Landscape Journal - Summer 2016 by Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute

Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

New thinking on flooding / 32 Quiet triumph in Brentford / 18 Our next president / 14

Summer 2016

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Landscape Summer 2016

Vestre Pop Design & model: Kristine Five MelvÃ¦r

Editorial By Ruth Slavid

Strength in numbers e very article in this issue of the journal has been written by a woman. There is a short piece from Paul Shaffer of CIRIA about the new SuDS manual, and there is honorary editor Tim Waterman’s customary and much-loved column ‘A word’. And that’s it for the men. The women are a diverse bunch. Apart from the pieces that I have written, everything comes from members of the profession. The most distinguished is Sue Illman, former president of the LI, writing about flooding from her special experience with water. In contrast, Lesley Perez, who writes about the Brentford: Making the Connection project is at the start of her career, studying at the University of Greenwich. Other authors are somewhere in between with, for example, Bridget Snaith sharing the learning from her relatively recent PhD looking at the different attitudes to landscape of different ethnic groups, while Michelle Bolger imparts some of her wealth of experience as an expert witness. There was no deliberate decision to make this a ‘women’s issue’ but it is interesting that it has happened this way following the session at the LI conference in March looking at the role of women

Photo ©: 1 – Agnese Sanvito

ALMOST

in landscape. Michelle Bolger was one of the speakers at that event, and she talked in particular about the paucity of women at board level in the major practices. That observation, coupled with the fact that very few women are commanding the highest salaries, is an indication that there is still a ‘women problem’ in the landscape profession. One could easily be lulled into a false sense of security by the near parity in numbers studying the subject and the fact that, certainly compared to other built environment professions, the situation on the surface looks good. But the lively discussion that took place at the conference (with both men and women taking part) showed that there are still issues to address. These include the difficulties that women still encounter when working on site, problems with negotiating salaries and, most importantly of all, the problems that women encounter when trying to combine work with a family – and, in particular, to work part time. Several women in the audience talked about how successfully they had set up practice on their own. As well as this giving them the flexibility that they want, many appreciate the ability to undertake any task that they like themselves, rather than having to parcel them out for business efficiency. And some women are working with networks of other independent or freelance professionals, often at a distance. While this is admirable for those who want to work this way, it does not compensate for the fact that women are failing to thrive in larger organisations. The session at the conference was not just a series of complaints – there were constructive conversations about how to make things better, for instance by improving recruiting techniques. The issue is important not only because women are not getting a fair deal but also because by not doing the best by both women and ethnic minorities, the profession is missing out on talent which it needs when, as now, there is a shortage of good people. And as a profession that is working to make places better for all the public, the more representative it can be the better a job it is likely to do. Without saying crudely that women have a different approach, one can assert that the wider the range of abilities that can be brought into the profession, from as wide and diverse a gathering of people as possible, the better it will perform.

Landscape Summer 2016

Landscape The Journal of the Landscape Institute

Editor Ruth Slavid landscape@darkhorsedesign.co.uk T 020 8265 3319 Editorial advisory panel Tim Waterman, honorary editor David Buck Joe Clancy Edwin Knighton CMLI Amanda McDermott CMLI Peter Sheard CMLI John Stuart Murray FLI Eleanor Trenfield CMLI Jo Watkins PPLI Jenifer White CMLI Jill White CMLI Landscape Institute president Noel Farrer PLI Landscape Institute CEO Phil Mulligan To comment on any aspect of Landscape Institute communications please contact: Paul Lincoln, deputy CEO paull@landscapeinstitute.org ––– Follow the Landscape Institute on twitter: @talklandscape Advertising, subscription and membership enquiries: www.landscapeinstitute.org/contact ––– The Landscape Institute is the royal chartered institute for landscape architects. As a professional body and educational charity, it works to protect, conserve and enhance the natural and built environment for the public benefit. ––– Landscape is printed on FSC paper obtained from a sustainable and well managed source, using environmentally friendly vegetable oil based ink. The views expressed in this journal are those of the contributors and advertisers and not necessarily those of the Landscape Institute, Darkhorse or the Editorial Advisory Panel. While every effort has been made to check the accuracy and validity of the information given in this publication, neither the Institute nor the Publisher accept any responsibility for the subsequent use of this information, for any errors or omissions that it may contain, or for any misunderstandings arising from it.

Landscape Summer 2016

Regulars 3

Features

Editorial

Strength in numbers

Bigger picture

6 The eye and the hand Edward Hutchison

Update

Digging deep for ideas Ruth Slavid

Technical

SuDS come up to date Paul Shaffer

Practice

Expert Witness Michelle Bolger

Culture

Bring back play Maisie Rowe

A word

‘Unity’

Tim Waterman

The LI’s public servant Merrick Denton-Thompson, who will take over as LI president in July, will be a very different president from his two predecessors – but an equally dynamic one. Ruth Slavid

Urban mending At Brentford in west London, KLA has made a number of small interventions that together make a big contribution to the quality of urban life.

Photo ©: 1 – Tom Lee

Publisher Darkhorse Design Ltd 42 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead Wirral, Merseyside. CH41 5BP T 0151 649 9669 darkhorsedesign.co.uk

40 4

Fighting spirit

Parks and prejudice

Photo ©: 2 – Bridget Snaith 3 – Kevin Eaves 4 – Pickering & District Civic Society 5 – Albertus Engbers

The town of Pickering worked out its own approach to tackling and preventing flooding, with some help from outside experts – and even medieval monks.

