Proposal for community allotments on a back street in Waterloo.In the last project in my second year I designed a Street scheme incorporating suds and water collecting structures and community allotments. There is a lot of talk at the moment about the housing estates and their landscapes (it was the subject of the Landscape Institute conference in November - see previous posts). I think a good safe surrounding street will help and community allotments would transform spaces that mostly consists of short mown grass into a productive and beautiful space.
This year when working on a canal restoration project I struggled at first to justify the restoration of something man made. After researching and looking into the subject more I realised it was a challenge to work on schemes that you might not like the look at at first. Through research I came up with the solution of growing short rotation willow coppice along the restored canal - then canal could then be utilised to transport the wood chips from the willow and machinery and staff could be shared between farmers. The willow coppice also act as a filter of the runoff from the agricultural nitrogen water and cleans it before entering the canal.
Image showing the cycle of Short Rotation Willow Coppice.
I think this project shows that you can make a productive landscape interesting and beautiful - at the same time as being multifunctional. I like designing landscapes that use natural processes whilst responding to climate change.
In the next project we will be given the opportunity to work with the public and other partners. This is something I am very interested in and am looking forward to. I think sometimes too many designs are thought up in the office and in the future I would like to have the opportunity to work with people and practices that work with the public and also design schemes for management of spaces and just not the space. As this is something that is very important.
I like the idea of working for a local authority or government organisation - I know that the get good and interesting projects to work on. I wrote my management report on Sutcliffe park which was designed by landscape architects working for the environment agency.
In terms of practices I am a big fan of Latz and Partner in Germany - in the UK my favourite practice is Land Use Consultants. I would love to have the opportunity to work for a practice that has other departments as welll as landscape architects - such as ecologists. As this is something I am interested in learning more about.
Eden Project
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