LI London Branch Newsletter May – June 2010
Well, for better or worse, we live in interesting times. Thanks to the ash from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, many of us basked in the recent balmy spring weather, enjoying being outside free from the pollution of aircraft and their accompanying noise. Only birds, bees, and children’s laughter broke the blissful peace (and the occasional emergency vehicle screaming down the Seven Sisters Road, in my case). Let’s hope people start to think twice about ‘popping over’ to somewhere thousands of miles away for the weekend, and appreciate what’s involved in that travel.
The results of the currently imminent Election will be old news by the end of this newsletter’s timeframe, but let’s be positive despite the fearful cuts in public spending (i.e. services) which are inevitable. Let’s hope that whoever gets in (or all of them) will see the benefits of green policies, which will be popular, beneficial to all and incredibly good value.
Susan Lowenthal,
Chair London LI
Guest Contributor: London Wildlife Trust
In a corner of Clapton, just off ‘Murder Mile’ in the London Borough of Hackney, a floral revolution is blooming quietly, a little riot of its own. Within the labyrinthine mosaic of used-less green spaces that envelop the Clapton Park Estate pinks, reds and yellows are shamelessly adorning nooks and crannies, skirting railings and exploding over the lawns. This is the work of John Little’s Grassroof Company transforming the dead spaces into strips of unruly wildflower meadows, lively scarlet poppy’d verges, and rampant daisy-chained rose-beds at the invitation of the Estate’s Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). After tentative trials in 2002-03, the TMO grasped the nettle and the wildflowers have been rolled out further across the estate; elderly residents have commented that they haven’t seen poppies and cornflowers since they were children.
Clapton Park’s remarkable wildflowering follows on the heels of innovative precursors, such as Landlife’s endeavours in Knowsley and the Green Estate’s work with Sheffield Homes, but like them remains largely an exception to the rule. For the landscapes of social housing are some of the worst in our towns and cities, easily characterized as dog-shit deserts, occasionally punctuated by punished shrubberies and lollipop trees, and bordered by incessant railings and sweeping concrete vistas. These are spaces that people wish to avoid if possible; but for many, they can’t. Ecologically speaking they are invisible.
Social landlords have responsibilities for the millions of people they house and support. They also own and manage huge swathes of open space, although exact amount and coverage is unknown at a regional or a national scale. Their focus is on the people they serve and the bricks & mortar they own; external spaces are peripheral. The green space community has largely overlooked social landlords, unaware of the extent of their green space assets, the problems they face and the potential they offer in improving the lives of the residents that live right by them. The excellent work to raise the game on our urban green spaces over the past decade, has largely left those of social housing untouched. Neighbourhoods Green, a project set up by Peabody and Notting Hill Housing in 2003, began to address this through guidance and seminars; it published A natural estate as a means to promote simple interventions to enhance biodiversity.
The Wildlife Trusts are promoting Living Landscapes; landscape-scale programmes across the country to enhance habitat restoration, connectivity and adaptation to climate change, which will also help secure biodiversity gains and socio-economic benefits. Within our towns and cities, the concepts of green infrastructure are bedding in, for example the rolling out of the Green Grid across London. Social housing landscapes are yet to be effectively linked to these, but we believe that the natural estates approach can help to broker the gaps, through delivering low-cost enhancements and actively facilitating residents’ engagement with their local nature.
To this end, we believe there are ample opportunities to improve the ecological interest of many housing estate landscapes that can bring about tangible benefits for residents too. Whilst many estates are bleak and uncompromising, they are also fantastic canvases upon which to weave new ecological narratives. Indeed, many hide ecological secrets; large numbers of estates, especially of the inter-war years and 1950-70s, were built on greenfield sites. Their landscapes may have been relentlessly hammered by gang-mowing, but not ruined to the extent of agricultural land. Old trees, hedgerows and other features often survive within estate landscapes, and relaxation of management often reveals some hidden gems. For example, relict chalk grassland survives within the labyrinthine networks of grassland around the New Addington (Croydon) and Whitehawk (Brighton) estates, and a population of corky-fruited water-dropwort at Southwark Council’s Countisbury House (Sydenham Hill) now flourishes after decades of ignorance. And many estates stand adjacent to wildlife-rich sites.