The predominantly white landscape profession is in danger of excluding members of ethnic minorities from the parks it designs if it does not address some preconceptions.

The people problem If we are to make progress in dealing with flooding, we will need to deal with the structure of organisations and government commitment to funding.

48 5

Living on water We should look to the Dutch to make living on the water more prevalent – if we can just overcome our bureaucratic and financial barriers.

Flooding matters The government is finally starting to take flooding seriously, but hard evidence on the efficacy of catchment management is still needed.

Cover image New thinking on flooding. Credit: barol16

Landscape Summer 2016

Bigger Picture By Ruth Slavid

The eye and the hand

Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: – Edward Hutchison

his drawing by Edward Hutchison of a proposal for a new garden in Wiltshire is one that appears in his book Drawing for Landscape Architecture – Sketch to Screen to Site now published in paperback by Thames & Hudson. He gave some of the best attended and best liked CPD presentations at the LI conference in March, talking about the importance of drawing both in terms of looking and of communicating. He discussed the way that drawing makes it possible to really look at things properly, and sometimes even to learn something that nobody else had seen – drawing the square in front of the Carré d’Art in Nimes, southern France when working for Norman Foster, he deduced, that the archeological records of the place were wrong, and he was subsequently proven correct. Equally important is the way that drawing allows the designer both to think through a project and to communicate it to a client, he said. As well as this theory he shared details of where he buys his sketchbook (a supplier in the US) and of the materials he uses. Edward Hutchison has a passion for drawing landscape, and he succeeded admirably in communicating it. Expect sales of sketchbooks to rise!

Landscape Summer 2016

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Landscape Summer 2016

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Update By Ruth Slavid

Digging deep for ideas An ideas competition inviting entrants to look at the potential for worked out quarries showed just how much can be done once they are regarded as an opportunity and not an eyesore.

n our small island, we are realising increasingly that we need to make every inch of our land work harder, ideally doing not just one thing well but several. We cannot afford to waste old and scarred sites by simply ‘reinstating’ them in an unimaginative way. This was the thinking behind a competition that Worcestershire County Council ran, asking entrants to look at ways of giving new life to an imaginary former sand and gravel quarry. Entrants were asked to look at a quarry that was in the West Midlands and within the Green Belt. It had good access to an A road, had a public right of way on its western boundary, and was near to a large town. The aim of the competition was to 1 at maximising the potential of look

restored quarries, so that they can contribute better not only to the social and recreational life of their area but also to the long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Questions asked included: How can they be designed to be more easily managed? How can a wider range of uses and activities be encouraged to make use of them? How can they be converted from being the after-effect of extraction into economically viable and self-sustaining systems? Entrants were asked to look at the best way to turn disused quarries into a mult-functional resource, to ‘send their realistic ideas for the restoration and after-use of an imaginary sand and gravel pit to inspire actual restorations in future’. The judges were:

• Sue Illman, Illman Young; • Jane Patton, recently retired as the landscape architect for Worcestershire, • Mark Stefan, director of design with Nature, and a Woodland Creation Champion for the Woodland Trust; • Sheila Blagg, councillor, Worcestershire County Council. There were two joint winners, and also a second-placed and fourth-placed project. Sue Illman said, ‘I’m something of a novice about quarries, but seeing the quality in the good schemes wasn’t hard to do.’ The entries show just how much of an opportunity a former quarry can offer, once you stop thinking of it as a blot on the landscape and instead appreciate the dramatic topography and the opportunity to create a wide range of habitats.

Image ©: 1 – David Martyn Hughes

1 – Quarries like this one in the Cotswolds need to be reinstated in imaginative ways to ensure that they are an asset and not an eyesore.

Landscape Summer 2016

Update Joint first

where a variety of active and passive leisure activities can take place (for instance there will be the longest go-kart track in the UK). All this will be surrounded by a dry and wet acid grassland habitat as well as amenity turf, specimen trees and shrubs. This project makes excellent use of the three-dimensional nature of the site, and provides a very wide range of habitats.

cliffs, circular permissive paths linking to the existing footpath, a new main entrance drive with coach drop off and emergency and farm access tracks; • A middle stratum consisting of a circular visitor centre and associated car parking that overlooks a range of habitats – heathland, grassland and stone roof gardens; • A lower ‘outside in’ covered stratum

Triatum Leisure Complex by Landscape Matters The name of this project is an abbreviation of ‘Triple Stratum’ to reflect three distinct but interconnected layers that would divide the quarry vertically. They are: • An upper stratum of retained sand

2 – The project provides a wide range of habitats on three different levels.

A Road + 30

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10 Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: 2 – Landscape Matters

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3 – A range of water-based activities would make this a superb visitor attraction.

Image ©: 3 – One Creative

Joint first Human Touch by One Creative This proposal, which was straplined ‘Recognising the past – Realising the future’, took a very sculptural approach to the quarry, creating ‘land art fingerprints’ that would be colonised by pioneer species. Other

features include a number of natural swimming pools and heated pools and a central activity centre that would house the changing rooms but could also be used for conferences, catering etc. While this approach has an ecological component in terms of creating a number of species-rich habitats, its primary focus is on

being a superb and unusual visitor attraction, both for those who participate in the watery activities and those who come to watch. The design team was undaunted by the fact that many such disused quarries are in fact dry – this was after all an ideas competition, and the ideas are abundant and engaging. Landscape Summer 2016 11

Update

Munro + Whitten This ambitious proposal makes maximum use of the sculptural form of the quarry to create an exciting new park comprising both active and passive landscapes. In addition to a visitor centre, which incorporates a hotel, with conference centre adjacent, the park has an outdoor events arena and stage, an ‘extreme canyon’ with zip wire, a sky bridge which oversails the park offering views into the play zones and landscaped gardens.

