in the definition of zero carbon during the course of the project. In 2009, when the project began, it was going to be necessary to construct an energy centre, a biogas CHP plant, which would have been owned by the residents. ‘The running costs meant that the energy supply would have been more expensive than to the houses opposite,’ Bond said.

And there would also have had to be a sinking fund for replacement.

The March 2011 Plan for Growth reduced the definition of zero carbon so that it only had to account for regulated energy, and in addition, there was a change that allowed off-site solutions to compensate for carbon dioxide used on site.

Despite the fact that none of the technology use was new, some of it was of course new to the residents – and there were teething problems.

For instance the rainwater harvesting for use in washing machines seemed to work better in some parts of the site than others – in terms both of quantity of water available and of smell.

7 – A swale is part of the SuDS solution.

The railing to the play area was added after completion © Tom Lee

they all look, and will remain looking, consistent.

And, while there may be cars on the street, there are no bins, because those are all housed in dedicated bin stores. So a potential eyesore is removed.

If it just looked fantastic, that would be something, but it feels fantastic as well. There are community activities and, even more important, a lot of informal interaction. Everybody we met seemed really happy to be there. Even allowing for the sense of community that builds in a new place, that seems a real achievement.

Jules Burnett, a woman living on her own, summed it up when she said, ‘I felt very isolated in a town further south. Here I have a community.

I do lots of gardening for people. I have gone from being invisible to being part of a community.’

8 8 – The allotments, which are surrounded by fruit bushes for common use, are good for socialising as well as working © Tom Lee 9 – Greenhouses have a tendency to overheat, but are well used and oversubscribed © Tom Lee 10 – The allotments are in close view of the houses, rather than tucked away in a corner © Tom Lee 11 – With too little planned provision for cars, they clutter up the area © Tom Lee

But most of the problems revolve around cars – there are just too many of them. The original scheme envisaged a car club and fairly minimal parking, but lots of cycle racks. Some of the residents do cycle, but most of them have a family car and probably one car per working adult. This is largely down to the relatively poor transport connections. There are buses into Bristol but they are not frequent, and the services keep changing.

Many residents work not in Bristol city centre but in outlying areas or nearby towns, or have jobs where they need car travel as part of the working day.

This is hardly unusual, but the result is that, because this was not planned for, there seem to be cars everywhere. This is exacerbated by the fact that some homes have two parking spaces but they are in series and it is too hard to manoeuvre in and out, so at least one car stays on the street.

And it is possibly made worse by the fact that there are no demarcated pavements. Mike Gee, one of the residents, said, ‘The place was planned as a home zone, with the roads and pavements on the same level. But it didn’t get home zone status, so nobody can enforce the regulations. Still,’ he added, ‘if parking is the greatest of the problems, it is quite small.’

And apart from the parked cars, Hanham Hall looks fantastic. The residents pay around £350 a year for upkeep, some of which goes into the community centre. And there are strict covenants governing the external appearance of houses, so

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Feature

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Cynthia Filipiak Cynthia is a landscape architect who has recently moved jobs to work with Arup in Bristol, so she has both a personal and a professional interest in Hanham. She and her partner are both keen wind-surfers and they find their ‘three bedroom’ home relatively small and lacking in storage.

But she is very happy to be there.

Hélène Schwartz and Danny McCarthy Hélène works in social services and Danny is a firefighter. He brought a fire engine through the development since there was some concern that the streets might be too narrow when so many cars were parked. They previously lived in the centre of Bristol and Hélène said, ‘I thought I would miss the city centre. But we have friends everywhere. I walk in front of people’s houses to get home, so I feel a sense of community.’

She and Danny were not impressed by the planting in front of their house. ‘They never told us what they had put in,’ he said. ‘It just looked like grass.

We wanted flowers and colour, so we redid it.’

Elements like the resin-bound paving should, she says, be used in all new developments, but are not. She likes the way that a Roman wall has been preserved and used as backing for greenhouses, and the design of the central swale and pond.

‘On one side there is a gentle slope with vegetation and a different approach on the other side,’ she said. ‘There is nothing outstanding here,’ she added, ‘but people really enjoy it.’

She and her partner are busy filling their garden with a profusion of plants and taking part in the communal life. She regrets that there has not been denser planting to shield the noise from the adjacent ring road, and that some protective fencing has gone up round a play area that she does not feel is needed. And, of course, that ‘sometimes it feels that there are cars everywhere’.

