LI Campus

LI Campus offers access to all LI recorded events including three years of online events and conferences. campus.landscapeinstitute.org

Kompan UK

Creating healthier and happier communities: outdoor fitness with local benefits

Available to download on LI Campus

All around the world people of all ages and abilities are moving towards the outdoors to exercise. People’s wellbeing and mental health, especially after Covid-19, has never been more important. Offering a ‘free to use’ community fitness hub that everyone can access whatever their age or ability can positively contribute to this.

Outdoor fitness with local benefits.

When it comes to community open air fitness areas, it is extremely important to include universal outdoor fitness that cater to most users. This could be stationary outdoor cardio equipment, or fitness that requires body weight such as calisthenics or cross-training equipment. Outdoor strength training machines are now completely changing the game for outdoor fitness, as they have adjustable weights to ensure everyone can get a workout at their fitness levels.

Consultation can be key.

Consulting the local community through the design process, where everyone has a say on what is required, can ensure the right scheme for everyone is installed to suit their various needs and goals. This avoids installing token pieces of equipment that no one uses and wasting valuable funds. As a result, carefully chosen equipment with fitness-related apps allows for everyone to have a full and beneficial workout.

www.kompan.co.uk

Vectorworks

The data difference: digital workflows for better collaboration with ecologists

Available to download on LI Campus

Over the last years, digital design processes have significantly changed the approach that landscape architects take to design their projects. BIM has become a new norm in the AEC industry and influenced greatly the way landscape designers collaborate with architects, civil engineers, and other professionals. Effective communication and information exchange, at the level needed, has started to play a significant role in the successful implementation of BIM projects. A smooth exchange of the key assets of geometry and data in design-led projects, between the landscape disciplines, is vital. Software platforms have become a communication tool for landscape designers, surveyors, arboriculturists, ecologists, land managers and many others, with data being the universal language. Not all platforms work with the information in the same way. While some disciplines need to receive the information at a project planning stage, some benefit from the same information after a project’s implementation. This makes data exchange and data management an extremely important task. As a software provider for multiple design industries, and in addition to investing in new communication features based around VR and AI, Vectorworks sees a real ‘data difference’ in its development philosophy. Flexibility and a user-centric approach have been for many years pivotal building blocks in Vectorworks’ strategy for managing data. While providing BIM tools for numerous design industries, the software has a capacity to serve large, cross-disciplinary teams that work on complex projects. With its GIS integration, it also provides opportunity for an in-depth site management and spatial analysis. The wide range of import/export options allows for effective collaboration between industries that at first sight might not have much in common.

The latest example of data being an essential part of a collaboration between landscape professionals is Biodiversity Net Gain assessment and its requirement for the proposed landscape to enhance local biodiversity. On a technical level, this means integrating CAD designs into GIS software in order to create the ‘post-development’ GIS layer with data that can be utilised for the BNG calculation. In simple terms, landscape architects need to work with ecologists and propose a landscape plan that fulfils legal requirements. With the GIS integration and flexibility that Vectorworks poses, even the newly implemented legislation doesn’t seem to be a big deal. What’s more, there are opportunities for a deeper approach to landscape design in ecological terms and data plays the main role.

While working together with QGIS expert and consultant Matt Davies from Maplango, it has become clear that ecologists require data of specified level of detail for the BNG assessment. Starting with an ecological survey that establishes an existing biodiversity baseline on a project site, the intention is that the landscape architect provides a proposed design that, by its nature, will determine the biodiversity value after the project is implemented. In a policy briefing, published in 2022, the Landscape Institute recognised the role of GIS in delivering BNG together with a role of source data and project site context that enables precise calculations in the latest stage of BNG assessment. The quality of data that ecologists need to exchange with landscape architects was specially highlighted - ‘accurate translation of habitat boundaries between GIS and CAD is vital to avoid frustration and delays’.

While the GIS integration in Vectorworks brings a significant advantage to its users for the collaboration between ecology and landscape architecture, there is more that the software can offer. With project coordinates giving the project its location in the real world and DXF/DWG import/ export options, landscape architects can filter through the project data and can supply only those that ecologists need. Coordinated units and geo-referenced project origins ensure that all data lands in the correct place when imported to QGIS and other geospatial applications. Classes in Vectorworks facilitate an object’s description and any object can be assigned a data record with further information about the object and what it represents. This means that classifications such Uniclass or UK Habitat Classifications can be used for a precise object description. The drawing tool set provides the tools that are ideal for 2D design, with geometry such as polygons and polylines being optimal for a data exchange with QGIS users. Vectorworks supports the import of Shapefile which as a data source can be imported to QGIS and provides an efficient way to collaborate on a project.

Vectorworks provides a truly flexible toolset, providing a balance between landscape specific BIM tools and multipurpose CAD tools which work together to help you and your consultants across different disciplines create the ‘data difference’, engage in more efficient design processes and produce successful outcomes.

www.vectorworks.net