LANDSCAPEmatters Journal - Issue 3 by Landscape matters

Dr Ying Li 李滢 2 Paper trail: why landscape architects should value their records Annabel Downs 3 The genesis and genius of landscape design: The evolving design principles of landscape architecture William J. Cairns 4 Spatial thoughts about countryside tree planting Hal Moggridge 5 Why we need planning Mark Loxton 6 Glvia and the louse Tom Robinson . Please see accompanying technical supplement 7 Book reviews 8 Website writ 9 Calendar

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3 ISSUE 3 JULY 2021

1 Landscape architecture is music 风景园林是音乐

Front cover image: Music composition monophony by Ying Li. 'My Loving Friend Jing Xin Zhai'. This was my first musical composition for landscape architecture (on 23.06.2006) and Jingxin Zhai was an influence on my joining the landscape profession and gave me the strength to carry on.

Please contribute comments and ideas for articles to landscapemattersmag@gmail.com Submitted work needs to be: themed rather than primarily self promotional referenced and contribute to the stated objectives

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Concept : Edward Hutchison, Brodie McAllister Editors : Brodie McAllister, Edward Hutchison Graphic Design : Susan Scott Calendar co-ordination : Helen Tranter Website writ co-ordination : Robert Holden Social media/web development : Ben Betts

Disclaimer: The authors are resposible for the accuracy of articles and the views expressed; copyright of material rests with the authors and those they credit

Welcome to ISSUE

3 of the journal.

We have our regular round up of calendar events, a new section on websites that may attract your attention and a couple of book reviews: landscape architecture in contemporary China and a compare and contrast between books on the economics of environmentalism. We lead with an article that explores the inter- relationship between music, emotion and space including an illustration with the author’s own music composition.This is followed with a very un-dusty reasoning for why we should value our record of creative work and its importance in allowing us to build on this output and learn. Related to this, the next author speaks of a ‘journey’ through the latter half of the twentieth century in our landscape profession as it changed and developed rapidly. He touches on the qualities and capabilities of the leaders during that period with a message relevant to now. The next article on extensive tree planting has huge relevance to current national initiatives, but picks out an often overlooked consideration: the role of freestanding trees and hedgerows and how we should enable landowners. We round off with a pair of articles that relate to landscape planning: within the context of government proposals to reform the planning system, this is a good time to reflect on the related successes of the past which had an emphasis on physical plan making. The author thinks the current proposals pose many fundamental unanswered questions. This leads, finally, into an element of our analysis of landscape with a separate supplement that follows up our February debate on guidelines for landscape and visual impact. The debate arrived at a stalemate. Tom Robinson has asked a number of planning barristers for their views on the need for a 4th edition. Our February debate on guidelines for landscape and visual impact- with divided opinions, an argument is strongly expressed for a new update. Please, as usual, forward this edition of the journal to friends or colleagues you think might find it of interest. To keep up to date on all the latest including debates from landscape matters check our website and follow us on social media: www.landscapemattersjournal.com, Instagram @landscapemattersjournal, Twitter @LMJournal

风景园林是音乐 Landscape architecture is music Dr Ying Li 李滢

MUSIC, EMOTION AND SPACE 音乐, 情感与空间 In architectural theory the relationship between emotion and design has been discussed. This has been done at different periods in both the east and the west, often with comparisons to music. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling (1829) first mentioned the relationship between architecture: 'Architecture is frozen music'… Really there is something in this; the tone of mind produced by architecture approaches the effect of music. The spatial sequence of architecture is a parallel to the melodic sequence of music. Both have narrative, flow, and continuity (Scruton 1979). Architectural space is not confined to three dimensions. Architecture and music are not related mathematically because the connecting point is that they are both about space creation (Muecke and Zach 2007).

Confucius’ position on Chinese culture is based on Yue (乐 music) and Li (礼ritual). Recently, landscape architects have become interested in exploring the emotional interaction between people and public open space (Smith 2009). Compared to architectural design, landscape design takes place at more scales. But there is a certain scale, for example that of small public open spaces, which is like the design of architectural space and in which the relationship between music and design is more easily appreciated. Even though landscape design differs from architectural design, the process of space creation is similar. As discussed above, the aesthetic nature of landscape space-making is to create spaces that have both physical and spiritual beauty (Messervy and Abell 2007). From the users’ point of view, 'spiritual beauty' implies that a space should connect with the emotions. Also, like architecture, landscape architectural design has a close relationship with music in that it is a very direct way of expressing the mood of space.

Above: The beginning section of Franz Liszt’s composition notes of The Fountains of the Villa d' Este (Liszt, 2009).

Above right:

A good example of a comparable pair is the water feature design in Villa d’ Este and Franz Liszt’s composition Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este (The Water Fountains of the Villa d' Este). This involves both the relationship between music and landscape, spatial meaning and the emotional-visual connection between visual language and a musical work.

Hundred Fountains (Cento Fontane) in the Villa d'Este (Source: Author)

Translation: Classic Chinese landscape architecture as a comprehensive art 转化：中国古典园林和中国艺术 In ancient Chinese culture, the academic and artistic accomplishments required for a scholar-administrator were formed by four arts: qin (琴, Music), qi (棋, Chess), shu (书, Chinese calligraphy) and hua (画, Chinese painting). Chinese Landscape Architecture is a good field in which to understand the character of Chinese culture and the arts. Music is a leading art. Confucius’ position on Chinese culture is based on Yue (乐 music) and Li (礼ritual). Ancient sage-monarchs would use ‘yue’ and ‘li’ to coordinate the people’s body and mind, speech, and behavior, and achieve the aim of governing the country well. The landscape space in Chinese gardens was often used for entertainment especially in private residential areas. Music was one of the joys of life. Therefore, you could say that in China, ‘landscape architecture is music’.