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12 – Cynthia Filipiak © Tom Lee 13 – Hélène Schwartz and Danny McCarthy © Tom Lee 14 – There was a concern that the parked cars might make the streets impassable for fire engines © Tom Lee

15 – Maria Flook © Tom Lee 16 – Mike Gee and Chloe Chalk © Tom Lee

15

Maria Flook Maria is in a wheelchair and is unable to move from the neck downwards. She is looked after by a constant rota of carers, but has also made friends and does not regret not being in a city centre.

‘I love the area and the community spaces,’ she said. ‘If I need to get out and about, I just find a way. Nothing is inaccessible. I utilise everything I can – it really enriches my life. People take me for walks around the area. I love my garden and my neighbours. And I love my cul de sac so much because my house is in it, and my good friends are in it and its just beautiful to look at and beautiful to be in.’ In the summer she spends a lot of time on her balcony.

Mike Gee and Chloe Chalk Mike and Chloe were among the first to move in, and Mike in particular is a great enthusiast for the outdoor life. In addition to a garden, the couple have both an allotment and one of the very sought-after greenhouses. And he has done a lot to improve not only his own surroundings but those of the community. ‘While they were still building,’ he said, ‘I went through a phase where I would make anything I could for free. The best resources were the skips on site with all the offcuts of wood from the site.’

As well as making furniture for himself and Chloe, he made planters for the site and rebuilt the previously unsuccessful composting area.

He loves having a greenhouse, but finds that they tend to overheat. Nevertheless, he has adjusted his cropping and is enjoying it. ‘It is a shame that there aren’t enough greenhouses to go round,’ he said.

But these are not the only source of produce.

When we visited, Chloe had just made raspberry jam from the raspberries on the allotment.

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Feature

Yvonne and Ian Hopton Ian is vice-chair of the residents’ association and is also one of a group that is learning beekeeping from a skilled beekeeper who visits regularly, and approves of the quality of the beehives that have been installed. And this is not the only way that Hanham Hall interacts with the area beyond.

‘Quite a few of us have become involved in the campaign to save Hanham Library,’ he said, ‘and I have recently become involved with the community engagement forum.’

He and Yvonne have both retired and wanted a garden, but one that would not be too big. But in fact they have also taken on half an allotment.

The pair deliberately waited to buy because they had previously lived on an eco-development where the builder went bust partway through, resulting in what Yvonne described as ‘half eco, half little boxes’. But they are very satisfied with Hanham Hall and loving the community activities as well as the fact that it is easy to have a three or four mile walk from the front door.

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Conclusion Like any new development Hanham Hall has its teething problems, but the standards are very high and the facilities and landscape are superb. Some of the adults are tempted by the more adventurous elements in the playgrounds, and there are free redcurrants to pick around the edge of the allotments, and apples in the orchard. The problem with cars is mainly due to unreasonably high ideals given the location. It is a shame that this can’t be repeated, since it has many lessons for the future, but at least some of the elements are likely to be incorporated in future developments. It is a fine example of the benefits of making landscape integral to the development from the beginning.

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17 – Yvonne and Ian Hopton © Tom Lee 18 – Yvonne and Ian’s garden © Tom Lee

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Landscape Winter Spring 2016 65

66 Landscape Winter 2016

Technical

By Bob Bray

1 – Water from the wetland rill at Parkside, Bromsgrove can be re-circulated down the cascade by a solar pump © Robert Bray Associates

1

SuDS and permeable paving If we are to have successful SuDS schemes in our towns and cities, they must incorporate well-designed permeable paving.

S

ustainable drainage systems, or SuDS, are coming of age.

SuDS structures, once seen as stand-alone drainage features, are now being integrated into the landscape as part of everyday urban design. This evolution in thinking requires both a change in the way urban design is approached and an understanding of how SuDS are integrated into the urban fabric.

Firstly SuDS must be seen as part of the urban landscape rather than merely as a drainage system alone.

Secondly there are some techniques, like permeable surfaces, and components, like flow controls, that have a special role in SuDS. The shift from conventional drainage to SuDS can be expressed as moving from a preoccupation with getting rid of water as quickly as possible to creating

‘a controlled flow of clean water’ within developments. Rainfall then becomes an opportunity to enhance city life rather than a problem that will only increase with climate change.

Nature inspires the new approach to managing rainfall as SuDS mimic nature. In nature, rainfall is collected across the whole surface of the landscape.