London Wildlife Trust is currently working on a range of housing estates, and beginning to further natural estates as an approach that social landlords can adopt. We are running Cockney Sparrow on a number of Peabody estates, which is bringing residents out of their flats to show them the birds of their neighbourhood, and working with them to implement measures that can enable the robin, blackbird and goldfinch, as well as the house sparrow, to enhance the avifauna of these estates. We are heading up a multi-partner Natural Estates bid to the Big Lottery Access to Nature fund which, if successful, will carry out biodiversity engagement projects across 10 estates in London. With Nature Rangers active on a number of Camden estates, family learning projects in Hounslow, and the start of the Wild London Inclusive London programme on estates in Westminster, Islington and Southwark we are hoping to bridge the gap between where London’s wildlife thrives and where many people live.
Natural estates isn’t a new or even radical approach; its methods are tried and tested. And we owe much to the early pioneers in showing the art of the possible. However, the quality and scale of social housing spaces cannot be ignored. We are convinced that residents deserve far better spaces on their doorsteps, and that by working with them, we can further enhance the opportunities for wildlife along the way, and help to embed social housing landscape within the green infrastructure of our towns and cities.
Mathew Frith
London Wildlife Trust, April 2010
Note: Neighbourhoods Green is shortly to be re-launched through a partnership led by the National Housing Federation and CABE Space, and natural estates will continue to be one of the programmes which will shape its progress over the next few years.
A PDF of the above along with bibliograpgy can be found here.
LI London Branch - Committee Snapshot
We held a successful and well-attended AGM despite its being held in Easter week – apologies to those of you who couldn’t attend due to holidays (only a small amount of irony intended) and thanks to all who could and did!
The talk by William Filmer-Sankey of Alan Baxter on London’s Natural Signatures gave us all something to take into account when working on London landscape projects – each character type has been extracted from beneath the ‘moth-eaten quilt’ of the overlying built structure and concisely defined in a beautifully distilled statement that, with the help of ‘Design Clues’, will help us to re-connect people with the underlying natural distinctiveness of where they live and work.
Our committee has undergone some changes, and we are delighted to welcome new members, as well as those who have taken on a new role. Enormous thanks are due to those who have finished their stints – particularly Shelley Mosco, who is snowed under with work (congratulations!) and feels she can no longer offer us sufficient help as Events Secretary. We will miss her boundless enthusiasm, organisational and people skills. Also, thanks to Adam Cook, ex Council Rep, His dedication, depth of knowledge and determination to speak up for the Branch at Council and elsewhere have been invaluable – fortunately we are not losing him completely, as he will remain part of the Policy Group and is Acting Treasurer.
There is still a bit of ‘tweaking’ to do on the committee – in particular, we need someone to share the Events Sec post, and we’d love to find a new Student Rep, so if anyone feels they’d like to step up to either of these, please contact anyone on the committee via mail.london@landscapeinstitute.org, or turn up to our next committee meeting at the LI offices in Great Portland Street on 5th May, 6:30pm.
L I London Committee 2010-2011
Chair |
Sue Lowenthal |
Secretary: |
Jane Wilson |
Council Rep: |
Tim Spain |
Finance Officer: |
Wing Lai |
Acting Treasurer: |
Adam Cook |
Events Coordinator 1: |
Daniela Sikora |
Events Coordinator 2: |
To be filled |
Education/P2C: |
Eleanor Lawrence |
Education/P2C Assistant: |
Cliff Choy |
Student Rep: |
To be filled |
Communications and Marketing: |
James Lord |
Policy Group Coordinator: |
Jan Anderson |
Net Editor: |
David Cunningham |
Other Members and General Helpers: |
Andrew Tempany |
| Gavin Fancote |
|
Mariam Zvara |
Events
19th June – 4th July 2010 – 'London Landscapes' London Festival of Architecture
We have been delighted with the response to our call for London’s Landscape Architects and practices to showcase some of their projects and promote the work that we all do as a profession. We have some really exciting and award winning examples of landscape architecture for you all to share in, learn from and inspire each other.