Jing Xin Zhai (静心斋) is located on the north bank of Beihai Park. About 1 hectare in size, it was built in 1757 in the 22nd year of Qianlong Period and was used as a place of study for the prince. The garden is surrounded by short walls and the south side is a perforated flower wall, which allows you to see the Qionghua Island from a distance. The pavilions in the house are arranged around the lotus pond, surrounded by stones fromTaihu Lake. The composition of the garden involved both landscape and architecture, which is a typically Chinese approach. The landscape organisation is animated from nature in 山水画 (Shan-Shui Hua: Mountain and Water painting). The architecture blends with the natural landscape. The spatial composition, between landscape and architecture, was created by a translation of the ‘meaning’ (意：yi) from a poem written for a particular ‘scene’ (境: jing). The landscape and architecture spatial creation is therefore called 意境（yi jing) This is more than a visual composition. It includes ‘translations’ from other arts, including music. This differs from the conception of landscape ‘space’ in the western cultural context. The architecture is very characterful and responds to its concept 沁泉廊 (Qin Quan Lang: Pouring Spring Corridor)、枕峦亭 (Zhen Luan Ting: Pavilion on the peak)、石桥 (Shi Qiao Stone Bridge). Similarly, the main studio architecture in Jing Qing Zhai are transalated from a comprehensive arts place including 镜清斋 (Meditation Studio)、抱素书屋 (calligraphy Studio)、韵琴斋(Music Studio) 焙茶坞 ( Tea Taste Studio) 、罨画轩 (Painting Studio). Jingxin Zhai, arts and music 北海静心斋, 艺术与音乐 My visit in 2006 to Jingxin Zhai was very inspiring. Emotionally, it felt like listening to a musical composition. What impressed me most was the spatial composition of the central area, combining an artificial mountain, lake, plants, and architectural construction. They are like passages in a symphony. My spirit felt at peace and happy. I was amazed by its perfect proportion, scale and massing. The sequence of landscape and architecture created a beautiful experience. The spatial movement

Below: Music composition monophony by Ying Li: My Loving Friend Jing Xin Zhai (Source: Author).

Below right: The central vista in

had a rhythm which made me feel that I had blended into the landscape, as one does with a piece of music. I felt hugged by the landscape which made me not want to leave the space, and it has stayed with me, much as a tune can become an ‘earworm’. Because of this extraordinary feeling, I felt that drawing was not enough to express the beauty of Jinjin Zhai and my love for it.

Jingxin Zhai that presents the harmonious organization of architecture and landscape to make nature as its ‘Yi Jing’. (Source: Author)

A melody came into my mind, and I played it, on the piano, as the designer of Jinxin Zhai may have composed the space, 200 years before. My exploration of the relationship between music and landscape architecture. In 2006 I began using music as a medium for discussing and teaching a 4-dimensional approach to landscape design.

References Liszt, F. (2009) Les Jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este – Piano. Publisher: G. Henle Verlag Messervy, J. M. and S. Abell (2007). The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning, Bunker Hill Pub. Muecke, M. W. and M. S. Zach (2007). Resonance: Essays on the Intersection of Music and Architecture, Lulu.com. Scruton, R. (1979). The Aesthetics of Architecture, Methuen. Smith, M. (2009). Emotion, Place and Culture, Ashgate.

Paper trail: why landscape architects should value their records Annabel Downs

THROUGHOUT THE LONG history of designed landscapes in

1. Landscape Plan for Cumberland Basin Bridges and Ashton Gate Junction by Wendy Powell with Sylvia Crowe and Associates Image: LI/The MERL Recent academic research on this

the UK, it is the 20th century that represents the most active, innovative and influential period. Members of the new Institute of Landscape Architects, established in 1929, quickly became involved in a broad range of public, social and private work: from civic and urban design, new towns, infrastructure projects including motorways, power stations and reservoirs, to the restoration of degraded and contaminated land; they designed public parks and gardens, garden festivals and gardens for the Festival of Britain; university campus, science and business parks, cemeteries and crematorium; they have influenced the rise of National Parks and Country Parks, the aesthetics and management of forestry commission planting; and some practices continued designing private gardens and estates.

project has revived interest in this neglected designed landscape

2. Step details in toddlers play area, Brunel Estate (London), by Michael

The physical evidence of some of this landscape work survives, but what about the drawings and papers that tell the story of how some of these projects came about and how they were designed and constructed?

Brown, 1972. Historic England registered Grade II Image: LI/The MERL

3. Photo of steps Brunel Estate (London), by Michael Brown, Photo Colin Moore

4.Thomas Mawson and Sons Saffron Hill Cemetery (Leicester), planting

How are landscape architects’ records important? Records include drawings, models, contract documents, photos and correspondence.They encompass all the documents, physical or digital, created and received in connection with projects, and they are what landscape practices should keep safe for 6 or 12 years after the contract has been completed. If any part of a project is contested, these records can be used for the evidence they hold. After this period, the future of all these documents can be very uncertain.

plan by LA Huddart 1927. Historic England registered Grade II*. This drawing was found at a car boot sale. LA Huddart Collection Image: LI/The MERL

Many different businesses keep archives of their work.These are regarded as an essential resource and are consulted and exploited for new projects, repeat orders or variation of products, also for teaching, publications, and from which work is loaned for exhibitions.These are actively growing and living archives.They

also provide factual information of activities and of the individuals involved.The archives hold the identity and corporate memory of the business. Collectively they contribute to recording the history of a profession. I hope there are landscape practices today that retain and work their archives in a similarly creative way -not because designers are running out of ideas, but because it is more efficient and effective to build on the work and learning of others. Michael Brown must have relocated his archive a few times, at his death it filled almost two garden buildings. One of the most interesting parts of his collection (now at the Landscape Institute (LI) archive at The Museum of English Rural Life, (The MERL) are the A4 detail sheets created for each project. He had developed a highly distinctive brick on slope detail running alongside paths, often twisting from horizontal to 45 degrees or steeper. Its function was to protect grass or planting, form one side of steps, or on a larger scale, become an essential play element incorporating metal foot and hand holds for children.There was nothing standard about these details. Drawings were reworked multiple times, adapted to the specifics of each site. Different handwriting and initials bear witness of numerous trainee landscape architects, working as part of a practice then known as a recruiting and training ground for bright young staff. If you know of any landscape practices who currently keep and actively use their archive do please get in touch with FOLAR (Friends of Landscape Archive at Reading). What happens to landscape practice archives? Thomas Mawson and Sons and Milner White and Son were arguably the two biggest and most prestigious landscape practices in 1929. They were internationally important, successful and reluctant to join a young institute they didn’t need. Both practice principals were enticed, or rewarded, Mawson with the appointment as first President and Edward White as Vice President. Their archives had different fates. Much of Mawson’s archive from 18911976 was deposited in the Cumbria Archive Centre, Kendal in 1982. Some is digitised, but the paper used for the 14,000

drawings is fragile, the drawings are mostly stored rolled and several attempts to raise lottery funding to better preserve these records have not succeeded. It is saved but this significant archive deserves investment to secure its future. The Milner White and Son practice dates from c1850s when Edward Milner was superintendent of works for Joseph Paxton, rebuilding the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.This archive however, mostly held at their London offices, was destroyed during WW2. A job book and a tentative sketch planting arrangement for the interior of the newly relocated Crystal Palace survives. Archives mostly contain unique records, and unlike published material, once lost this is gone forever. Post-war work of power stations, proving grounds, playing fields and quarries – work of a completely different nature to the pre-war private commissions - has survived and following the closure of the practice, this has now been deposited as part of the LI archive at The MERL. A few landscape architects’ records are held in other places across the UK, including the National Archives, county, museum, university and business archives, depending on the client and the nature of the work. Archives in the devolved nations hold work by Frank Clark and Peter Daniel (Edinburgh University) and Mark Turnbull (currently LI Scotland). From Northern Ireland, Peter Hutchinson’s archive has been accepted by the Irish Architecture Archive.To my knowledge there isn’t an existing database locating all UK landscape architects papers.