There are natural losses of water in a temperate landscape due to evaporation, transpiration and soakage into the soil before water either flows across the surface as runoff or soaks into the ground as infiltration.

On impermeable ground, water collects in vegetated soils and depressions in the landscape. These have inspired the swales, basins, ponds and wetlands of SuDS. The porous soils and rocks, like sandstones and limestone, have in a similar way been the templates for

infiltration basins and permeable pavements. In SuDS, the slow flow through these complex landscapes is mirrored using flow-control devices.

The capability for permeable paving to remove pollutants and attenuate water flow during rainfall is well known.

But this principle is transformed by considering distinct storage compartments, or sub-catchments, of permeable paving using flow controls with an orifice on the outlet. This enables water storage to be deployed around a site, with demonstrable flow rates for the SuDS design approval process.

The following schemes demonstrate how permeable paving and shallow flow controls can integrate SuDS into urban spaces and provide the ‘controlled flow of clean water’ necessary for amenity and biodiversity.

Landscape Winter 2016 67

Technical

surface. It is laid on a 2-6mm grit bedding layer over a geo-composite conveyance sheet that transports water to the basins very near the surface.

Meandering through the whole space is the ‘wiggly wall’ – a reminder of a low wall used as a balance beam by residents in their youth. Finally, two ‘Controflow’ flow control chambers protect the combined sewer, allowing water to flow from the site at 1 litre/ second through 20mm orifices. Thus, rainfall remains within the SuDS landscape until storms have passed and the sewer can deal with water again.

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Australia Road in White City, London The Australia Road urban renewal project began as a SuDS initiative by Hammersmith and Fulham Council to introduce permeable paving into the streetscape. Consultation with local people and a realization of the potential for the site led to an integrated design that linked two disconnected spaces and created a social arena celebrating rainfall.

Concrete-block permeable paving was used to break the existing formal road alignment and introduce

68 Landscape Winter 2016

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a ‘piazza’ within Bridget Joyce Square.

However, the scheme also connected the Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre to an adjacent play area and generated a social hub for parents and children.

The SuDS landscape celebrates roof water collection with sculptural gutters, downpipes and twisted steel halyards bringing water into planted rain gardens. Some roof water, together with car park runoff, flows along sett channels and through stainless steel letterboxes into planted basins. The concrete block permeable paving overlay replaces a tarmac road

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2 – The ‘wiggly wall’ meanders through the entire space © Robert Bray Associates 3 – Sculptural gutters, downpipes and twisted steel halyards © Robert Bray Associates 4 – Concrete block permeable paving transports water to the basin © Robert Bray Associates

5 – The stainless steel spout pours roof water down a cascade into a rill © Robert Bray Associates 6 – Site plan showing the SuDS strategy © Robert Bray Associates

Parkside Civic Centre re-development, Bromsgrove The Edwardian, Grade II listed Parkside School building, with surrounding landscape, has been re-developed into a civic centre and library for the town. Its location on sandy soil that is generally free draining suggested a fully infiltrating SuDS strategy, although affected by several site factors. The frontage of the school currently drains to ground, soakaways or the combined sewer.

This situation was retained on the grounds of conservation issues and cost.

Proposed parking to the north of the access road is on contaminated ground and so required a liner beneath the permeable pavement. Water is therefore collected, cleaned and stored in the pavement, with each compartment having a Controflow chamber restricting flow, with internal overflows in case of exceedance rainfall conditions. The flow from the car park passes down the western boundary in solid pipes next to buildings but then through perforated pipes and stone trenches where infiltration can be achieved.

The main courtyard is designed as an extensive, wall-to-wall infiltration blanket using concrete block permeable paving, flags with spacers, grass surfaces and free-draining plant beds.

5

The tarmac access road is laid on open graded crushed stone linked to the rest of the courtyard surfaces.

The central grass lawn is slightly lower than its surroundings and can function as a detention basin in very heavy rain. A perforated pipe at the lowest part of the site provides a flow route, via a control chamber, to the western boundary as calculations suggest water may not soak away quickly enough beyond the 1 in 30 year return period. There is a final pipe link to the storm sewer that may also receive water from the library entrance.

Roof water from the western elevation is collected by downpipes

and conveyed to a 225mm stainless steel spout that pours water down a granite sett cascade into a wetland rill.

Some water is diverted to a tank and re-circulated down the cascade by a solar pump when the sun shines.