The deadline for your entries into our calendar of tours and presentations has not reached its final date yet, which is the 21st May. We have started to set out some provisional dates, so if you are still interested please let us know by Friday 21st at mail.london@landscapeinstitute.org
Our provisional dates and tours are set out below, and a full calendar with details of the scheme and the practices will be put together and available for you to download from the end of May.
Saturday 19th June, 2pm |
King Georges Fields Playscape, Hanwell Hosted by Groundwork |
Wednesday 23rd June, 6.30pm |
St Mary Magdalene Academy, Islington Hosted by Churchman Landscape Architects |
Saturday 26th June, 2pm |
Cormhil Gardens, Lewisham Hosted by BDP |
Tuesday 29th June, 6.30pm |
Camden High Street, Camden Hosted by Urban Initiatives |
Wednesday 30th June, 6.30pm |
Bloomsbury Squares, Russell Square Hosted by Land Use Consultants |
Thursday 1st July, 6.30pm |
Lyric Theatre Roof Garden, Hammersmith Hosted by Groundwork |
Saturday 3rd July, 10am – 3pm |
FRESH Welcome, The Southbank Event organised by Whitelaw + Turkington |
Please Note; Dates and times are subject to change and maybe weather dependent, please see calendar for further details closer to the time, an email will be sent to all members in advance with confirmed details.
Finance
The past tax year has been a significant challenge in regard to finances, particularly with regard to the difficult economic conditions. However, despite the challenges we faced as a branch, I am pleased to confirm that we have delivered our services in accordance to the constrained budgets. We have increased the number of CPD events, including Open House, London Festival of Architecture and increased the number of social events. The majority of events have been very well received particularly the Xmas social. We will continue to offer a variety of events for this tax year, which will include marketing landscape architecture, socials and our continued support to those on the p2c.
I am also pleased to announce that we are well capitalised for the remainder of 2010-2011. However, we will continue to exercise restraint on finances, and ensure that the services we provide are meeting the needs of all our members, and where possible enhance these needs. We will also be focusing on marketing initiatives to promote landscape architecture amongst the general public and to encourage interest, particularly its benefits to society and beyond.
In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at our branch events. If you have any comments or suggestions that you would like to provide the branch, please feel free to email us at: mail.london@landscapeinstitute.org
Wing Lai,
LI London Finance Officer
Pathway 2 Chartership
GOOD LUCK to all our P2C candidates for the forthcoming professional exam in May.
We are urgently looking for CMLI’s to step forward to act as mentors for P2C candidates. It is a very rewarding experience to be able to help guide and mentor the candidates and with careful timetabling of obligations does not need to be an onerous task. Without mentors, it is impossible for candidates to be able to progress along the system to being able to achieve CMLI status leaving many talented individuals frustrated and potentially stagnating. If you feel you can spare some time to volunteer as a mentor please contact mail.london@landscapeinstitute.org
If you have any further questions or comments on how LI London can support you as a mentor or candidate, or how you can get started on the P2C process please contact us at; mail.london@landscapeinstitute.org
Policy
Following the submission of our initial comments at the start of this year the GLA have invited LI Londontoparticipate in a series of discussion panels, Enquiry in Public [EiP], overseen and Chaired by HM Planning Inspectorate (findings of which are binding on the GLA) as part of the ongoing review of the Draft Replacement London Plan,. Thetopics we will be covering are Land for Food, Greenbelts, Optimising Housing Potentialand Play and panels will take place in September and October this year.
In making representation on LI London behalf, both Planning Aid for London PAL and UCL Just Space network have provided resource and guidance. To prepare for the Enquiry LI London is involved with PAL to run a Mock EiP on 25 May, coached by leading figures in planning. Anyone interested in coming to this should contact Jan Anderson, LI London policy team coordinator, see below.
Thanks to everyone for their hard work so far. in the next couple of monthswewill be working on backing up our existing submission with more supporting information, case studies and examples so if you'd like to help us with this or other London policy topics please contactJan Andersonviamail.london@landscapeinstitute.org. For full details of the original LI London submission please see the attached link (copy attached - Dave can we attach the document or have a link to it?).