Fourth UBU UBU’s approach was completely different. Instead of looking primarily at drawing visitors, this scheme is all about production – of food and also of energy. It includes a series of fish ponds, with the fish fed with insects reared in a special facility. There is a also a vertical ‘salad wall’. The salads will be fed by waste from the fish ponds, and any waste that the growing process produces in its turn will be fed into a digester and used to produce heat and electricity.

12 Landscape Summer 2016

4, 5 – Munro + Whitten’s scheme makes excellent use of the topography to create thrills which include an ‘extreme canyon’ complete with zip wire.

6 – 5-UBU has focused on food production

Image ©: 4, 5 – Munro + Whitten 6 – UBU

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Update By Ruth Slavid

The LI’s public servant Merrick Denton-Thompson, who will take over as LI president in July, will be a very different president from his two predecessors – but an equally dynamic one. 1 – Merrick DentonThompson with his rescue dog and his woodpile.

ould Merrick-Denton Thompson be the Lord Kitchener of the landscape profession? Just over a century after the moustached soldier (and no, Merrick doesn’t have a moustache) appeared on the infamous recruiting poster for World War One, Merrick, with far less moral ambiguity, is set to tell the government that it really needs landscape professionals – and to tell those professionals that their profession needs them. Merrick will take over as president in July and brings to the task a long history in public service and the public sector. He is a man of strong principles with the determination to get results. When in the August 2012 issue of the journal we asked Sue

14 Landscape Summer 2016

Illman, then president, if LI members should be activists, she wrote, ‘I was inspired years ago by the stance that Merrick Denton-Thompson, then chief landscape architect for Hampshire County Council, took over the proposals that would destroy Twyford Down to create a new bypass around Winchester. Not many risk their career to start a High Court action against the Department of Transport in opposition to their employer. Did it effect change? No, in that the proposals went ahead, but yes, in that the whole affair was a public-relations disaster for the government, and it learned that it should never try and force a controversial decision against such vociferous opposition again.’ It was his position from within the

establishment that gave Merrick the strength to do this. On his application for fellowship, the achievements he listed (and substantiated) included • Persuaded the 10 Downing Street Policy Unit in 1985 to establish a new programme to integrate farming and conservation. • Changed Government policy on school grounds in 1990. • Member of the DEFRA AgriEnvironment Review Group that set up the Entry Level and Higher Level Environmental Stewardship Programme. He had a long career in Hampshire County Council, retiring in 2006 when he also joined the board of Natural England. The diminishing role of landscape professionals within the

Image ©: 1 – Tom Lee

Image ©: 2 – Tom Lee

2 – Ash dieback is not a theoretical concern for Merrick, who is coppicing trees on a 15-year rotation.

public sector is one of the areas that he intends to address during his presidency – not from the point of view of protecting jobs but because he believes that the country is suffering as the expertise of landscape professionals is marginalised. ‘We have haemorrhaged influence with the public sector,’ he says. ‘We are seen as a luxury and nice to have.’ His proposal is that the profession should re-establish its importance by showing the local authorities the way that it can help them with their problems. ‘We have to accept that the issues facing local government have changed,’ he said. ‘There are new statutory obligations; local authorities are being forced to stop any discretionary activities. We should be more focused on utility and function as a profession rather than design – although we must do everything beautifully.’ Although unitary authorities are losing their role in education, they are taking much more responsibility for children and young people. ‘We can and do provide place making for children and young people that has measurable benefits for experiential learning, for health and wellbeing,’ Merrick said. Similarly, the landscape profession can ‘deliver benefits for old people, can empower communities to transform their own landscapes and help with the resilience to climate change.’ And it can help local authorities in their development of resilience to climate change. ‘We deal with micro climates all the time,’ Merrick said. ‘We understand physics, we can equip every local authority to undertake analysis.’ The difficulty, he said, is that ‘We sit uneasily in any of the particular departments in local government. We want to be getting government to support us in developing the intelligent client function – and for that we need a head of landscape in chief executive’s office empowering the private sector to deliver the services that our society needs.’ The path to achieving this he sees as ‘top down bottom up’. Every LI member should try to connect with unitary authority members to show them what can be done. But Merrick’s

plan would also require direction from central government – and his record shows how persuasive he can be. His argument for the involvement of every LI member highlights another of his concerns for his presidency. There is, he says, ‘a governance weakness. The institute is still in transition. Having got support and changed its constitution, we are in a process of refining our administration. We have to align the advisory council with the board so that there is a single golden thread running through from every member to the decisions made by the board.’ It is essential, he says, that members own the institute’s decisions – and take responsibility for carrying them out. ‘There is a perception,’ he says, ‘that the LI as a charity has to provide the public goods required of us as a charity. I think that is wrong. I think

the institute is about empowering the members to deliver the public goods. The secretariat has to support and empower the membership to deliver. If the focus of the secretariat is on providing goods, then the support to the membership becomes secondary.’ Both these issues – of the role of the public sector and the governance of the institute – are additional to what Merrick had believed would be his primary focus and is his passion – the rural landscape. He believes that there is a crisis, with the forces shaping the countryside not doing so in the best possible way. We need, he believes, to have an approach to food growing that is environmentally sustainable and is done through multi-functional landscapes. But he says, while the profession is measurably influential in the transformation of towns and cities, it has little measurable influence

Landscape Summer 2016 15

Update

16 Landscape Summer 2016

3 – Living ‘out in the sticks’, it is not surprising that Merrick cares passionately about rural matters.