Permeable surfaces that are all fully accessible, together with a series of flow control chambers to ensure full infiltration potential, define the SuDS solution.

The infiltration rate for the site, together with the storage provided within the pavement profiles, very nearly meet the 1 in 100 year return period including a 30% allowance for climate change.

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Landscape Winter 2016 69

Technical Springhill Cohousing – Stroud This community has created one of the most interesting housing developments in England in recent times. The 50 unit/hectare development is on a sloping site near the centre of Stroud. Prospective homeowners were able to consider the SuDS proposals from the start during consultation.

Rainfall is celebrated by keeping water at or near the surface. Every time it rains, water is visible as it flows from downpipes into open rills, down a 4-metre cascade on a retaining wall or filling a raised pool outside the community house.

Rainfall on the access road and car park at the top of the development is collected and cleaned in a lined, concrete block permeable pavement.

A flow-control chamber releases water at ‘greenfield rate of runoff’ which, together with some unattenuated roof water, cascades down the tile-hung retaining wall into a swale on its way to the raised community pool. This makes up the upper sub-catchment.

Runoff from the pedestrian street and adjacent roofs is collected in a rill that flows in front of the lower terrace of houses. Each household has personalized its rill by filling it with cobbles, stones or planting.

Day-to-day flows are directed into storage below the street surface, with bigger volumes overflowing into a play space that is also an informal detention basin. The series of box storage features is linked by flow controls in a sequence down the street to maximize storage potential.

Designing SuDS in the urban realm Space has to work hard in the city.

Parks, gardens and recreational green space between buildings should all be multifunctional, with the management of rainfall one of the key uses for this valuable social asset. The use of ‘rain gardens’, informal detention basins and swale connectivity are familiar methods of exploiting these green spaces.

The more universal hard surfaced landscape common to the built environment has to play its part in managing rainfall sustainably too.

Green and blue roofs can exploit the buildings themselves but at ground level permeable surfaces provide the most promising opportunities for SuDS in the future.

These landscape surfaces must collect rainfall at or near the surface, clean and store volumes of water and then convey it to watercourses, the storm sewer or the combined sewer at modest flow rates. The use of simple, passively functioning and easily maintained flow control structures completes the picture of features and components that enable SuDS to serve our urban landscape.

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Further information Flow controls – www.sudsstore.com Permeable paving – www.paving.org.uk Robert Bray Associates – www.sustainabledrainage.com Bob Bray is the founder of Robert Bray Associates, landscape architects

7 – SuDS strategy. © Robert Bray Associates 8 – A tile-hung cascade and a planted swale © Robert Bray Associates 9 – Part of a pedestrian street at Springhill © Robert Bray Associates

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A Word

By Tim Waterman

‘Storytelling’ year’s Serpentine pavilion, by Bjarke Ingels Group, was welcomed with descriptions in the architectural press of Ingels as ‘the king of one-liners’. A good one-liner (in comedy, that is) involves a pithy statement, usually that skews a simple situation or idea with a pun, a non sequitur, or perhaps that exotic-sounding bit of wordplay, the paraprosdokian: “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” A good one-liner in architecture, presumably, would remix spatial tropes surprisingly, perhaps to comic effect.

There is good reason to believe that the architectural one-liner is most suitable to an ephemeral building such as the Serpentine pavilion.

Once uttered, a one-liner doesn’t stand up very long. One-liners are hardly ever appropriate to landscape, with the exception of very ephemeral landscapes such as those of the major flower shows at Chelsea, Chaumont, or Métis. True landscapes – the ones that people live in – offer layered, nuanced, complex narratives with plots, subplots, and sub-subplots. Apologies for the pun on ‘plots’.

That’s clearly enough with the one-liners.

A one-liner goes down well these days, though, especially in social media, where a single arresting image and 140 characters of text are absolutely key to communicating and promoting a project.

But what works for buildings is simply too reductive for any landscape project worth its salt.

We need to find a ‘narrative hook’ to jar the reader and engage them with a complex act of storytelling that will follow. ‘Septimus, what is carnal embrace?’ is the opening line of Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia.

We want to know more – and any Stoppard fan will know that what follows is layered, nuanced, complex, probably carnal, and will require their full attention.

If there is one characteristic that the award-winning projects represented in this issue of Landscape display, it is the quality of storytelling, and probably also the employment of a narrative hook. Judges need to understand the story of a project and why it is worthy as quickly and efficiently as possible. The practices that consistently win also happen

THIS

72 Landscape Winter 2016

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© Agnese Sanvito

to be consistently good storytellers who use words and images together most effectively.