Sketches showing alternative paving designs for shopping centre at New Ash Green (Kent) by Preben Jakobsen, for Eric Lyons and Partners, 1968. Preben Jakobsen Collection Image: LI/The MERL

Where landscape practices are absorbed into multi-disciplinary and international practices, or when practitioners retire or die, existing archives become extremely vulnerable. Space and time is expensive and a skip is cheap and convenient. Does this matter? Yes! Is all work equally important? No! But do landscape architects think enough about their records or prepare for the time when a decision will need to be made? It would seem that

most people either leave that decision for someone else to make, (possibly not a landscape architect), or because speedy action is required, the records simply get disposed of. Landscapes take decades to mature and designing is an iterative process. Has the concept for a design become unrecognisable through inappropriate management, or supplanted by development? Or is it because for the most part each new design moves the game forward by only a small degree that it is not thought sufficiently innovative or original or significant to be included in an archive? Or perhaps not enough landscape architects know that places exist where records can be kept and used? A number of practices have gifted their papers to the Landscape Institute. Sometimes this has also included sketch notebooks, diaries, lecture notes, plant drawings, book proposals, lantern slides, tree stamps, as well as the more conventional project work.

Raven by Peter Shepheard Image: LI/The MERL

The Landscape Institute archive Geoffrey Jellicoe, appropriately, was the catalyst for the Landscape Institute establishing an archive of members’ work. He was present at the founding of the Institute and would have discussed the draft of the first constitution which established an ambition to have ‘sets of lantern slides’ to promote the Institute’s objectives, and ‘educate the public in the art of landscape architecture.’ Although the word archive, first used in the UK in the early 17c, did not leap from their pen, this was what these founders were planning to make available for their members, together with ‘the publication of a Journal’, and to ‘found a library’. Books were gifted by members to the institute over the succeeding years, and the library properly opened in 1968 with the part time appointment of their first qualified librarian, Sheila Harvey. Some archival items had joined the library including a fascinating and extensive catalogued slide collection donated by landscape architect Cliff Tandy. But it was not until some 65 years after that constitution was drawn up that Jellicoe, in donating his plan chest of drawings, properly and probably intentionally, initiated the Landscape Institute archive. Jellicoe’s drawings, many dating from the last 30 years of his life, are exquisite works, not only in terms of the designs and his own distinctive drawing technique, but in the arrangement on the sheet. Hal Moggridge pointed out subsequently that Jellicoe

had felt greatly inhibited by Jock Shepherd who in 1925 produced superb axonometric drawings of buildings and gardens for their book Italian Gardens of the Renaissance. It was only when Jellicoe ‘retired’ from his practice in 1973 and worked solo from home, he had to pick up his own drawing pen.That gestation period was so worth the wait. Although his plan chest was full of mostly presentation drawings, there were no other documents - no job files, or correspondence, so what he gave was a fraction of what is needed to piece together the story behind these projects.My research on Jellicoe’s John F Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede has revealed how many other people were involved in making this project happen and how more complicated and extraordinary the story really is than the accounts Jellicoe published. At its heyday in the 1990s, the Landscape Institute’s library and the nascent archive were regarded by members as one of its most valued services.They were being used by landscape practices involved in heritage lottery bids and conservation projects, also by architects, developers, authors, researchers for Anthony Minghella’s film Breaking and Entering, English Heritage officers seeking detailed information to recommend new blue plaques, or landscaped sites to be added to the register of Parks and Gardens, students, and by academics, solicitors, journalists and the public. Where records survive, the future of places can sometimes be more secure, certainly the designer’s intentions would have a better prospect of being understood. When the LI library and archive was closed (2008) to save money and eventually gifted toThe MERL (2013), members and other users found alternative ways of acquiring the information they needed, or did without. Happily the LI archive at The MERL has continued to expand and develop with new collections. None of the new acquisitions however is born digital. Digital material clearly poses major issues for museums and archives but this will need to be addressed and resolved soon and some risks accepted. FOLAR is particularly excited that a growing number of PhD candidates are focusing their research on material in the LI archive and also that several multidisciplinary research grants and bids are also based on the archive. One of FOLAR’s ambitions is to re-engage the LI members with the archive, and through our annual

symposium, talks and other initiatives we are promoting its use in professional work and raising awareness of the history of the LI and its people and activities.

1. Ferrybridge C Draft sketch elevation by Harold White (?) showing scale of cooling towers and turbine

As the LI trustees promised to the membership, the archive is being financially supported by the LI.This support however is dwindling, now reduced to one third the original sum and not enough to fund an archivist one day a week for a year.This is not sustainable or in my opinion reasonable. It must have been inconceivable when Frank Marshall was working as part of Milner White and Sons, trying to plan where tree screening would be most effective in the site surrounding Ferrybridge Power Station, for him to think that students and academics years ahead would cherish his drawings at The MERL, look for clues to learn about his decision making, where and why levels were altered, buildings located, and what recreational facilities were provided for staff. However this and other post-war sites are being used as learning tools for landscape and architectural students.They are part of a successful grant application that embraces also historians, geographers and artists and poets. Oral histories, discussions with senior practitioners who have worked on similar projects, supporting information from job files, journals, books and images, all these resources are used to help tell the story of a project. And this also becomes a crucial part of the history and the role of the landscape profession shaping the landscape.

hall in the proposed landscape plan

2. Ferrybridge ‘C’ Power Station Preliminary Landscape Proposals (W Yorkshire) by Frank Marshall for Milner White and Son 1962 Milner White and Son Collection Image: LI/The MERL

We may not need new coal fired power stations, but there will be soon a demand for new reservoirs, there is already a need for better understanding of forestry and large scale tree planting, landscape to new housing, public parks, and the wider environmental issues of climate change. Information and examples of all these topics are held at The MERL, to be investigated, analysed and inspired by. Landscape Institute Collections at The MERL https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/landscape-institute/ Digitised drawings from LI collections at MERL via the Virtual Reading Room: https://collections.reading.ac.uk/visit-us/ using-collections/virtual-reading-room/ FOLAR www.folar.uk/ Contact: info@folar.uk

The genesis and genius of landscape design: The evolving design principles of landscape architecture

William J. Cairns

WHEN I ENTERED the field of landscape architecture in

William J Cairns Fellow of the Landscape Institute, Dip LD (Dunelm), Master of Horticulture (RHS) DH(Edin), Master of City Planning (MIT),

1959 as a post graduate student on Professor Brian Hackett’s course at Durham University, we were imbued with an appreciation of the great designed landscapes of Northumbria and in all of England hugely inspired by Kent, Capability Brown, and Repton each of whom worked collaboratively and creatively engaging in deep philosophical debates with their landowner clients. Our design projects at Durham were located on one of the large estates as our key study ‘laboratory’ taken all the way through from survey, analysis, assessment, and synthesis of context, to increasing scales and detailed design. In my year it was Dissington Park, Northumberland.