CV Merrick Denton-Thompson, OBE Primary Education: Falkland Islands and Tanzania Secondary Education: Malvern College 1968–1972 Gloucestershire College of Art and Design – Diploma in Landscape Design 1972–1978 Landscape architect, Portsmouth City Council 1978–1992 County Landscape Architect, Hampshire County Council 1992–2002 Assistant County Planning Officer and Head of Countryside, Hampshire County Council 2002–2006 Assistant Director of Environment, including Rural Affairs, Hampshire County Council. 2006–2008 Board Member of Natural England

Image ©: 3 – Tom Lee

on the countryside. ‘The biggest transformation of our countryside is delivered not through design but through regulation, policy, cross compliance of investment and incentive investment by the public sector. If we aspire to be the single most important profession in the transformation of landscapes in our towns and countryside we are failing absolutely to achieve that.’ Again, he says, the problem is the emphasis that the institute still has only design and on ‘landscape architecture’ whereas in the countryside ‘the biggest transformation is through landscape planning and policy and not design. If we want to be recognised for the breadth that we offer, from policy development to landscape management, we have to recognise that we have given birth to these, they are professions in their own right.’ This is not just a theoretical concern for Merrick, since he is firmly rooted in the countryside, living in the heart of the South Downs National Park in a place he describes as ‘right out in the sticks’. His wife and daughters ride horses that they keep on the land, and he has seven elderly Manx Loaghtan sheep which are particular good at browsing the docks, hogweed etc. that are undesirable in a paddock. He has also planted 1,000 ash trees which he is coppicing on a 15-year rotation to provide heating for his home. So he is personally as well as professionally concerned about ash dieback. Merrick will have to give up several involvements that he enjoys (as well as a lot of free time) to become LI President. For example, his role as a design panel member for the South Downs National Park will go, although he will continue as founding trustee of the Learning Through Landscapes Trust. He is heavily involved with his family, with four adult children whose work ranges from a worm farmer to a photographer to a CMLI with Terra Firma. So why did he agree to be President? Simple really. ‘I have had the most exciting fulfilling professional life and I want to put something back.’

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Feature

Urban mending 18 Landscape Summer 2016

At Brentford in west London, KLA has made a number of small interventions that together make a big contribution to the quality of urban life BY LESLEY PEREZ

Image ©: 1 – KLA 2 – Grant Smith 3 – KLA

1 – Market stalls play a vital role in the revitalisation, including providing opportunities for small businesses. 2 – The towpath alongside the canal is an enormous asset that is now easier to discover and access. 3 – View of the revived market square.

beneath London’s Great West Road, a meandering canal snakes between a cluster of monolithic buildings. Thousands of employees of companies such as BSkyB, JC Decaux and GlaxoSmithKline surge into these structures every weekday morning before later making their customary evening march back to the parking lots, bus stops and rail stations that will whisk them home. But follow the canal path just a single mile south towards its junction with the Thames and you’ll encounter a historic high street that was once one of West London’s most notable shopping districts. Despite the short walk separating these two centres, any interaction between them had for a long time been minimal at best.

JUST

To address this, a brief was put together with funding from the Mayor’s Outer London Fund for a project to improve public-realm connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the high street and the business district, otherwise known as the ‘Golden Mile’. The local council could see that transforming the towpath into a thoroughfare could not only reshape the canal district but also help Brentford’s town centre flourish. But walking around Brentford now, Lynn Kinnear, principal and founder of KLA who spearheaded the project, points out that, ‘the original brief for this project is unrecognisable. We started off with a client brief, and we didn’t deliver that brief.’ What could been a fairly straightforward exercise in enhancing pedestrian appeal instead metamorphosed into an area-wide strategy to develop Brentford into a more liveable, prosperous and culturally dynamic place.

Landscape Summer 2016 19

Feature

Specific interventions are largely based around sites identified in earlier strategic documents put together by ISIS Waterside Regeneration in collaboration with the public-arts consultancy MAAP. These include the Great West Road overpass, the sheds (a large corrugated iron structure overhanging the canal), the towpath’s junction with the high street and the magistrates’ court in the centre of town, among others. KLA’s scheme built on those initial insights, imagining how locations might interact to create a more social and sustainable local character that also celebrates Brentford’s waterside heritage.

20 Landscape Summer 2016

Exploring the area one sunny afternoon, I was able to glimpse how the public realm improvements have helped to give this historic town a renewed sense of pride. They are noteworthy yet very much born of place, celebrating existing assets and giving the canal corridor a layer of inviting cohesion that is helping Brentford to reassert its local distinctiveness. But of course, these are just my impressions as an afternoon tourist. The ‘Making the Connection’ project is first and foremost concerned with reimagining public life for those who live and work in the area. At the heart of this focus is the new square in front of the magistrates’ building in the centre of town. It’s a handsome, flexible space populated with bespoke timber seating, a playful set of fountains, some colourful graphic tiles and a statuesque weeping willow (a nod to the nearby riverfront). The central area hosts a weekly food market, valued as an important social programme, a reminder of local history (Brentford has had street markets on and off since 1306), and as a driver of economic diversity. Lynn Kinnear explains: ‘The market is a

Image ©: 4 – KLA

When the Landscape Institute awarded the project its prestigious President’s Award at the end of last year, the judges remarked that it stood out for its thoughtful approach to ‘urban mending’. Uniquely, it is based on a series of tactical interventions rather than a single statement-making gesture. Unravelling the threads that give this project strength reveals an approach to urban design based on long-term socio-economic vision, public participation and rich collaboration.