Now, some of them (though not as many as one might suspect) also have PR people to help with this, but this should not deter those without such resources from giving it their best try.

The awards are not just about communicating our best work as a profession to the world, but also serve as a moment when we can all communicate with each other. Furthermore, they offer an opportunity for us all to sit down and figure out what important messages from our work need to get out to the rest of the profession and the world at large. This is really crucial for everyone to ask at least annually – what is the year’s story?

That time to take stock and communicate what we do is particularly important when justifying our work from day to day. Everyone, particularly those in the beleaguered public sector, which needs good storytelling more than any other field, must figure out how to find the time to enter the awards. The reward will be greatest in everyday work, and in everyone’s understanding that it is part of a necessary story.

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The Landscape Institute Annual Review 2015/2016

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76 Annual Review 2015–2016

Preface The Landscape Institute (LI) has had a year during which a strong financial performance has been matched by a wide range of initiatives. The profile of the LI has risen and the standing of the profession has been enhanced as it has been able to advocate on key issues such as housing, public health, Green Belt, flooding, water management and green infrastructure.

Once again, much of what was achieved was made possible by the support of our many volunteers who hold governance roles, work for our branches, sit on committees, mentor candidates for chartership, organise events and promote the profession. We were supported by more than 700 volunteers during the year, and while difficult to quantify, we believe that the annual value of this voluntary contribution is between £1m and £1.5m.

The board of trustees would like to thank every member and volunteer who has

contributed to the success of the year and helped the Institute in fulfilling its mission to protect and enhance the environment and to create thriving communities through the design and management of inspirational places. No other professional body brings together environmental analysis, spatial planning, site management and design.

This unique mix enables members of the Landscape Institute to offer design and management solutions which are environmentally led, sustainable, and enhance the quality of human life.

On behalf of both the members and staff of the Institute I would like to thank Noel Farrer, our President during this period, for his leadership and the very generous amount of time that he invested in the profession. Noel provided the leadership to modernise our governance arrangements and to resolve the question of where the Institute’s headquarters should be located.

He accomplished all of this in style and with immense good humour.

A very special thanks goes to our high performing and dedicated staff led by Phillip Mulligan our chief executive, who stepped down in July. The staff of the Institute work tirelessly behind the scenes on a wide range of activities in support of the membership, empowering them to deliver the public goods that justify our charitable status. A lot of this work is hidden from view and often does not get the recognition it richly deserves. It is a complicated business running a modern charity today.

Finally our thanks again to Phillip Mulligan for all he achieved for the Institute and its members. We all wish him the very best for his new life.

Merrick Denton-Thompson OBE FLI President of the Landscape Institute

No other professional body brings together environmental analysis, spatial planning, site management and design.

1 – Merrick Denton-Thompson © Tom Lee 2 – Noel Farrer, President of the LI, presenting the President’s Award at the 2015 LI Awards. The recipient was Kinnear Landscape Architects, for its subtle but effective work on Brentford High Street. © Karen Hatch

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Annual Review 2015–2016 77

Supporting today’s landscape professionals Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

Spotlight on Sheffield / 26 Rewilding / 9 A rural manifesto / 56

78 Annual Review 2015–2016

landscapeinstitute.org

3 – On 3 and 4 March 2016, the LI held the first in a new series of annual conferences. This was at the University of Sheffield and had a focus on research. Seen here are Andrée Davies and Adam White of Davies White, running a CPD session on play. © Building Centre

3

This year the LI has supported its members and registered practices by: – Providing an expanded range of membership benefits which cover legal advice, insurance, a pension scheme and a new book club.

– Keeping the branches strong by funding members’ activity at branch level – Running the Landscape Institute Annual Awards, which were bigger than ever in 2015. The President’s Award went to Kinnear Landscape Architects for its subtle but effective work on Brentford High Street, and Dame Fiona Reynolds, who presented the award, took the occasion to promote her campaign for beauty.

Spring 2016

– Also discussing beauty as a major theme at the LI’s conference in Sheffield, a highly successful relaunching of an annual tradition, which will become annual again.

– Continuing to provide a range of CPD events including a new series of free webinars, and vital training on SuDS, GLVIA, landscape character and on trees and their health. There was also a day of concentrated CPD and site visits at the Sheffield conference.

