MA Landscape Architecture

Professional Landscape Architecture

Dr B Snaith CMLI, G Woodfall CMLI, Magda Pelka, Rich Peckham ASLA

Our Professional Landscape Architecture programmes span practice and research. We are firmly grounded in the complex social and environmental issues that inform professional landscape practice each day. This year we asked our students to consider the meaning of “Space & Democracy” in the changing landscape on our doorstep - whose voices and values should be represented in the contested spaces of Custom House and the Royal Docks. We were inspired by the Mayor of London’s move for the town hall from Tower Bridge to the Crystal at Royal Victoria Dock; by the community action of the People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH); by local history of diversity and activism represented by figures like the Lascar seamen, or Daisy Parsons, and by tragedies like the Ronan Point disaster. The work was situated in a time of unprecedented social crisis, profound political disagreements within the UK, Europe and beyond, global protest for recognition that Black Lives Matter, and increasing evidence of climate emergency.

This year we combined in-person and on- line working, with communities and practitioners, continuing our ethos of working on live projects with real clients, seeking to make positive change in the environment while we learn. In design studio term one, after developing ideas for changing landscapes at the Crystal, we met with PEACH, and residents of Custom House, working in teams to engage with local people and develop resident inspired interventions, actions they felt could improve their experience of daily life in Custom House.

In term 2 we undertook area-wide mapping, of physical, environmental and emotional aspects of place and time, and explored local stories, weaving these strands together to inform our major projects for the year - future visions for public parks in Custom House 2030-2075.

In theoretical studies, Masters year students explored landscapes for foraging, and carbon capture, challenges of professional contexts, urban and environmental theory. Conversion year students critically explored major London schemes like Kings Cross, and the Olympic Park, interrogated contested meanings in international projects including Chattanooga Renaissance Park, and Barangaroo, and made technical studies of planting design, and construction. The student’s learning was supported by visiting professionals, through talks, reviews, mentoring, and this year a Virtual Study Tour, which took us from Morecambe Bay to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport, from an edible bus stop in Brixton, to a roof top garden in the City, from Dungeness to Washington DC, and from Venezuela to the Home of 2030.

The student work illustrated here is selected from our MA, MA (Conversion) and PG Dip Professional Landscape Architecture programmes this year.

“Superiority? Inferiority? Why not simply try to touch the other, feel the other, discover each other?”

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks 1952

Students

PG Dip/Conversion 1: Alex Joseph, Esme Brooker, Finlay Capps, Helen Stuart, Jerome Jarrett, Joe White, Julia Evans, Julia ShirleyQuirk, Mysoon Bakeer, Niki Joshi, Nina Sabak, Ruth Ferguson, Theophilus Sakyi

MA /Conversion 2: Anne-Marie Osei-Sarfoh, Caroline O’Farrell, Jackie Shallcross, Kuai Bing Wong, Lewis Reynolds, Muge Onal, Nevra Ozkaya, Shambhavi Sawant

Special thanks to:

People’s Empowerment Alliance for Custom House (PEACH): Casey Howard, Hero Austin, and local residents

Landscape Institute London Branch, Sam Perry, and our Professional Reviewers for support with student mentoring

With thanks to our visiting professionals:

Virtual Study Tour: Akash Wadhawan (Hyland Edgar Driver), Sarah Jones-Morris (Landsmith), Simon Ward (Atkins), Will Sandy (Will Sandy Design)

Professional Reviewers: Clare Penny (AECOM), Glyn Tully (Levitt Bernstein) Martyna Dobosz (BDP) Matt Ellins (Outerspace) Nick Miller (GL Hearn)

Professional Practice Mentors: Alex Lowenhoff (Outerspace), Helene Saulue (PRP, Josh George (AECOM), Kerrie McInnon (IrelandAlbrecht), Kieran Linale, Sam Martin (Exterior Architecture), Louise Johnson (BASE), May Jan MacIntyre, Henry Wilson (Space Hub), Yu Chen (GL Hearn)

PRG: Fenella Griffin (Untitled Practice), Susan Lowenthal (WSP), Tom Lonsdale (Placecraft), Eduardo Carranza (Gustafson Porter Bowman)

1 (Previous page) Beckton Park Manifesto, Lewis Reynolds

This page 2 The Crystal, 2D into 3D - model built up of sections, Joe White 3 The Crystal, Spaces of Democracy - movement, play, growing space, watersports, Nevra Ozkaya 4 The Crystal, Spaces of Democracy, skate park, Kuai Bing Wong

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This page 5 Hoskins Close footpath reconfigured to support safe routes to school, Julia Shirley-Quirk 6 Planting and seating, Freemasons Road Muge Onal 7 Normandy Terrace Community Garden, Esme Brooker

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This page “A Story to Tell” Conversion year/ Pg Dip conceptual narrative landscapes inspired by language of democracy 8 Models Esme Brooker 9 A view to freedom, a place of peace. Treetop lookout, Esme Brooker 10 Path of struggle, Mysoon Bakeer 11 Deciding to join, Joe White

Opposite page “Mapping Custom House” 12-13 Ambience and Noise, Muge Onal

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Future Spaces of Democracy Custom House 2030-75 This page 14-16 Beckton Park Manifesto, Lewis Reynolds Opposite page 17-18 Canning Town Rec 2050. Nevra Ozkaya

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This page 19 Log piles and standing deadwood for increased biodiversity, Canning Town Rec 2035, Kuai Bing Wong 20 Elizabeth Fry Education Centre, Royal Road, 2035 Mysoon Bakeer 21 Royal Road 2035-2075 , Shambhavi Sawant

Opposite page 22-23 Lost Words Stormwater Park, Ruth Ferguson, 24-25 Canning Town Rec 2050, Muge Onal 26 Planting design for Urban Glade, Julia Shirley-Quirk

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