5 4 – Concept diagram showing how the high street could be reconnected to the canal. 5 – The bright canopies of the market stalls provide a festive air. This area was previously a car park. 6 – Community consultation. 7 – There are small water fountains and willow trees in the market place. 8 – A project newspaper was produced as part of the consultation process.

Image ©: 5 – ?KLA 6 – KLA 7 – Grant Smith 8 – KLA

starting point for new businesses, because they can use the market stalls before they commit to taking on a shop. It’s a good stepping stone to a more varied and vibrant offer [on the high street].’ The square also has places for people-watching, play and performance. This variety is hugely important, inviting a broad demographic to participate in the space and contribute to what the project team calls ‘a shift in emphasis for the local high street’s role from monetary exchange to more social exchange.’

Turning west along the high street from the central market square, you notice a vacant shop crowned by bright signage declaring ‘Brentford Works’. This is a lone physical reminder of a social enterprise set up as a crucial part of the overall scheme, implemented to kickstart the regeneration process at a community level. Running for six months out of an empty shop at the critical junction between the high street and the canal route, Brentford Works became a buzzing hub where locals, traders and craftspeople could meet to peer network, socialise and discuss ways to work together to improve local business. Sue Ball, principal at MAAP, who stewarded the enterprise alongside The Decorators, points out that Brentford Works was an important precursor to the new market space. By operating while physical construction was happening, locals were brought into the process and could creatively plan its use. ‘The idea was that there was a momentum going on in parallel that was developing the broader network that could find more permanent space within the market,’ she said.

Lynn proudly admits that with regard to what you now see, ‘the ingredients are very simple.’ But as I gradually discover, that depends very much on where you look. Speaking to various members of the team involved, it’s clear that the overall process has been extremely intricate, relying on vast amounts of negotiation with multi-headed stakeholder groups and involving numerous contributors. As a result some of the most interesting aspects turn out to be those that aren’t immediately visible.

Landscape Summer 2016 21

Feature

Kinnear acknowledges that working with tight council budgets brings about a certain pragmatism in decision-making. But she also stresses the desire to make sure this didn’t equate to a weakening of ambitions. ‘We made lots and lots of proposals at the early stage to try and challenge everyone to think of this as the start of a bigger thing,’ she says. Sue Ball suggests that this unwavering determination was key to making the project what it is: ‘at so many stages the money was going to drop away or the phasing wasn’t right...’ but doggedness, particularly from Kinnear and associate Florence Moon, helped to push things through.

22 Landscape Summer 2016

Perhaps the most ambitious proposal achieved involves the treatment of the sheds, about halfway along the canal path between the high street and the Golden Mile. They were an intimidating presence overhanging the route, with dark interiors that made anybody passing through them feel unsafe. Early strategic ideas involved some sort of illuminations to animate the cavernous space. However KLA saw potential for the sheds to become a local landmark that could draw people along the canal route as well as play host to special events such as pop-up cinema screenings. The team worked with artist Simon Periton to completely refit the exteriors with intricate timber cladding informed by the local boat building vernacular. The resulting structures are spectacular from every vantage point along the route, but most of all while standing within them while daylight streams through.

9 – Local businesses use delivery bikes. 10 – KLA worked with artist Simon Periton to design the cladding for the waterside sheds.

Image ©: 9 – KLA 10 – Grant Smith

But simply improving the market wasn’t enough. The project team also wanted to link it to the canal to enhance its uniqueness and reach. A scheme was devised for a ‘floating high street’, in which a barge could float bicycles along the canal towards the Golden Mile, where riders would disembark and travel along an expanded cycle network to bring food and goods to office workers. A trial fleet of cargo bikes was brought to Brentford Works to test with local businesses, with several latching onto the idea and its potential. But unfortunately in the end the barge idea was never implemented due to lack of funding. It’s one of Lynn Kinnear’s biggest disappointments, although just one of many setbacks and squeezes faced along the way.

Image ©: 11, 12 – Grant Smith

This is a scheme defined as much by what has been achieved as by the ideas it has brought forth about Brentford’s future. There’s a merging of quality and playfulness in many of the design details that lends a subtle sense of wonder to the spaces created, such as the colourful market tiling, highly crafted wayfinding mosaics and exuberant flora patterned into the shed cladding. It allows the interventions to feel both very grounded but also of another time and place. ‘It’s about not trying to get stuck in where we are now but imagining where we might be,’ Lynn offers. In this context, the ‘Making the Connection’ project is best viewed as a catalyst that is helping Brentford to see itself in a new, future light. Ball calls the new physical public realm a ‘fantastic gift’ to the area, noting the difference it has already had on the market. Visitor numbers are up by more than 50% and stallholders have increased by a third. If aspects of the scheme such as the floating high street had been able to be realised one can only imagine how this success would be spilling out and transforming the canal route in full.

11 – The foot and cycle path runs through the sheds. 12 – The cladding acts as a veil, but enables enough views in and out to ensure that there is a sense of security.

