Degree Results

4 July, Degree Results day. I went on the motorbike accompanied by my Psychotherapist wife, just in case the results were not as expected. But as she opened the envelope, her smile gave it away, big PASS. It just goes to show, that it is never too late to follow a dream, but do it as soon as possible, so you can enjoy the results.

Noel Farrer, The big Landscape 2020 Conference

Noel Farrer, Farrer Huxley, says landscape is a holistic profession. The client is the fee payer, but users of the space are the market. He highlighted how the green wall at Westfield’s West Kensington site has resulted in a sought after aspect and sitting area for users and retail stores, as opposed to the brick wall which was the cheaper option. He recommended reading the Governments paper, ‘The National Ecosystem Assessment: A Closer Look’. Noel says Landscape Architecture students need to be confident and stay ahead of things. Noel advised students that landscapes change all the time, so it is difficult to say how a landscape can have longevity. Things change.

Vectorworks, The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

Adrian Slatter of Vectorworks sponsored the event and gave a little background to the software. It seems to be a more useable medium than the industry standard CAD. Students get a free licence and can take command of it very quickly, but they will have to revert back to CAD to work at most companies. One very clever application is to be able to view a design from any site aspect.

Lindsey Whitelaw, The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

I have attended a few talks Lindsey Whitelaw has given on landscape architecture, and her enthusiasm and presentation is inspiring. She has recently sold her partnership Whitelaw Turkington to a big conglomerate, Grontmij and I hope that does not diminish her flames. She advised us that we will work in a team and we must lead on our strengths and let others lead on theirs, as in the horse herd theory. Lindsey says find your specialism then work with it and act as you say. She recommends Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’ as a must read.

John Gerrard. The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

John Gerrard is a Computer graphic artist and showed examples of his intricate graphics. Painstaking composition goes into the construction of each image and each has a particular display requirement. He will take many picture of a building or structure, reproduce it in exact detail, then display it as a constant moving image image focused on one structure and often depicting the lonely activity of a solitary figure. The only obvious change is that you are able to watch animated changes to light and activity over a set period. Its very impressive and the cost of each is another story. A London example, was his 2010 installation at Canary Wharf Underground station, titled Oil Stick Work.

Saruhan Mosler, The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

1 July. Saruhan Mosler, Writtle College. Talked about landscape & humans interaction throughout history. She showed very interesting aerial slides of the Sahara desert now and a radar pictures of the same area showing lost rivers and beds, but I can't find a copy on Google (all is lost!!). As she advises students to read all the time and learn new skills, I should try to find them in a book.

Peter Wilder, The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

1 July. Peter Wilder, Architect, Macfarlane Wilder. He set up his practice to break away from the money led ambition of mainstream corporate firms. An example of a recent project was that of Fowlmead country park, Kent. They were given a disused coalfield and eventually got the client to agree to import sewage sludge to recondition the land and build bio filtration beds to clean the water run-off. They also designed a descriptive metal gateway for the entrance. He did a whole site near the river Wandle at Rowan Road for Crest Nicholson, a housing development which incorporates suds, surface water run-off and anti pollution measures. Wilder concluded that landscape is about community and integration. Wilders’ most memorable statement was when said ‘he can teach a monkey to use Auto CAD, but he could never teach a person how to think’. Advising students that it does not matter what media they use to show ideas, they must just use the one which is best for them. He went on to say that to be a Landscape Architect you need to be tenacious and question all the time, thinking of landscapes as multifunctional not just landscapes. He is a visiting lecturer at Greenwich University, so I look forward to many wise words.

Ed Wall, The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

1 July. Ed Wall, Urban & Landscape Architecture Lecturer, Kingston University. Started with the Ebenezer Howard's Garden City magnet image showing how new towns should be designed to incorporate town and country. He then showed Geddes Valley Section 1917, a cross section of a landscape and how each portion is historically used. Ed Wall concluded that connections should be accountable to each other.

A very clear diagram I have recently found sums it all up, by OzPolitics.

The Big Landscape 2020 Conference

July 1. A weekend conference was put together by student members of the Landscape Institute (SLIC), masterminded by Steve Cole, with an outstanding list of speakers. 'As the government prepares to invest more than £400 billion in major infrastructure projects including High Speed 2, the building of nuclear power stations and the creation of renewable energy plant, BIG LANDSCAPE 2020 looks to the future both for landscape schemes and for today's students who as tomorrow's professionals will be shaping that future' LI.

Qr Bar Code

Anyone can have a QR code produced, by registering on one of the nets many QR sites. My code is a direct link to my Blog, so that it can be attached to any work I produce or for other marketing reasons. It even looks like an aerial view of life between buildings.