Fellow Royal Society of Arts, PPIPRE (Past President of the International Association of Environmental Affairs, Brussels)

Our whole analytical approach was based on ecological principles with design solutions emanating from landscape forms made by rivers, their catchments, and the dendrological patterns of their drainage, natural and man-influenced; the underlying surface and deeper geological structures and derived soils, glacial, transported, or sedentary, all clothed by an ecology, natural or man-contrived reaching out for aesthetic justification. We sought to understand the inter-relationship between the great house, its formal and woodland gardens, policies and farming and forestry all created as an integrated land management system influenced by the agricultural reforms and innovations which reached their zenith in the 19th Century. Our case studies in design and planning extended into comparative assessments of the UK new towns, Radburn layouts in urban regeneration , and industrial estates site planning principles. The theoretical part of the course took us back into the ancient gardens of the Egyptian, Chinese; and Indian dynasties, to Spain, Italy, and France as the substance of those fortunate enough to do the Grand Tour. The influence of these on a progression from formal classical design influences which had

given rise to the great Florentine design of Villa Gamberaia and its famous Tuscany gardens, the Generalife at the Alhambra Palace Gardens of heavenly paradise, the incredible scale of Palace of Versailles and its infinite axial perspectives and the formal gardens of Hampton Court, England. Then along came the philosophical and classical landscape influences portrayed by Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin in the late 16th and the 17th Century recognising nature as ‘something to be admired’ and not abhorred and when discovered almost a century later overwhelmed England to form the ethos of English School of Landscape replicated throughout the British Isles then exported to the United States. It is not surprising at all to reflect on the original principles in the design and layout of Central Park New York or Boston’s Fenway that they were adopted by Frederick Law Olmsted (the greatest landscape architect of his time) and replicated in his numerous other projects, including the US Capital in Washington, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, and the 1893 Word’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It is more than noteworthy to mention that it was through Olmsted’s inspiration that the world’s first university degree course in Landscape Architecture was established by Harvard University in 1900, two years prior to his death. The applied side at Durham of our landscape education included the principles and practice of landscape design, law relating to landscape, civil engineering, hydrology, building design, surveying, and landscape construction. Underpinning these were accredited courses in geology, minerology, geomorphology, hydrology, ecology. My dissertation was on the post glaciation succession boreal and sub-boreal of woodland ecosystems based on pollen analyses-essentially the work of Neanderthal and Blitt. I give fleeting reference to all the above, because these were the taught elements in the beginning stages of formalised landscape education in the UK of which Brian Hackett and Frank Clark were the founding fathers. As post graduate students, we were immensely inspired and hugely excited by having discovered landscape architecture as the new basis of our professional careers and the plurality of its subject,

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Megget Valley reservoire 1. Realigned road 2. Aerial view of Megget Valley from the east 3. The valley before flooding 4. Megget reservoir 5. Reservoir in snow 6. Valley view

appealing always for further proof and justification far beyond any superficially applied measures of ‘beautification’. We were encouraged to be pioneers and took no bidding to enter the enduring and obsessional process that is landscape architecture in justification of its very being. As Ian McHarg said, 'we are all enslaved by the bloody thing.' This has meant our engaging in the precepts and received wisdom of the landscape ‘greats’ of our time, including Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, Dame Sylvia Crowe and Brenda Colvin. They were all pioneers. Jellicoe combined the appreciation of classical design and relationship with contemporary settings but with a deep sense of the significance of ‘meaningful physical expression. He was an artist in pursuit of delight rather that a scientist hell bent on finding justification. He reminded us of the significance of a successful marriage between the built form and the landscape, of architects opening their precious buildings to enable the ‘delights of landscape not only to enter them but for them to be integral with their landscape settings’ - in other words, to embrace the potential of spatial integration with plants and garden design in humanising and creating delight from the association which, if denied, would forever condemn a given project to dullness and mediocrity. Dame Sylvia, with her three great areas in public utilities of the Landscape of Forestry, the Landscape of Roads, and the Landscape of Power as elements of colossal visual and landscape impact in need of hugely thought through mitigation, transformed the image and role of landscape professionals from that of merely superficial attendants to the engineers and architects to deal with the under exploited elements in a failed design concept and as rescue operation as an after-thought to

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one vitally essential to fundamental involvement in the design formulation process from the outset and beyond construction into long term landscape management. But even more fundamental than that, she introduced alternative approaches in site location, site analysis, route selection for new roads or rail, and cost reduction in capital works projects by introducing stewardship principles and environmental criteria to reduce both construction costs and waste of resources. Colvin with Jellicoe were founding members and presidents of the Institute of Landscape Architects. What qualities and capabilities did they have that gave them so much influence and respect? Firstly, they were imbued with those fundamental principles held and recognised by leading professionals regardless of their field of specialism: high level intellectual qualities that would enable them to appreciate the challenges and issues affecting any given project and of which they shared the challenge as a collective one with their architectural and engineering brethren. In this way they, in their time, understood the principles forming the basis of present-day environmental impact assessment – without using that all-embracing term. Last, most certainly not least, they each had style, and charm coupled with the lucidity and firmness of expression. Each became a fundamental contributor to decisions being made on large and small projects. In effect, and as with Lancelot Brown and Humphrey Repton, they were in true collaborative partnerships with their clients. Through those qualities imbued in true leadership they were able to achieve great things. This brings me now to the main thrust of my own career. Having spent four years with LUC as Senior Associate and almost