Landscape Summer 2016 23

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13 – Great attention has been given to wayfinding. 14 – Street furniture with mosaic detailing.

KLA’s approach engages with the challenges posed by increasingly common large-scale urban development, employing landscape as a social agent to help build local identity and strengthen daily interactions. Both Kinnear and Ball share the view that if our public spaces are to continue to meet the needs of a changing, expanding society we should first question the basic idea of what public life actually means. Their answer, made evident in Brentford, encompasses much more than simply work, consumption, leisure and travel. Here, public life is valued as an opportunity for social networking without the technology, for productive exchange and chance encounters, and for shared activities that draw a community together to rub shoulders and connect on multiple different levels.

24 Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: 13 – KLA 14 – Grant Smith

As it is the project is still hugely significant, and shows the potential for landscape to offer a style of bottom-up, collaborative regeneration that stands in contrast to the all-encompassing visions often proffered by developers. With a large swathe of land between the high street and the Grand Union Canal currently in development for approximately 900 new homes, the timing of the scheme couldn’t be more acute.

“A CITY IS NOT AN ACCIDENT... ...BUT THE RESULT OF COHERENT VISIONS AND AIMS.” Leon Krier

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Landscape Summer 2016 25

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Parks and prejudice The predominantly white landscape profession is in danger of excluding members of ethnic minorities from the parks it designs, if it does not address some preconceptions. BY BRIDGET SNAITH

26 Landscape Summer 2016

1 – Children play at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, but not all spaces are equally popular with all ethnic groups. 2 – One of the more ‘natural’ areas of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

qualitative. These included a questionnaire survey to establish differences in landscape taste; interviews and focus groups to explore reasons; and, once the park opened, spatial analysis and user counting.

England’s study published in February1 again found that affluent white British people visit ‘natural environments’ far more than people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The most-used places are parks, playgrounds and playing fields – bread and butter for landscape architects. And landscape professionals in the UK are also predominantly white British. Does this mean that we, as professionals, are creating landscape spaces that appeal most to white British people, and overlooking the preferences of other ethnic groups?

NATURAL

My recent PhD research in east London showed that, although we don’t mean to, that is what we are doing.

Image ©: 1 – Bridget Snaith 2 – Bridget Snaith

Many theorists in post-colonial and race studies describe how white Westerners understand their values as ‘universal truths’. This kind of thinking underpins ideas of universal beauty. This thinking is not new. Researchers in the US proposed 40 years ago that people of different ethnicities preferred different kinds of green spaces for cultural reasons. When consulting on landscape projects with diverse communities in London over the years, I also found that ideals of beauty or leisure activity that are considered best practice aren’t always shared across cultures. In 2010, CABE’s study Community Green2 highlighted the under-representation of minority groups in parks, identifying ethnicity as being more influential than income. I wondered whether ‘culture clash’ between users and those ‘producing’ park space, might be a factor. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in multicultural east London provided an excellent case study. My research started in autumn 2011. I used mixed methods, some quantitative and some

Survey A survey with nine images of publicly accessible landscapes in the UK in different styles asked ‘If all these parks were within 10 minutes walk of your home, which would you want to visit most?’. There was no restriction on the numbers of images chosen, and no ranking was required. The average number of images selected was three. If all were equally preferred, they would be selected by 33%. The images can’t be reproduced here, but are referred to as follows: Brownian – a sweeping summer pastoral landscape of green lawn, mature trees and serpentine lake; St James’ Park – a well maintained Victorian park with lawn, ornamental trees, and bench seat overlooking a fenced pond with fountain; Perennial flowers – a view across a contemporary perennial border in a mature public park; Marsh – a timber walkway through an expansive green reedbed; Neoclassical – wide lawns, mature trees and neoclassical public park buildings; Thames Barrier – a French designed modern landscape with lines of planting, lawns and hedging; Richmond Park – an expansive view across winter parkland, long grass, bare trees, a dark steely sky; Geometric – a knot/Islamic garden of colourful formal flowers within low hedged beds to a complex symmetrical arrangement with a central fountain; Ecological – a wildflower meadow with a CorTen steel sculpture in the middle distance. A total of 232 surveys were returned. Most respondents were aged between 18 and 50 and had spent all or most of their childhood in the UK. The largest ethnic group claimed by participants was white British, representing 20% of returns. A total of 45%, spread across the ethnic groups, had attended university. I analysed the results for statistical significance, then assessed them for the strength of any association. St James’ Park and the geometric garden were the most popular, chosen by more than 50% of respondents. Age had some influence, but less than gender, or education. Supporting findings of other studies, ethnicity had the greatest influence on Landscape Summer 2016 27

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preferences, set out in the diagram below. White British people most preferred loose, naturalistic plant forms, and informal spatial arrangements. For the other ethnic groups that I sampled, naturalistic plant forms were generally least popular.

an opportunity to understand more about the survey’s findings. Focus groups Focus groups allow observation of group dynamics, and can help identify which views or experiences are personal or controversial; and, which might be shared or normal. With around six members in each group, views weren’t taken as generalisable, but where statements made were supported by other findings, these were seen as potential cultural norms.

The ‘ecological’ landscape was the least popular across all the analysis, selected by only 15% of respondents. It was however equal in popularity to St James’s Park among white British university graduates, being selected by 50% of this group. This association was the strongest found in the data. University attendees seemed generally to prefer ‘wilder’ landscapes, but a combined analysis of education and ethnicity showed this pattern was significant only for white British participants. Many other studies have found that educated and powerful white Anglo Europeans prefer ‘romantic’ or ecocentric landscapes. This preference is not universally shared, even within the white majority culture .

