F E AT U R E
Jane Findlay
Birmingham-based landscape architect Jane Findlay becomes president of the Landscape Institute in July 2020. Here she outlines her vision for this important role and calls for landscape professionals to step up and reimagine the urban habitat Challenges
1 What do the latest official sub-national population projections suggest for Great Britain’s 63 cities? Foresight, Government Office for Science September 2015
Whether city, suburban or rural, today’s construction challenges are highly complex. Matters of flood alleviation, carbon reduction, rising populations, tensions between public and private modes of transport, the juxtaposition of community and commerce, and, of course, economic viability. This is the domain of the landscape professional. As I write this, we are in week eight of the lockdown. Never more than now we, as designers of towns and cities, have to face the tension between creating dense and efficient places for people to live in, seen as essential to improving environmental sustainability, and the separating out of populations which is one of the key tools being used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. I suggest that this is the call for landscape professionals to step up and reimagine the urban habitat. Landscape design must be underpinned by the pillars of health and nature. We cannot position people at the heart of ‘place’ without accepting the very fundamental forces that shape our daily experience of the
world around us. And yet health and nature – by which we mean the natural world, climate, ecology – are not absolutes; they are infinitely varied and ceaselessly changing. How then, as landscape architects, architects, planners, engineers, developers, clients, or policy-makers should we tackle this challenge; to create tangible, durable, economically viable structures and spaces that will stand the test of time, without losing touch with the perpetually shifting pillars of health and nature? As landscape professionals, we use our creativity and technical competence to bring forward solutions. Every project is different. From concept to completion, our teams create schemes that contribute positively to their natural surroundings and the experience of those inhabiting the space whilst delivering value for the lifetime of the project. In fact, this is one of my professional principles: designing healthy places for people. It’s not just a nice idea. It’s an achievable reality. The pursuit of balance between people, place and nature will gain even greater significance, as our populations continue to grow. This will be felt most
keenly in our cities. Living, working, visiting, studying; the daily pulse of our cities faces even greater pressure in the next twenty years. Government research1 predicts that by 2036, the UK’s 63 cities will contain 17.7% more people than in 2011. Together we face challenges of stressed infrastructure, pollution, a changing climate, and our evolving healthcare needs, together with an ageing population, obesity and other physical and mental health issues. Technology will create opportunities that we cannot even conceive of today. Growing evidence of the health benefits derived from access to quality green spaces will see greener architecture as the norm in a biophilic landscape, responding to our need to feel connected with each other and with nature. Natural air conditioning, the green oasis, sustainable transport corridors; it is now essential that we make space for nature in our towns and cities. Every project makes its contribution. Each scheme adds to, not dilutes, the environmental value of our landscape. There has never been a time when our expertise and creativity will be as highly valued, as the 61