London Planning and Development Forum (LPDF) - Open Source Planning
This was held at Government Office for London, Millbank, London SW1 on 15 March and had a panel of delegates from: Government Office, GLA, regional local government, Quangos, Consultants and other professional bodies E.G. RTPI, UDG and RIBA. Adam Cook CMLI, Past-Chair and outgoing LI Council Rep. attended for LI London.
The gist of the event was to consider the Conservative Green Paper Open Source Planning.
- Where regional level plans are pulled back, the London Plan will remain, on grounds London has an elected representative.
- The binding nature of Planning Inspectorate review of Local plans may well go and there may be more flexibility to develop Green belt areas. This is save where an evidence based eco-determinism, may conserve certain ecological and designated areas. In the main the push of growth may be dispersed.
- Most tempting is to promote ‘Communities in Control’- LI London is a long time friend of ‘Community participative’ landscape planning and design. Our 2004 Living Space Forum, themed on this.
- One concern may is how does one ‘measure’ Community participation and engagement effectively, even where mandatory under PPS1, etc.
Council Rep
Following the recent LI London AGM a new branch Council Representative has been elected. Tim Spain will take over from Adam Cook. As Sue has mentioned, everyone at LI London would like to thank Adam for all of his hard work and dedication in representing the branch at the Council.
Adam has asked to pass on the following message to LI London members;
“Congratulations to Tim Spain CMLI on his recent appointment at LI London AGM, to position of LI London LI Council Rep. Thanks to LI London for giving me privilege to represent it at National level. “
Adam Cook CMLI, Past-Chair and Acting Hon Treasurer
I hope to be able to meet many of the regional members at some of the upcoming events we have arranged to take place over the London Festival of Architecture and elsewhere. I look forward to representing the views of the branch and its members at the LI Council and carry on the positive work that Adam has started.
Tim Spain,
LI London Council Rep
Extra Curricular
Pop Up City, NLA the Building Centre, Until 6th May
Over the past two years the property market has experienced the most difficult business conditions in living memory. Falling values, lack of demand for commercial space and tight funding conditions have meant there is a real possibility of development sites laying empty for a number of years.
Further details at http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/exhibition.php?id=153&name=pop_up_city
RIBA Trust Annual Lecture 2010 - Kevin McCloud, 18th May 2010
Over the past few years Kevin McCloud has become the popular face of architecture on British television and a strong advocate of the role of the architect in good design. His ability to summarise the qualities that make a good building are well known to viewers of the annual RIBA Stirling Prize and Grand Designs.
Further details at http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/Talks/Events/2010/Summer/AnnualLecture2010.aspx
London Festival of Architecture, 19th June – 04th July 2010, Various Locations
The London Festival of Architecture takes place from 19 June to 4 July 2010 and will be a city-wide celebration of architecture in the capital. As London gears up for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games we look at ways that planners, architects and local communities play their part in the development of 'The Welcoming City'.
Further details at http://www.lfa2010.org/
Henry Moore, Until 8th August 2010, Tate Britain
Radical, experimental and avant-garde, Henry Moore (1898–1986) was one of Britain’s greatest artists. This stunning exhibition takes a fresh look at his work and legacy, presenting over 150 stone sculptures, wood carvings, bronzes and drawings.
Further details at http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/henrymoore/default.shtm
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010, Design Museum, Until 31st October
Now in their third year, the Brit Insurance Designs Awards, "the Oscars of the design world," showcase the most innovative and forward thinking designs from around the world. Last year's winner, the unofficial Barack Obama poster campaign by Shepard Fairey, demonstrated the power that design can have at a grass-root level.
Further details at http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2010/brit-insurance-designs-of-the-year
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 by Jean Nouvel 10 July – 17 October 2010
In its 40th anniversary year, the Serpentine Gallery is delighted to announce that the 10th Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is being designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. This year’s Pavilion is the 10th commission in the Gallery’s annual series, the world’s first and most ambitious architectural programme of its kind. It will be the architect’s first completed building in the UK.
Further details at:
http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2010/03/serpentine_gallery_pavilion_20_14.html