three years simultaneously as head of the Leeds School of Landscape, I moved to Edinburgh in 1972 to set up in private practice with my base at 16 Randolph Crescent for 21 years. While Landscape Architecture remains my core profession, the inescapable fact is that it is a plural discipline calling for collaboration and work integral to other construction professions. Those were the great years of the profession in Scotland, with Bill Gillespie, Douglas Sampson of Lovejoy’s, and Brian Clouston as our primary competition. We all took lead positions by concentrating on major projects straying out of the incarceration of a single discipline and building interdisciplinary teams. Crucial to this paper is that landscape architecture is a plural discipline involving science and both of its engineering and architecture design needs must lie within its competencies. Naturally, one became embodied within the broader scope of infrastructure and environmental management and the generic title apart from my name became Environmental Consultants, landscape architects, architects, and planners. To enable consistency in our project operations we adopted the Intersphere concept as shown in the model opposite. I initiated this at Leeds Polytechnic School of Landscape as a model upon which to structure the CNAA Honours degree programme in LA. This combines as its central coordinating node an interlinked problem identification and solution arena into which and dependent on the nature of the problem determines the relative feeder inputs that are needed. The powerful message is that landscape design and its successful implementation depends a great deal on analytical data sourced not only from environment and ecology but also from demography, and social anthropology, philosophy and values, economic factors, and technology. All of these are determining factors in criteria selection in problem identification and solution building. They are not essentially supplied from the professions which traditionally are the custodians of their own expertise honed within their own knowledge silos built for convenience and specialised skills development. In today’s world, such boundaries are no longer tenable and increasingly may be

The Intersphere Concept

regarded as a prime cause of sub-optimal solutions, and perhaps of pre-circumscribed and constrained vision. This is not to say that the traditional professions are obsolete – far from it. However to reach perfection in any area whether it be science determined to know more and more about less and less or reconstructive methodologies such as in city design, or restoring critically damaged ecosystems, or in the case of landscape designers retained to orchestrate macro visual enhancement programmes, all of us are in need to reach out to experts who may come from highly diverse and different educational backgrounds than our own but have a valid contribution to make. We must see ourselves as Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe viewed us 'as conductors of the environmental design orchestra'. In a world facing the prevailing extremes of climate change and restoration of the catastrophic trends in the depletion of our forests or damage to our agriculture on a global scale whether tropical or cool temperate, landscape architects and the Institute are hugely challenged by the opportunity of serious involvement in carbon bio-sequestration and are commendably upscaling their expertise and capabilities in planning and design for ecologically effective carbon offsetting on a global and local scale. My final message is that landscape architecture must continue to recognise its interdependence with a myriad of other professions and disciplines and maintain the highest levels of intellectual curiosity and rapport in search of optimised solutions that combine style and elegance. Our genesis as a profession is on-going and the challenge is to ensure that our collaborative genius is ever ready to meet society’s needs whether at a larger or more intimate scale.

Spatial thoughts about countryside tree planting Hal Moggridge OBE PPLI VMH RIBA

EXTENSIVE WOODLAND PLANTING is proposed in England and Wales to help counteract global warming. Success with this sensible policy needs several years subsequent management to ensure establishment, and avoidance of ploughing land beforehand, which releases carbon sequestrated in the soil. However, the potential contribution of free standing trees and hedgerows is being overlooked by government policy, and needs to be grasped as well. Much of the British lowlands are already well treed, a bosky rural character as if wooded when trees and hedges are in fact scattered. Perhaps this mass of incidental trees and hedgerows has been overlooked, together with the potential for its volume to be significantly increased, because any area of trees less than 0.5ha (1.25 acres) is not defined as woodland by Forestry Research. There are currently some 450,000 kilometres of hedgerow in the farmed countryside of England and Wales. Many hedges are unduly ferociously cut, but an average surface leaf area of 3.5m2 per metre run is a fair estimate, so that these hedges provide 1,575 million m2 of leaf surface to help oxygenate the environment. This is the same as 1,575 km2 of continuous woodland canopy which, at 1000 trees per hectare, is 157.5 million trees. Here is great potential for increasing oxygenation by vegetation. The average bulk of hedges could be increased to 5m2 per metre run. This would provide an extra 675 million m2 of leaf surface, equivalent to 675 km2 of continuous woodland or 67.5 million woodland trees. Grants for such hedgerow bulking would be an effective help in the battle against global warming. Additionally in 1939 there was twice the length of farmland hedgerow as today. If another 100,000 kilometres of bulky hedgerow were now replanted, then there would be an additional 500 million m2 of leaf surface, the same as 50 million woodland trees. From these benefits must be subtracted the carbon produced trimming hedges. But farmland hedgerows

S-W view from the edge of Bagley Wood, near Oxford, across bosky countryside, full of scattered trees in

also provide invaluable benefits to wildlife. Furthermore additional hedgerow trees could provide added benefit like free standing wood pasture trees as discussed below.

a mixture of field hedgerows and gardens.

Little past consideration seems to have been given to the comparative oxygen productivity of free standing as against woodland trees. Woodland by necessity raises a leafy canopy in a generally horizontal plane nurtured by light above.There is little leaf activity in shaded woodland interiors. Thus a square of woodland 20m x 20m has 400m2 of productive leaf surface. This may be compared with the oxygen producing leaf surface of a typical free-standing mature deciduous tree within the same space. The leaf surface of such a tree with a canopy radius of 8m is some 1005 m2*, which is two and a half times the leaf surface of woodland occupying similar space. Therefore spaced out free standing trees in wood pasture seem a more efficient producer of oxygen than continuous woodland.

The bare trunks of old trees in Bagley Wood with a top canopy of leaves.

However, as it takes time after planting before wood pasture is oxygen productive, unlike new woodland which soon has a continuous horizontal canopy, the creation of wood pasture needs a special design method. Permanent trees should be planted irregularly about 20m apart. The interstices of open space can then be filled with fast growing species, but keeping space around the permanent trees so that they develop vigorous side branches. As these long-term trees grow the trees in the interstices will gradually be cut away, until a wood pasture is established. Thus short term oxygen production can be combined with the long term maximum productivity.

A free standing tree with foliage

Diagram of leaf cover all round this typical free

all round.

standing tree. The white rectangle represents a cylinder, 8m radius, 12m high. The black semi-circle represents a half sphere, 8m radius.

A conclusion, based on these considerations, must be that farmers should be financed to provide more and bulkier hedges, more numerous hedgerow trees and substantial areas of wood pasture. Oxygenation with carbon sequestration should be a crop purchased from them.