– Developing a new members’ website which includes an online directory of members and registered practices – Improving membership services by enabling members to pay subscriptions and update all records online

–P roducing regular publications for members including the Journal, Vista, policy briefings and technical information notes – Running design competitions for members to enter, including an ideas competition for Moccas in Herefordshire as part of the Capability Brown Festival, and the ‘Design for Life’ competition on GI and resilience, won by Groundworks London and Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

4

Recruiting tomorrow’s practitioners The LI promoted its educational work by: – Launching the ‘Ambassador for Landscape’ scheme aimed at promoting careers in landscape to school children. There are now 170 ambassadors, of whom 40 have already visited schools.

– Providing bursary support for landscape students to attend the LI annual conference – Managing the accreditation process and continuing to raise standards on courses at twelve universities

– Developing a new process for experienced practitioners to gain chartership – Running a comprehensive programme of training for members at events, masterclasses, conferences and via a new webinar service – Running two cycles of professional exams where the pass rates remained at an impressive 78% 4 – Reaseheath College in Cheshire was one of the schools that received an Ambassador for Landscape visit.

The ambassadors are volunteers who go into educational establishments to provide information about landscape architecture with the aim of inspiring students to pursue the subject as a profession. © Poppy Smith

Annual Review 2015–2016 79

Advocating for landscape The LI furthered its work in policy development and communications by: – Working with TCPA and RTPI to secure significant changes to National Planning Guidance on GI, with enhanced importance given to it in the National Planning Policy Framework – Then president Noel Farrer providing oral evidence to the House of Lords Inquiry on the built environment focusing on the importance of green infrastructure – Responding to government consultations in England and the devolved nations – Supporting policy work within the devolved nations – Representing the LI on the government’s expert panels on housing design and roads – Producing briefings for members on the Health and Social Care Act and the Green Belt – Representing the profession on key forums such as the Green Infrastructure Partnership, the Place Alliance, Natural England Landscape Forum, the

Construction Industry Council and various forums in the devolved nations – Taking our exhibition on ‘Rethinking the Urban Landscape’ to locations across the UK – Curating a new exhibition with the Building Centre, London on the Green Belt and running public programmes on the topic – Promoting landscape issues as part of London Open House with walks and site visits – Promoting landscape issues within the London Festival of Architecture via debates and walks – Developing and supporting the Capability Brown Festival 2016 which highlighted his significance both historically and today through a wide range of events around the country aimed at all ages and interests – Supporting the work of the Parks Alliance by providing media and communications services

Protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment

5 – The Beyond the Green Belt exhibition at the Building Centre, London, looked at the past, present and future of this iconic element of planning, as debate rages over its future. A series of related talks and discussions accompanied the exhibition. © Building Centre 6 – The Rethinking the Urban Landscape exhibition went on tour, including to the Welsh Assembly. © Ruth Williams

80 Annual Review 2015–2016

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Building knowledge The Institute furthered its work in providing technical and professional services for members by: – Publishing information and guidance on: crowdfunding; landscape character assessment; the New Homes Standard; the catchment approach; green bridges; wildlife connectivity; ecosystem services and the BRE’s Strategic Ecology Framework – Publishing regular newsletters on BIM, on biosecurity and on dealing with tree disease – Developing the contents of the new BIM for Landscape book

– Keeping abreast of technical developments throughout the sector, tweeting and reporting on findings and catalysing new connections – Responding to member enquiries topics of widespread interest such as starting up, professional indemnity and site visits and also more specialised enquiries such as practice in West Africa, soils and zinc toxicity, and management of Crassula helmsi i(swamp stonecrop) – Maintaining LI representation on selected groups such as Defra’s Tree Health Policy Group, BRE working groups, and the Design Council’s Inclusive Environments Steering Group

Annual Review 2015–2016 81

Financial performance The Institute’s financial performance was strong once again in the year under review.

We achieved a surplus in excess of our annual budget mainly as a result of better income generation.

Our surplus for the year was £110,347, and net assets increased from £1,809,853 to £1,920,200. The institute is in a healthy financial position.

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82 Annual Review 2015–2016

Our principal funding sources are membership subscriptions, fees from practices that register with us, fees from candidates on our Pathway to Chartership and the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Capability Brown Festival.

The 2015-16 Financial Accounts and Trustees Report is available on the LI website.

