LI CAMPUS

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Vestre: Materials matter with Vestre 30 March 2021

Romy Rawlings UK Commercial Director, Vestre

With over 40% of global carbon emissions being emitted by the construction industry, we all have a part to play in minimising the impact of the materials we specify for our projects. For instance, concrete is the source of around 8% of the world’s CO 2 emissions; steel is responsible for approx. 7%. If these industries were countries, they would closely follow the USA and China in terms of their damaging global impact.

Those who specify hard landscape materials need a technical understanding of the impact of their specifications upon embodied carbon, whole life CO 2 emissions, resource use, ethical procurement, and other related aspects – all of which are important factors to consider when weighing up any potential product or material for a project. Life cycle analysis – cradle to cradle - is vital to ensure a truly sustainable approach where all manufacturing impacts are assessed and fully considered. It’s important to ensure a holistic focus on every aspect of specification since an imbalanced approach – for instance a fixation only on embodied CO 2 or recycled materials – can lead to damaging impacts in other, related, areas. This balanced approach is supported by a product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), as certified by bodies such as the Nordic Swan Ecolabel

Vestre’s product demonstration session comprises a consideration of the key materials used in the production of our outdoor furniture, along with a review of physical samples including steel, aluminium, weathered steel, timber, powder coating etc. Detailed technical specification information on each is discussed, with an emphasis on the importance of understanding both CO 2 and the broader EPD. Information about common manufacturing methods (including welding and hot dip galvanising) is also discussed since these processes have environmental impacts that should be considered. Simple and efficient recyclability at end of life is also an important consideration.

Finally, to support truly sustainable specification, a focus is needed on management or maintenance that will ensure a minimal impact through a whole life approach. Since some 70-80% of carbon emissions result from the operational phase of a project, an understanding of the importance of both embodied and in-use carbon is required: a focus only on embodied carbon alone can give a misleading result. Longevity, durability and minimal maintenance are key to minimising both the initial impact of any product and ongoing resource use.

Since the Landscape Institute declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, it’s clear that many specifiers feel they’re lacking the detailed information they need to make informed choices around product specification. This demonstration will enable a more complete understanding of the questions to ask of suppliers of street furniture in particular, but the principles apply to any product. It’s time to demand more from the landscape supply chain if we’re to really make an impact on the current climate crisis. Get some tips on where to start from a company that has operated carbon neutral production for over ten years.

Romy Rawlings is a Chartered Landscape Architect and UK Commercial Director for Vestre, a Norwegian designer and manufacturer of street furniture. Romy’s 25-year career has been based in the landscape sector, and she is passionate about the impact of good design upon those using outdoor space, believing that landscape architects are well placed to counter many of today’s global issues. Romy is a former trustee of the Landscape Institute and chair of the LI Diversity and Inclusion working group.

http://landscapeinstitute.eventbrite.com

https://vestre.com

Vectorworks: Workflows 16 March 2021

Katarina Ollikainen Landscape Industry Specialist, Vectorworks UK

We always come back to workflows. It doesn’t matter how many cool tools and tricks you have if you can’t put them together in a good workflow. This is where the magic happens, and where things suddenly make sense. I’m not talking about a cookie-cutter approach where you precariously follow every step of a recipe, but more of a way to look at the desired outcome and create a map to get there.

The last webinar in our series will tie together the pieces we looked at earlier – BIM, GIS and 3D modelling – and how to make the most of the amazing resources available. We will follow a small project from start to IFC export and focus on how to make it flow – how to set it up for what you need to produce further down the line.

However, we want to do this with a very specific angle in mind. Today, Ecology is sorely underrepresented in BIM, and this must change. It has to be part of the design process from the start, not an afterthought towards the end of a project. We’ll look at what Landmark can do to further this, especially with the power of GIS.