* Surface area of this mature free-standing tree: 2x3.14x8x8 (top: half sphere) + 2x3.14x8x12 (sides; cylinder) = 402 + 603 =1005m2

Diagrams of Implications 1. Comparison of leaf surface area of

2. Leaf surface of a 0.25 ha freestand-

3. Leaf surface area of a corner of a

top canopy of continuous woodland

ing copse: The plan and top cross

wood pasture or arboretum: This dia-

and freestanding trees: On left 0.5 ha

section show the leaf surface area of a

gram shows a 0.5ha corner of a wood

(70.71x70.71m) of continuous woodland

0.25ha freestanding copse 15-20 years

pasture or an arboretum with various

has a leaf surface of 5,000m2, similar

after planting, having a nominal leaf

trees at some 20m centres; its nominal

to five mature freestanding trees as

surface of 4,833m2;

leaf surface area is 11,500m2, which is

shown in a 0.5ha square on the right

(70.71x35.35m) + sides, including low

2.3 times that of the same area of con-

(5x1005 = 5,025m2).

level shrubs: 2,333m2 (height 11m x

tinuous woodland;

length 70.71m x3) = 4,833m2].

(length 126m x 5m across) + 8.5 mature

The lower cross section shows the

trees: 8,543m2 (8.5 x 1005m2) + 3.5 small

mature copse with a nominal leaf sur-

trees: 1085m2 (3.5 x 310m2) + one extra

face area of 7,167m2; [i.e. top: 2,500m2

large tree say 1,242m2 = 11,500m2.]

[i.e. top: 2,500m2

+ sides: 4,667m2 (height 22m x length 70.71x3m) = 7,167m2].

[i.e. hedge: 630m2

Why we need planning Mark Loxton

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING, a book published in 1951 and written by Clough Williams-Ellis, sets out the need for planning and the mechanisms introduced by the post war government to achieve a more balanced approach to development. Planning for the benefit of all citizens including the provision of 'gracious open spaces, parks, gardens and playing fields'. Currently in 2021, this is also a time of great change with ongoing Government proposals to reform the planning system, but perhaps a time to reflect on the opportunities created in the past. Clough Williams-Ellis was an architect of note and creator of Portmeirion the 'Italianate' coastal village in Mid Wales, built between 1926 - 1939. His aim was to demonstrate how a beautiful and natural landscape could be maintained and enhanced as a backdrop through sympathetic development. Portmeirion, also known as the location for the 1960s cult TV series The Prisoner, is now owned by a charitable trust. The village comprises a cluster of colour-washed buildings around a central piazza, a popular tourist destination with scenic surroundings, extensive woodlands, two hotels, holiday cottages, spa, and restaurants. His passion for the natural landscape is reflected in his book. This, with its plain blue cover and classic typography, traces the history of the planning and organisation of human settlement. Williams-Ellis concludes with the challenges of the post war years in Britain and the urgent need for planning for people. He bemoans and compares the beauty of Georgian London Squares with the squalor of the towns which emerged as a result of the industrial revolution. Housing of this period, with its many slums, developed through speculation and profit. Poor

housing that 'led to ill health, poor education and inefficiency'. The need for reform to solve these problems had not been achieved with the previous minimal building by-laws. The phenomenon of urban sprawl continued into the 1920's and 1930's with'speculation and profit' again being the main driving force, together with an increasing population, 80% of whom now lived in towns and urban areas. The combination of the town and country led to the suburb. Hampstead Garden Suburb is given as an example of a well co-ordinated and planned development 'which can still be regarded with pride'. On a larger scale, the Garden City movement led by Ebenezer Howard created the first new towns 'exemplified first by Letchworth and then more graciously at Welwyn.'

The Garden City movement created the first new towns In 1951 the formation of the Ministry of Local Government and Planning (formerly the Ministry of Town and Country Planning) gave rise to regulated planning so putting an end to 'the frightening mess resulting from an absence of planning'. The mechanism and framework for this progressive change was the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. This with its amendments and additions is the foundation of the planning system we have today. In his final chapter Williams-Ellis describes the gathering movement for change referring to the 'celebrated plans prepared for London and Greater London by Sir Patrick Abercrombie'. The County of London Plan was complied by John Forshaw and Sir Patrick Abercrombie and published in 1943, the wider regional Greater London Plan 1944 was commissioned by the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and published in 1945. Both of these plans identified issues of overcrowding, poor housing in deprived neighbourhoods, traffic congestion and inadequate provision of open space. Abercrombie and Forshaw’s recommendations included the separation of industry and housing, the enhancement of historical centres, an increase in open space and the building of three ring roads to ensure the city’s connectivity. Many of these

recommendations were realised in the following decades: with the creation of eight new towns, under the powers of the New Town Act 1946; the statutory protection of the Green Belt; the creation of new parks including the Lee Valley regional park and the construction of the M25. The plans inspired many other city authorities around the world who adopted similar approaches to strategic and regional planning. Open Space Plan 1943: (The new parks are indicated in dark green)

The standard of provision and integration of open space was a key part of these plans, identified at the strategic and local levels for the existing and predicted future population of Greater London. These standards were to be applied to neighbourhoods based on a population of 1,000 people providing both sports facilities and passive recreation with a total area of 4 hectares (10 acres) including 1.2 hectares (3 acres) for local school playing fields. Although not included in this specific provision, allotments were also to be provided for new housing developments. A system of 'Parkways' and footpath networks connecting green space to and around the boundaries of neighbourhood communities was also suggested. The banks and hinterland along rivers and streams within the conurbation were to be part of this network. Along the main arterial roads, space was to be allocated to create corridors of 'green'and in places accommodating footpaths and cycle routes. The open space system included existing commons and heaths and the outer green belt.

A survey was undertaken to establish the existing level of provision and a deficiency of 3,348 hectares (8,273 acres) was identified. This was particularly acute on the eastern side of London as the west has a number of historical parks and open spaces. To redress this imbalance it was proposed that the Local Authorities purchase land for the provision of open space and community facilities. Powers to compulsory purchase land were incorporated into the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act and subsequently adopted by the London County Council and later The Greater London Council. The County of London Plan included proposals for the areas identified with a deficit of open space such as East London around Stepney within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Here, as part of future communities, a network of parks and open space were identified including a new park at Mile End. This linear open space would link the existing Victoria Park to the River Thames as well as incorporate the Grand Union Canal and towpath so providing greater pedestrian access. The 32 hectare (79 acre) park was to be created from the purchase and reclamation of industrial and derelict land together with the demolition of small areas of poor quality and bomb damaged housing. New open spaces for East London County of London plan 1943: The new parks are indicated in lighter grey

The implementation of the designs for Mile End Park has been a fragmented process. The southern end known as King George's Field to the south was opened in 1952 and the adjacent East London Stadium in 1966. In 1979 the Greater London Council reaffirmed its commitment to complete the park approving a revised landscape development plan. Work then continued with land purchase and clearance together with tree planting within the undeveloped northern part of the designated park. This was completed towards the end of the 1980s. In 1995, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets made a successful bid for Millennium Commission funding which enabled the park to be upgraded providing new facilities and better access. The 'Green Bridge' which takes pedestrians over Mile End Road, a busy trunk road, was opened in July 1999. The bridge was designed by Piers Gough. The park was finally completed in 2004, some 60 years after the Abercrombie Plan, providing the people of Tower Hamlets with a much need park which connects Victoria Park and the River Thames. The clear and profound planning framework set out in County of London and Greater London Plans is in contrast to the new London Plan published in March 2021.This document with 542 pages of text and few plans presents a complex approach to the provision of green spaces for new developmentdevelopment. Much more needs to be done towards completing the green networks and need for more public parks. As with many current planning policy documents there is an emphasis on written statements. Perhaps there is a need to return to the greater use of physical plan making as set out in 1943 and 1944.