All participants used, and spoke positively about, parks. Parks were good places for active recreation, especially for and with children. A large urban Victorian park, such as St James’s Park, was felt to offer something for everyone in good weather. There were however notable differences in understandings across different groups of parks, their nature and their role in everyday life. Participants with Somalian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage described a relaxing and restorative function for park space.

Landscape tastes might well influence the use of some spaces for some ethnic groups; however it wasn’t the only factor in play. The nearby Victoria Park was significantly under used by its surrounding ethnic minority population3. Yet my research found that the most consistently preferred image across all the ethnicities was of a similarly styled park. Focus groups provided

‘Open spaces,... are for you to enjoy, to unwind,... It’s your escape place,... it is a place to socialise, to have fun, get fresh air, yeah. Even for myself. I see other mums. It’s good!’ (Victoria Park)

3 – Diagram showing the differing preferences of different ethnic groups.

Perennial 80

Geometric

Richmond

60 50 40 30 20

Thames barrier

Marsh

Neoclassical

Ecological

St James

28 Landscape Summer 2016

Brownian

White British Pakistani Indian Caribbean Bangladeshi

Image ©: 3 – Bridget Snaith

4 – User count in the informal North park, showing that non-white users are under-represented.

Catchment

Crowd

81 25

White ethnicities Non white ethnicities 74

25 24

4 11

12 13 9

6 3

35 37

10 3

Crowd

British Caribbean participants embraced city life and sociability. Parks were for activity. British landscape and greenery did not in itself have an effect on wellbeing for most. They didn’t see the point of just walking around, looking. Not liking nature was uncontroversial in this group. White British participants did seek restorative ‘escape’ in nature, in wilder larger-scale places – in country parks, or beyond London.

Catchment 81 white ethnicities 25 Non white ethnicities

25 73 21

British Pakistani participants also used wider landscapes for leisure. They made use of National Parks, Epping Forest and Wanstead Flats for family outings. They saw scenic nature as a restorative leisure resource, and relished opportunities for their children to interact with wildlife. In contrast, several British Bangladeshi participants vehemently disliked ‘wild’ spaces, ‘nature’ and ‘the (great) outdoors’. Most found winter vegetation extremely unattractive and dead. However, they liked summer landscapes, and generally associated greenery with restorative ‘freshness’.

16 66

Image ©: 4 – Bridget Snaith

20 22

64 60

58 59

43 38 8

27 31

62 52

Many participants knew the Lea Valley’s marshes, canals and riverside. They lived nearby and had been taken several times by schools. Only white British participants spoke positively about the area. Others found it dirty, uninteresting and unsafe. 55

These views from a small sample of local residents indicate that nature and green space is not a universal restorative regardless of configuration. They also challenge assumptions that proximity to or familiarity with a natural environment, or even education, will encourage visits if spaces do not provide or promote the experience or quality of facilities desired. Most participants had felt intimidated in parks but the extent to which fear was an inhibitor varied. British Caribbeans were defiant. South Asian participants felt powerless, and concern for safety was a major constraint on their children. Muslim participants in particular felt unhappy about uncontrolled dogs. Many Muslims consider a dog’s nose and mouth to be unclean, and not supposed to touch the body or clothes.

Landscape Summer 2016 29

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‘I know everyone says “It’s alright, he’s friendly.” Yeah but I’m not friendly with it, and the children are scared! Hollow Ponds, there’s just too many dogs. They’re not even on any leads, they just let them loose!’ (Leyton) A lack of regulation of dogs in particular was described as the main reason for avoiding Victoria Park. ‘I hate Victoria Park. It is possibly the worst park for me. There are so many dogs in Victoria Park. If you go there, there are dogs and they aren’t on leads. They’re just running round. I can’t handle it. It’s my worst nightmare. It’s going to hell for me. Victoria Park is like going to hell!’ (Bromley by Bow)

Interviews Space ‘producers’, tended to emphasise technical difficulty, challenges of delivery and funding, and how the finished design had resolved competing needs, for building space and flood risk management for example. There were no doubts among those interviewed about the appeal of the ‘wilder’ ecological spaces of the North Park. Most people, it was felt, would enjoy walking in these beautiful ‘Picturesque’ spaces, looking at wetland, wildflower meadows and space for wildlife. Some questioned whether programmed spaces like the play space and community buildings needed to be added in at all. When I raised the early findings of the park preference survey with designer interviewees, there was surprise at the popularity of the geometric garden and the image of Thames Barrier Park. The South Park’s more active, gardenesque character was proposed as offering spaces more like a St James’s Park, a finding supported in the spatial analysis. Access by dogs was also raised. Dogs have access throughout QEOP, but only on leads. Banning dogs from any of the park space was framed by

30 Landscape Summer 2016

interviewees as unfairly restricting a reasonable use expectation. User counts I made user counts on warm dry days through the spring and summer of 2014, when access by all groups would be at its peak. Ethnic group was not recorded, but I made counts based on whether I considered users likely to claim a white or other ethnicity. The user differences between the wilder North park, and more programmed South park were dramatic, with a better balance in the South park.

5 – The space in the South park is more formally arranged. Many designers consider this unnecessary, but it is popular with a wider range of people.