It’s quite interesting when you start looking at GIS: it’s not so much a new tool but more a new background to work from, and it’s the link between the real world and our model. With the ability to combine the National Grid (Northing and Easting coordinates) with GIS (Latitude and Longitude), you have a system that works for both worlds. A few places where GIS plays a (background) role are:

• Your BIM project needs to be placed correctly in the world to enable collaboration – GIS will take care of this.

• A tree survey is recorded on site and then fed into Landmark to create individual 2D and 3D trees, each and every one in its right place – GIS again.

• Enormous amounts of data are available in the form of Shapefiles, ready for you to pull into your project, and with GIS they’ll literally fall into place without complains.

• Your photos for verified views/LVIA have the camera coordinates registered – you then use GIS to precisely place a render camera inside Landmark to create views. The list is long and very exciting. So please join us for the third session of playing Vectorworks – this is where the fun really begins.

Prior to June 2019, Katarina worked as Senior Designer for Ann-Marie Powell Studio for five years. During this time, she had the opportunity to develop the studios workflow and to introduce new ways of working with, and sharing, data in the design process. Her interest in systematic approaches to problems and workflows stems from an earlier life where she developed and wrote manuals for parachute equipment. Katarina is now the Landscape Industry Specialist at Vectorworks UK and in this role, on top of playing Vectorworks (she has been instrumental in product planning for Vectorworks Landmark), she’s involved in the continuous work on BIM implementation. The main focus is on collaboration and workflows – how can we exchange information in the most effective way with all parties involved, and how can we use all this when we communicate with clients? It’s all about people.

www.vectorworks.net

http://landscapeinstitute.eventbrite.com

GreenBlue Urban: Scaling SuDS Schemes – from microSuDS to Major Projects 23 February 2021

Howard Gray PR & Specification Consultant

GreenBlue Urban have always viewed our role in the urban design industry as educators – carrying out countless presentations, exhibitions and learning days for a wide variety of disciplines. Our investment in teaching people joining the landscape and arboriculture industries has been important to our towns and cities, many of which have benefited from high quality, resilient urban realm schemes creating sustainable and pleasant places and spaces.

The COVID-19 crisis has reinforced the need to provide the same level of educational support. GreenBlue Urban has embraced the digital age, and in particular is proud to support LI Campus. GreenBlue Urban have also focussed on providing resources online, with daily updates on the website; technical support, case studies and relevant blogs enabling all urban realm practitioners to keep up to date with the very latest in sustainable development methodologies.

SuDS systems can work on practically any scale; from plot-level components like rainwater harvesting and green roofs, to very large schemes that include several SuDS systems working together. The impressive scheme in the Grangetown area of Cardiff is an excellent example, and one that GreenBlue Urban is proud to have played a part in.

What options are available? Well, not all SuDS interventions have to be major. Small scale features are possible, for example bioretention rain garden systems that capture and cleans storm water providing amenity and biodiversity to new and existing spaces.

The next GreenBlue webinar to be hosted live on 23rd February, will detail our latest solution the HydroPlanter – that can be retrofitted into highway schemes or developments of any size.

The modular nature of the system means that it can be used on a single plot as a ‘microSuDs’ or combined to provide effective flood mitigation on highways or retrofitted into urban environments.

Putting nature at the core of your drainage design strategy is key to adding value to any development projects. The solutions shouldn’t be restricted to holes in the ground. Trees play an important role in addressing flood risk. What’s more, combining microSuDS with other SuDs structures greatly reduces the volume of water that needs to be attenuated. So, it’s a win-win for any developer who takes a creative approach proposed by a drainage engineer who ‘gets SuDs’.

Please do join us for a product demonstration and detailed webinar on how GreenBlue Urban can enable your schemes a success with numerous case studies and testimonials from specifiers alike.