Revised Landscape Masterplan 1978

In the Government's document 'Planning for the Future', published in August 2020, the Prime Minister's forward promised 'Radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War'. This being a new planning system for England. The role of land use plans are to be simplified but more visual. These, it is proposed, should identify three types of land: growth areas suitable for substantial development,

Left: Demolition, reclamation to form a new park, initially with grass and trees 1952-1980

Above: Green Bridge open in 1999 (Image / London Borough Tower Hamlets)

Above right: Mile End Park 2020 (Image / Alamy)

renewal areas suitable for development, and areas that are to be protected. There is an emphasis on planning as a tool for 'creating visions of how places can be, engaging communities in that process and fostering high quality development not just beautiful buildings, but the gardens, parks and other green spaces in between, as well as the facilities which are essential for building a real sense of community. It should generate net gains for the quality of our built and natural environments'. Many of these sentiments were stated in the County of London Plan and Greater London Plan 1944. However, this overly simplistic proposed approach relies on the National Design Guide, published in 2019 by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which 'illustrates how well-designed places that are beautiful, enduring and successful can be achieved in practice'. This is supported by the National Model Design Code published in 2021 by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government which illustrates 'detailed guidance on the production of design codes, guides and policies to promote successful design. It expands on the ten characteristics of good design set out in the National Design Guide'. Such a new and proactive design led planning system will require local authorities to employ highly skilled professionals if these ambitions are to be realized together with appropriate financial provision. Unlike those early plans of 1943 and 1944 the funding for open space provision and maintenance remains an unanswered question, posing significant challenges ahead.

Book reviews

7.1

Jason Hickel, Less is more: How degrowth will save the world, Earthbound Books, UK

Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, argues that we need to cap our over use of resources and discard the notion that (Capitalist) growth is the answer. He even extends that to arguing that Green Growth is not the answer either, because it does not fundamentally tackle our greed for consumption. For example, upscaling recycling could lead to more plastic production. Relying on others to invent technology to dig ourselves out of trouble is not the principal solution- individually and collectively we need to change our behaviours. This is another well written warning to a world of people who claim to be clever but have not effectively heeded previous warnings. There is no doubt that the world is in trouble (as the book claims) in terms of climate and biodiversity and that the use of GDP as a measure of success is not helping. Domination and resource extraction need to be replaced with reciprocity and regeneration. This book grasps the issues around how that might affect jobs, health and our notion of progress- where we flourish by taking less and reverse ecological breakdown. Going beyond this book to touch on a wider series of reference points, let us start with the end of a pandemic- a sickness that illustrates one consequence of accelerated globalisation, but also shows a glimmer of hope in changing attitudes and patterns of behaviour. The subject of economics is a complicated, inexact science and whilst there are facts, there are also different interpretations. We should probably adopt a precautionary approach and not replace one simplistic

outdated dogma with another even more media led negative one if we are to collectively succeed in producing a healthier future. Bill Gates says that in many ways the world is getting better, for example child mortality, cures for diseases, global rates of poverty, numbers being educated and protection of many rights and views including on equality. You would not know this if you are over led by media coverage. Conversely, there is the danger that some who do not fully understand the climate and biodiversity facts pounce on Gates’ words, wrongly confusing issues and thinking they offer evidence that we are not in trouble. Then we have the boss of Amazon who thinks we can just fly to other planets and (ab)use them to extract the resources we require, re-defining Earth as our residential paradise. Jonathon Porritt, in a different perspective, in his book The World We Made (2013), describes a positive vision of our planet that is green, fair, connected and collaborative, packed with technological innovations and futuristic visionsand a ‘cleaned up’ (not banished) Capitalism. In contrast to the cry for de-growth, in the book The Power of Creative Destruction by Philippe Aghion he insists that degrowth is unworkable and that we can only innovate our way out of our dilemmas. It is a detailed and at times well argued defence of capitalism that also stresses the need for a well run state democracy. He describes the elements of innovation, knowledge diffusion at the heart of cumulative growth, intellectual rights and the perpetuation of intense competitive, un-impeded innovation through new businesses. Put into practice properly, he believes city growth and job creation would no longer be disappointing. For example, the Danish economic model is not tied to specific traditional jobs, which they believe could hold back innovation. Capitalism done honestly, he thinks, has some virtues, but can be disruptive too- it requires a balance to protect us from predatory capitalists. Perhaps our wires are crossed in defining these different terms, so whilst Hickel’s reasoning behind de-growth is compelling, we should understand better the competitive nature of capitalism as a part of our evolution- not as the root of all evil. Brodie McAllister

Book reviews

7.2

Richard J Weller + Tatum L Hands, editors Beautiful China: Reflections on Landscape Architecture in Contemporary China Oro Editions, 2021 / 212 Pages / ISBN: 9781943532810 At the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 President Xi Jinping made the superb declaration that: 'Building an ecological civilization is a matter of people’s well-being and a long-term plan for the future'. At the 19th National Congress in 2017 he said more: ‘We must pursue a model of sustainable development featuring increased production, higher living standards, and healthy ecosystems'. We must continue the Beautiful China initiative to create good working and living environments for our people and play our part in ensuring global ecological security.’ Hence the book’s title: Beautiful China. But one of the useful things China has learned from the West is the environmental policy of saying the right things while doing the wrong things. This book publishes papers from a UPenn Symposium held in Beijing in March 2019. Most of the papers reference Xi’s declaration, as does China’s most famous landscape architect, Kongjian Yu, but he adds that ‘Sadly, most of the ugly landscapes of China are designed and constructed in the name of beauty: countless odd buildings in the cities, ridiculous giant plazas, and huge boulevards blazing with neon light. Tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of channelized river are built with lifeless hard riverbanks; marble paving and fake Tiananmen Squares are built in remote villages.' I am a great admirer of what Yu has done through his own practice to create beautiful projects in China - and of his use of the landscape urbanism design method to achieve these results. He would be a wonderful leader for China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (住房和城乡建设部) but perhaps his work as a designer is more important.