Landscape Institute Article, by Ed Wall

Feb 2011. Landscape Magazine, The Roaming Forest. The Landscape Institutes seasonal magazine arrived on the door mat and delighted to see an article by one of our Kingston course lecturers, Ed Wall. The Roaming Forest: setting public space free. These are a series of installations which individuals can move around the city of Bat-Yam in Israel, with forklifts or by team work. Trees are planted within box containers incorporating seating and started out as informal rest areas at the Timing 2010: The Biennale of Landscape Urbanism in Bat-Yam and has since been moved about the city. These installations allow the community to engage with their landscape, by moving living trees as they require.

Students Landscape Institute Committee

December 2010. LI Student Committee meeting. We met at the new offices near Holborn, London, which are based around a serviced office set up and are located in a much more inviting building. We walked to the John Soames Museum, which if you have been before, don’t bother going again. I appreciated it the first time, but nothing stood out any better the second time. We then walked over Blackfriars Bridge, passed Clink Wharf to Borough. Borough market in the in the afternoon dark of the winter is even more atmospheric than in the summer. We discussed ideas for putting together a Landscape Institute Students seminar in London for the summer of 2011.

London Olympic Site Visit 2010

June 2010. The London branch of the landscape Institute organised a guided tour of the new Olympic site. It is a service available to the public, where a bus is laid on and you are driven through the site. It really helped that we had some of the advisers to the Olympic Delivery Committee on board, to explain the infrastructure. They even had a place where research was been carried out on hard paving to see how easy it would be to keep clean, before any final decisions on material were made. In addition, the logistics planners have put together hypothetical computer assessment software to estimate the flow of spectators during the games. This allows planners to provide sufficient facilities, as advised by companies such as Space Syntax.

Ecobuild Landscape SLIC Meeting

March 2010. At the end of the one of the days the LI arranged for SLIC (Student LI Committee Members) to meet up over a couple of beers to discuss student issues. It was again raised that the image of the LI is too stale and does not attract students entering the field. Membership of RIBA on the other hand is considered vital and they do not charge any annual membership fee. One of my Kingston colleagues, Gar, also attended most days.

Eco Build

March 2010. Earls Court. I attended this 3 day event as an individual, but also on one of the days to help the Landscape Institute. The LI were promoting their Future Vision 2010 competition to stimulate new thinking about sustainable communities. We were right at the back of the halls, so had to walk around the main areas to hand out flyers. A number of Landscape Members who eventually found our stand were appalled that we had know LI promotion material on show.

Landscape Institute Twitter.

Jan 2010. I have been asked by the Landscape Institute to set up a Twitter, based on a career change in mid life. This is what is called work in progress.

LI London Branch Xmas meal

December 2009. Thanks to Shelly Moscos’ planning about 40 people went for a fantastic meal at Strada Morelondon, with Xmas crackers and all, for only £10 a head and a unnamed person paid for all the wine. This was a great chance to meet students from Greenwich and practicing Landscape Architects.

SLIC Meeting at Kew

October 2009. Steve Cole was able to get 10 of us together for the day at Kew. We spent much of the time walking through the gardens and just catching up on things. We then went to a local pub for a more formal meeting. We discussed the ECObuild competition, the film competition to be launched in the spring, Futurvision and the spring meeting of the European Landscape Architecture Students Association to be held in Scotland.

Greening Infrastructures

July 2009. Landscape Institute Talk, London. A free morning session of talks was put together by the Landscape Institute, at a venue off Portland Place, London. The main speaker was Paul Mathers, Programme Manager at WRAP (Waste And Resource Action Programme), who encourage efficient use of resources in the UK. He pointed out that 100 million tonnes goes into landfill each year. They aim to reuses site soils by mixing with locally sourced composts. Speakers included Annie Combes, Colin White of Chiltern Council planning spoke very well about how they have to protect the Chilterns and Peter Wilder another good speaker commented on the current situation at the LI, but went on to speak about putting maintenance in place.

Greening Urban Spaces

July 2009. Landscape Institute talk at Cowcross Street, London. This was given by Stephen fell of Lindum turf. 58sqm produces enough oxygen for one person a day and heart rates reduce by 8% when walking on grass. Lindum produce products such as Lokturf which can be used for parking and heavy foot traffic, but is not biodegradable, Grassfelt uses recycled felt and can be used to cover irregular shapes, but is not hard wearing. Stephen also told us about the importance of using wildflowers in this way, to attract insects and how green roofs reduce heat impact on a building’s exterior. The venue next to Smithfield Market, at Cowcross Street is a very design focused one, with all 50 tenant organisations producing some part of the design process for the built environment.