Howard is an enthusiast for successful urban trees. He has been planting trees in urban areas for over 40 years and is passionate about making sure that every tree has the same opportunity of realising its species potential. Understanding the many conflicts, both financial and engineering, with planting in our congested towns and cities, he can work with designers and contractors to achieve the best result. Having worked on a number of SuDS schemes across Europe, with both local authorities and developers, he is uniquely positioned to present the vision – enabling sustainable cities through the use of green and blue infrastructure.

https://greenblue.com/

https://li-webinar-microsuds.eventbrite.co.uk

Jupiter Play: Technology, People & Place 2 February 2021 Inclusive play in natural environments 16 February 2021

Kristina Causer Head of Sales and Marketing, Jupiter Play

Has the way children play evolved and does the landscape need to change with it? The topic of play is hugely complex and relates to so much more than the simplicity of a small child engaging in a recreational past time just for fun. In today’s high pressured world we always seek out the measured benefits of our activities and have lost sight of the wider topic of wellbeing; until the global pandemic hit. Pre 2020 there was already rising concern for our children spending too much time indoors, in particular; glued to a screen. This was exacerbated during the first lockdown, where families were confined to their homes and more reliant on the virtual world for learning and entertainment. The public realm in terms of green and urban space is now working harder for us than ever before. The pandemic reconnected so many people to the outside world, with every tiny pocket of space being utilised and new ways of exercising outdoors found. But it also highlighted huge inequalities in greenspace provision which came to the fore in “England’s green space gap” report by Friends of the Earth, the first comprehensive England-wide analysis to show the correlation between green space deprivation, income and race.

Jupiter Play will be presenting a range of webinars over the following months that reflects on a number of issues that impact the play and landscape sector and more importantly the communities we as industries serve. We look at the world of technology and gaming and why it is such an engaging form of play. Projects such as the POD Squad in

Withernsea and the first interactive in London – Bollo Brook, will explore how using technology and interactive play create high levels of engagement in activity and play. But this subject matter shouldn’t be taken in isolation, the world of technology and natural play should be complimentary; in the seminar Inclusive Play and Natural Environments the absolute need for children to connect to the environment at a playful level is investigated. Children today have gone through some of the most challenging times in their childhood. We must take this opportunity to learn from this and move beyond idealistic and nostalgic notions of play and play space design to create places for children and young people to feel they have a place in the heart of their community.

Kristina has been creating playful environments for over 16 years, working in partnership with Local Authorities and Landscape architects across the UK and for a while in Sweden too! Passionate about the right for all children to play, Kristina was one of the founding authors of the PiPA (Plan Inclusive Play Areas) toolkit; a publication to help guide better inclusive design, now widely used in the procurement process in the UK. Kristina now leads the Innovation Hub of research and creative development within Jupiter Play, tackling key issues such as sustainability in the supply chain as well as championing the Sustainable Shoots programme at Jupiter Play.

https://jupiterplay.co.uk/

Jupiter Play: Technology, People & Place – 2 February 2021: https://technology-people-and-place.eventbrite.co.uk

Jupiter play: Inclusive play in natural environments – 16 February 2021: https://inclusive-play-in-natural-environments.eventbrite.co.uk

Hardscape: Collaborating with Artists in the Public Realm and Placemaking Pioneers 19 January 2021

Mathew Haslam, Managing Director, Hardscape

This webinar offers an insight into how artists working in the public realm express their placemaking aspirations, bringing creativity and physical narratives to place through cultural, social and heritage-led contexts, and looking how that journey is developed with research, sampling, material selection and most importantly, creative collaboration. This is an opportunity to get behind the scenes of placemaking projects and understand the vision of the artist, from initial design concepts to implementation, including the challenges of material choice, logistics, value engineering and client discussions, through to final installation.

Public art is freely accessible to everyone and anyone. It is often a reflection on society and can intentionally or indirectly determine a sense of place through its response to a particular site. It can be an all-encompassing communal activity and public engagement, reaching a wide variety of people. It can be inspiring, stimulating, divisive and challenging, but can also help invigorate all sections of a community.