Old and New China

As an example of Ugly China, I recommend Tao Han’s essay on ‘XL Greenhouse’. He writes that ‘Today, the Chinese countryside is not an idyllic landscape. Instead, it is more likely to feature vast areas of continuous plastic greenhouses.’ In Kunming, for example, ‘hundreds of villages have been connected by the ocean-like surface of the greenhouses forming an archipelago in a plastic ocean. The reality of the Chinese countryside that we are facing today is no longer the pictorial imagination of the pre-modern legacy, but the expression of modernization and with it the extinction of the traditional village. Agricultural peasants now become assembly-line workers in plastic factories and the rural landscape becomes an object of capital consumption’. Parts of Britain are tending in the same direction and they present an awful choice: would you rather have food grown under plastic or food grown from GM products sprayed with Monsanto-esque chemicals? Does our profession have a view on the siting of greenhouses? Another interesting essay is by Christopher Marcinkoski, from UPenn. He has taught many Chinese students and took a group of them to visit South China, which many had not seen. As he relates: ‘While I would propose visiting recently completed public spaces, or notable pieces of contemporary architecture, the students’ repeated preference was to search out so-called urban villages and more intimate and hidden spaces of these urban landscapes’.They wanted to visit ‘unsanitized, gritty, and - notably - timeworn alternatives’. Their conception of ‘Beautiful China’ was vernacular. Like Yu, they despise ‘odd buildings’ and ‘ridiculous giant plazas’. Good. I see China’s political system as a continuation of its imperial system and hope this can extend to ‘another life’ for the ancient principle which editor Richard Weller summarises as follows: ‘Whereas for the Greeks geometry was the key to its inner sanctum, for the Taoists beauty manifested in the wild landscape, in the mountains (shan) and the water (shui), the quintessence of which (chi) can be channeled into the symbolic microcosms of poetry, paintings and garden design’. Weller is a notable landscape theorist, though I am more in agreement with what he says about China than with what he says about ancient Greece: the siting of Greek temples is as significant as their geometry. Tom Turner

Website writ

Treehugger set up by eco-advocate Graham Hill in 2004 is a pot pourri of sustainability, with a daily newsletter, nowadays orchestrated by Canadian architect, developer etc. etc., Lloyd Alter, ranging from green buildings, to preschool farms, to electric bikes to five easy ways to save water. https://www.treehugger.com Then there’s the Gardens Trust weekly blog (written by David Marsh) which has notes on gardens visited, Hever one week, to notes on the origins of the cottage garden, to Freddy Gibberd’s garden in Harlow. https://thegardenstrust.blog For a very different perspective, view the NASA Worldview site, to see bush fires in Australia, or the impact of Saharan dust storms across Europe, https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/ and there’s NASA Earth Observatory, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov where you can pick your views of our blue planet by theme ASLA’s The Dirt publishes a weekly blog covering landscape matters such as the impact of solar power generation (clue it occupies more space than hydrocarbons), to design for another growth area, our aging population, to the relevance today of the ideas of the 19th century sanitation engineer George E. Waring Jr. who was a miasma-ist. https://dirt.asla.org Many landscape architects’ websites are text light and image heavy (not yet another Photoshop image of perpetual sunlight, unidentifiable plants and everyone of the same age please). For some interesting reading see Kim Wilkie’s philosophy on https://www.kimwilkie.com

07 / 2021 21 July / RHS Tatton Park Flower Show

Calendar

26 July / World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Conference on Urban Forestry and Tree Populations, London 26 July / World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Conference on Urban Forestry and Tree Populations, London

08 / 2021 19 August / ICCFMLU International Conference on Community Forestry, Management and Land Use, London

09 / 2021 FOLAR / Friends of Landscape Archive at Reading: Changing attitudes to open space and landscape preservation in UK 1920s-1930s talk series / 18.00-19.15 www.folar.uk/events August 10 Dr Navickas: The Open Spaces Society lantern slides collection and the ideal landscape in the early 20th Century August 17 Dr Heykoop: Rediscovering the Stream Garden at the Rookery, Streatham Common August 24 Dr Church: A review of the early landscape preservationist movement and the creation, in 1926, of the CPRE 5-8 September / Arboricultural Association Conference Trees and Society, Loughborough 6 September / RTPI Greenbelt issues, free webinar 12-15 September /European Conference of Landscape Architecture Schools Stop and Think (www.eclas.org), free on-line 19-27 September / NAAONBs Landscapes for Life Week 21 September / Chelsea Flower Show 21 September / NRPA National Recreation and Parks Conference, Nashville, Tennessee 29-30 September / Surrey Wildlife Trust, Natural England + others National Heathland Conference, Suffolk

A small exhibition will be held at West Ox Arts Gallery in Bampton, West Oxfordshire, consisting of 14no A1 panels with texts above. Dates: August 28th - September 25th 2021. Opening times:Tuesday - Saturday 11.30-4.30; Sunday 2-4: closed Monday. Subject: ‘THE ART OFTHE LANDSCAPE’- Some examples of 'The English Style of Naturalistic Landscape Design' as carried out in the last 300 years, ending with 3 panels of late 20th century designs.

Edward Hutchison The Dawn Chorus in Lockdown

The expressionThe Dawn Chorus was coined as late as 1927 to describe the tapestry of sounds made by birds at the break of day. Recently, the silence in the skies, through lack of airplanes and road traffic, has allowed birds to take back the airwaves and many have remarked on the renewed strength of birdsong especially in cities. The depth and complexity of birdsong is not possible to fully describe in conventional music scores. These marks in another medium as a tapestry in watercolours attempt to recreate the qualities of different birdsong. The full range of purposes of the dawn chorus remains a mystery. We know that birds are proclaiming territorial rights, they are calling to their mates but the huge amount of energy for a Song Thrush, for example, to sing for two or three hours suggests that birds sing for other reasons too. Of course, the Dawn Chorus has long been a subject for the arts, music and poetry but there is a theory that birdsong, as well as bringing pleasure to humans, stimulates plant growth. In The Secret Lives of Plants, Peter Tompkins describes experiments showing that plants respond to certain types of classical music and goes on to make a possible connection between birdsong and plant growth. An exhibition of watercolours at the Bankside Gallery, London, in December by Edward Hutchison will celebrate the The Dawn Chorus and other energies in landscape.

matters