7 – Hungarian landscape architect Dora Papp won the Design for Life competition on retrofitting estates with green infrastructure for climate-change resilience.

The LI organised the competition with Groundwork London, Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the National Housing Federation. © Dora Papp

8

Capability Brown Festival 2016 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Capability Brown, a designer who changed the national landscape and created a style which has shaped people’s picture of the quintessential English countryside. As the first ever celebration of Brown’s extensive works, the Festival brings together a huge range of events, openings and exhibitions. The festival is led and managed by the Landscape Institute and funded by HLF.

8 – Lucy Worsley, chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces launched the Capability Brown Festival in February 2016. © Lucy Roy 9 – Group from the Tinsley Caring Hands and Hearts group looking at herbs in the Kitchen garden at Chatsworth, one of the projects funded by the Capability Brown Festival

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Annual Review 2015–2016 83

Looking ahead Our plans for the period April 2016 to March 2017, many of which have already been achieved in part or in full, include: – Develop further policy on the crucial areas of housing, water, green belt, infrastructure and fracking – Support landscape practitioners in the public sector, including the work of the Parks Alliance – Deliver a successful Capability Brown Festival to our agreed Heritage Lottery Fund project plan, thereby enhancing the public’s appreciation of and regard for landscape – Promote our new authoritative book on BIM for landscape – Roll out the successful Green Belt exhibition with associated seminars across the UK – Participate in the London Festival of Architecture to reach a wide public audience – Support landscape accredited courses by promoting careers in landscape architecture

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84 Annual Review 2015–2016

– Review the re-accreditation process for accredited courses – Achieve member approval of new governing documents, the elements of which were approved in principle by membership in 2015 – Develop our website with a fully integrated online membership renewal process, enabling members to update their own profiles and incorporate an online member directory – Develop international membership, further supporting members abroad and attracting new members – Review membership benefits to enhance support for individuals and practices – Develop our training and educational events programme – Further develop member communications including the website, Journal, Vista and social media channels – Develop new technical publications and guidance.

10 – The LI has relaunched its website, and is planning an new streamlined online process for registered practice renewal

Our supporters Our work is supported by membership and registered practice income, by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and by our sponsors both nationally and locally.

Sponsors

In partnership with

Supported by

Annual Review 2015–2016 85

Trustees Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report, 30 March 2016, were as follows: Noel Farrer President (until 30 June 2016, then Immediate Past President) Merrick Denton-Thompson President from 1 July 2016, previously President Elect Susan Illman Immediate Past President (until 30 June 2015) Ian Phillips Vice President Carolin Göhler Honorary Treasurer Helen Tranter Honorary Secretary (until 30 June 2015) James Lord Honorary Secretary (from 1 July 2015) Bob Branson (until 17 May 2016) Mike Owen (until 10 November 2015) Mark Turnbull (until 19 May 2016) Phyllis Starkey Michelle Bolger Charles Young Kate Bailey (from 11 February 2016) James Smyllie (from 11 February 2016)

Council Noel Farrer Merrick Denton-Thompson Ian Phillips Carolin Göhler James Lord Candida Diamond Robert Holden Amanda McDermott Colin Moore Marc van Grieken Wendy Wright Kate Bailey (until 11 February 2016) Rosemary Walker (Licentiate) Simon Brown (Licentiate) Isaac Winchcombe (student) Ian Houlston (Policy and Communications committee) Bill Blackledge (Technical committee) Christine House (Education & Membership committee) Catherine Bailey (East of England) Adrian Clarke (North East) Hanna Salomonsson (London) Tim Dyer (South East) Jonathan Miley (North West) Christine Tudor (South West) Steve Fancourt (Midlands) Katharine Schofield (East Midlands) Jan Taylor (Wales) Rachel Tennant (Scotland) David Watkiss (Northern Ireland) Alan Nowell (Yorkshire & Humber)

Principal staff Philip Mulligan Chief Executive Paul Lincoln Deputy Chief Executive Chris Sheridan Head of Education and Membership Simon Odell Head of Technical and Professional Andy Wallace Head of Finance and Governance

Royal Charter number RC000767 Charity number 1073396 Registered office and operational address Charles Darwin House 2 107 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8TZ Bankers NatWest Bank PO Box 2162 20 Dean Street London W1A 1SX CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue King Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ Solicitors Russell Cooke 2 Putney Hill Putney London SW15 6AB Auditors Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors Invicta House 108–114 Golden Lane London EC1Y 0TL

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