Traditionally, public art provided a legacy of monuments, memorials, civic statues and sculptures commemorating or celebrating historic events and people. More recently, the scope of public art has expanded, contributing to placemaking through embedded interpretation in the landscape design or via fleeting activities such as performance, dance, theatre, and ephemeral installations. Street art, including murals and graffiti, whether permanent or temporary, also embraces political themes and social protest, adding energy and dynamism to the public realm.

Permanent public artworks can remain in the public eye for decades, and as such require skill and consideration in commissioning, collaborating, conceiving, creating, delivering, installing and maintaining.

Public art and creative interpretation should be planned from the outset of any placemaking project. Artists should join project teams early to ensure their contribution has an opportunity to flourish. This two-way creative collaboration can influence the design process from the start, which in turn unlocks greater creative potential and tangible economic value to the project.

Register for this insightful webinar and listen to the practical experiences of experts who have created and produced stunning, innovative public art for the public realm.

Mathew is a 1980s geology graduate who formed Hardscape Products Ltd in 1994. Mathew’s desire has always been to encourage the use of raw geological resources, whether in an organic state, or shaped by multiple production techniques to realise aesthetic demands and functions. He is a passionate advocate of creative design especially in the landscape design sector. Mathew puts maximum energy into educating and informing others externally, whether a student at an early stage of understanding paving specification or professionals wanting to know more about hard landscaping material choice.

https://hardscape.co.uk/

View on https://campus.landscapeinstitute.org/ from 19 February 2021

Peabody Launches Green Infrastructure Framework 18 February 2021

Phil Askew Director of Landscape and Placemaking

We’ve recently launched our Green Infrastructure Framework – ‘Living in the Landscape’ – which captures our strategic approach to managing and utilising the unique blue and green spaces of Thamesmead.

‘Living in the Landscape’ is about making the most of Thamesmead’s unique natural assets. Peabody owns 65% of the land, which includes: 240 hectares of parks and green space; 7km of canals; five lakes; 5km of river frontage and 30,000 trees. The framework sets out five themes:

1. The big blue – to see the full potential of Thamesmead’s lakes and canals realised.

2. Wilder Thamesmead – maintaining and creating habitat for wildlife.

3. A productive landscape – the landscape is used to educate, from outdoor classrooms to learning environmental skills such as food growing.

4. Active Thamesmead – enjoying an active lifestyle which improves people’s health and wellbeing.

5. Connected Thamesmead – improving the connectivity within Thamesmead and into central London. In a post pandemic world, we need to think differently about our blue and green spaces. These spaces have a crucial role to play – whether it’s improving connectivity so people can walk, run and cycle between different neighbourhoods (which in turn has positive effects on people’s health and wellbeing), addressing climate change or what the future of urban development and city living will look like. We are pioneering the way and creating a sustainable new town for London where people want to live.

There’s nowhere in London with the amount of green spaces and waterways in Thamesmead – we have more than double the amount

of green space per person than the London average. ‘Living in the Landscape’ underpins everything we do within Thamesmead’s rich landscape. As a major landholder in the area, we’re invested for the long-term and we will maintain and enhance the town now and for future generations. ‘Living in the Landscape’ was commissioned by Peabody from a team led by LDA Design.

Please join our webinar with Phil Askew, Director of Landscape & Placemaking at Peabody and Neil Mattinson, Director at LDA Design to hear how ‘Living in the Landscape’ was created and how we’re going to bring it to life.

Dr Phil Askew is Director of Landscape & Placemaking at Peabody leading on Thamesmead, London’s New Town and one of London’s largest regeneration and development projects. He has a background in Urban Design, Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and leading on major regeneration and green infrastructure projects. Prior to this he led the design and delivery of the London 2012 Olympic Park at the Olympic Delivery Authority and its transformation into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the UKs largest new urban park in over a century. At Peabody a landscape led approach to the unique green and blue landscape assets of Thamesmead is ensuring they are central to the regeneration process and their potential as green infrastructure is realised. The green infrastructure strategy ‘Living in the Landscape’ has been developed to underpin this work in Thamesmead.

For more information, please visit http://landscapeinstitute.eventbrite.com

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