As
part of the London Festival of Architecture, the Landscape Festival of Ideas: Transforming Landscape, Challenging Boundaries,
is being staged by the Landscape Institute (LI) to tackle some of the biggest
challenges facing our society.
With rapid
change to our natural environment, increased urbanisation, and the mounting
pressures of living in the heart of a modern city, landscape professionals are
being tasked more than ever to come up with ways of dealing with these growing
issues.
As part of
activities to mark its 90th birthday, the Landscape Institute is holding this
special event on Saturday 8 June 2019 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in
Stratford. Whilst celebrating the vitality, creativity and impact of
landscape, some of the big questions on the table are:
- How can we
successfully bring back nature into our towns & cities?
- How should
the landscape & related professions evolve to meet the needs of our
changing world?
- What is the
professional’s obligation in addressing climate change?
- Must we
prioritise ethics over aesthetics?
- In a city of
fractured communities, are we designing spaces that are indeed more divisive
than inclusive, as recent media coverage has exposed? How can we ensure the
spaces we create are used as intended?
With a
line-up of great speakers, interactive workshops, themed walking tours and
engaging panel discussions, the event aims to set the agenda for the LI, its
members and the wider profession in the years to come.
Dan Cook,
CEO of the Landscape Institute said: “Holding our Landscape Festival of Ideas
in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park provides us with a living example of
an emerging landscape that has gone through a number of relatively rapid
changes and continues to be transformed. A range of speakers will be examining
what needs to happen to make a new place work well, how landscape can bring
communities together by overcoming boundaries, as well as showcasing creative
approaches to stimulate our profession to think collectively about how we
tackle some of the challenges we face in society, and what our role should be.”
Adam
White, President of the Landscape Institute said: “These are just some of the
fantastic speakers we have lined up as part of this event and as a practising
landscape architect, I can’t wait to hear the debates and ideas from such a
wide range of talented individuals. We also want to listen to what attendees
think our profession, and Institute, need to do to progress major issues of
concern to society and the environment.
“We
are trying something different by holding this on a Saturday, this will be an
inclusive family-friendly event and we have special workshops for young people
as part of the day.
“As
President of the Landscape Institute I am passionate about the work our
profession does and the difference it can make to people’s lives and this event
can only help as we come together at this important moment in our history as we
mark the LI’s 90th anniversary.
Whilst it is important to look back and learn from the last 90 years, this
event is about looking to the future and setting the agenda for the next
chapter in our history.”
Some key
sessions include:
- How can
better landscape improve community cohesion?
Phil Askew
was project sponsor for landscape at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He is
now Director of Landscape at Peabody leading on the work to recreate the
landscape at Thamesmead. He will be moderating a session whose focus is on the
theme of overcoming boundaries. Speakers will look both at physical barriers
addressed by the design of the park and communal barriers, especially between
differently-located communities and those from differing backgrounds.
Andrew
Harland from LDA led the team that designed and delivered the Park for both the
Games and Legacy. He is also designing the landscape for the newest part of the
Park, East Bank, which will host V&A East, Sadler’s Wells East, the London
College of Fashion and BBC Music. He will look at how, in re-imagining and
reconnecting east London, all types of boundaries are being overcome.
- What ethical
issues face the landscape profession?
Anna Jorgensen from the University of Sheffield will be
looking at the ethical obligations of the landscape profession, including new
thinking on the provision of housing and public health services. She will also
look at the impact of private driverless cars on the way in which our cities
are designed. Her challenge to the profession is to advocate on behalf of a
landscape-led approach to creating and making cities.
- What role
can new technologies play in the landscape profession?
Professor
Pia Fricker holds the Professorship for Computational Methodology in Landscape
Architecture and Urbanism at Aalto University in Finland. She will be
talking about the Digital Landscape Lab and will consider how new technologies
are fusing traditional boundaries, making it essential that computational
methods are integrated into traditional practice. She is one of a number of
speakers that will be looking at how new technologies are impacting on the
profession and how they can help solve some of the issues.
Jo
Morrison, Programme Director, digital innovation, Calvium will look at the research
that she has led for the NavSta app – a collaborative project with Transport
for London (TfL), Transport Systems Catapult and Open Inclusion. She will
also look at digital aspects of community engagement and her approach to
connecting people with nature.
Professor
Rainer Stange, President of Norwegian Landscape Association will use the Oslo
Parks Scheme as an excellent illustration of new ways of thinking about
landscape.
Further information and the full programme is available at:
http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/event/li90-festival-of-ideas/