Conclusion My research concludes that park use varies by ethnicity due to the interaction between social tensions and differing cultural norms, some of which find concrete expression in park space. Park design and management institutionally supports some users’ rights to space at the expense of others, partly by failing to recognise the excluding potential of dominant cultural values. I argue that we can and should encourage greater diversity of use of ‘natural environments’ by engaging honestly with cultural difference, and building diversity into open-space provision. Dr Bridget Snaith is a senior lecturer at UEL. 1. HUNT, A., STEWART, D., BURT, J. & DILLON, J. 2016. Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment: a pilot to develop an indicator of visits to the natural environment by children – Results from years 1 and 2 (March 2013 to February 2015). Natural England Commissioned Reports, Number 208. 2. CABE Space, 2010. Community Green: Using Local Spaces to Tackle Inequality and Improve Health, London: CABE Space. 3. H eritage Lottery Fund, 2012. Visitor Statistics in Support of Lottery Applications under the Urban Parks Programme, London: Unpublished.

Image ©: 5 – Bridget Snaith

Not all incidents with dogs were misunderstandings. Participants described how dogs were used to intimidate them and exert spatial and social dominance. They felt that institutional support for dog-owners rendered them powerless. The disjunction between their lived experiences of chaos, fear and oppression, and the restorative serene green spaces idealised by Muslim participants in the earlier discussion was stark.

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Landscape Summer 2016 31

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Flooding matters

The government is finally starting to take flooding seriously, but hard evidence on the efficacy of catchment management is still needed. BY SUE ILLMAN

t he right amount of water in the right places these days, seems to be an impossible task – as those living in the north of England and Scotland in particular will tell you; however, many parts of the country have experienced flooding in recent years. And whilst the problem of water seems currently to all be about flooding, drought is actually equally high on the agenda within the water industry even in this country. So when we talk about preventing and managing flooding, let’s also not forget the other side of the coin for water management, which is supply, and preventing drought.

HAVING

32 Landscape Summer 2016

These days the flooding panacea isn’t dredging as it was in Somerset, but catchment management. Which is a good thing from my point of view, as I have been promoting an integrated catchment approach to government on behalf of the Institute since 2014. The other change, in the reporting from the Cumbria disaster, has been the lack of blame towards either the Environment Agency or any other organisation. For once, raw nature was seen to be the problem, creating an interest in this broader picture of integrated catchment management that until now has been resisted by government.

1 – A flood in Bradford on Avon. 2 – Central York flooded by the River Ouse in 2012.

Such a potential turnaround is clearly a pleasing change, providing it doesn’t become just a different systematised approach that we can apply anywhere. What we need is a careful and well-thought through understanding of how each landscape and catchment works, what it can realistically deliver in each part of the catchment within a given timescale, that is enabled by buy in from local landowners and residents – alongside better planning, agricultural stewardship, and an understanding of landscape, environmental and cultural factors as well as having funding and legislation to deliver it in practice. 2

To date, government has understood that effective catchment-based approaches can work; it just hasn’t been convinced by the evidence that these schemes can be up-scaled sufficiently to provide significant flood alleviation at the catchment scale. It is a concern for which I have some sympathy, and a question I have posed to a number of researchers specialising in water management over the last few months.

Image ©: 1 – andyfletch 2 – Steve Allen

Trial schemes have been very successful in alleviating flood risks for individual farms and villages, but there are real problems of scale between these and what would be necessary for an entire catchment. Hence why government has so far remained unconvinced that such schemes could significantly lower flood peak downstream at scale. And, they have said they require a detailed and comprehensive evidence base to convince them, before they will effect change. The problem has also been exacerbated by the difficulty of modelling such solutions, as the complexity of the water cycle (the natural variability of rainwater evaporating, infiltrating into the soil or running over the land surfaces) on widely variable agricultural land, has made modelling the exact effect of specific proposals on flood risk very uncertain. Some local schemes have been monitored, but generally the focus and the monitoring have been of other benefits provided by natural flood management methods, such as a reduction in soil erosion, and improvements to biodiversity or water quality rather than impacts on flood risk and management. Flood risk has invariably been a secondary objective – as typified by the Environment Agency’s ‘Catchment Based approach’ (CaBa initiative).

These have been excellent small scale schemes that have been undertaken all around the country, bringing together a wide range of local organisations and people, to co-operate, participate in the decision-making process, and work together to deliver positive change within their catchment. However, just as very few schemes have been undertaken at a large enough scale, so few have been monitored for long enough both before and after implementation to provide sufficiently conclusive evidence of their effectiveness in reducing flood risk – but in recent times it is undoubtedly becoming seen as a potentially effective tool in the kit for providing better water management. However, those issues also have to be seen in a political context. Last year I participated on behalf of the Landscape Institute as expert witness to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment (APPG) Inquiry into Flooding, but unfortunately, the outcomes were only delivered in the dying days of the last government, and had to be refocused for the incoming one. The Lords Select Committee recently looked at the need for a national policy for the built environment and reported earlier this year on a range of changes that could improve the urban environment, including recommendations that were critical of government policy relating to flood risk, SuDS and resilience. Whilst both reports are thorough and worthy documents, with cross-party support, that does not guarantee them having any traction with government. That all has the potential to change now. With the flooding at the turn of the year, government Landscape Summer 2016 33

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has been awash with inquiries into flood management, its application and ways in which it could be effectively or locally delivered. We have Oliver Letwin leading the National Flood Resilience Review which is considering how resilient we are particularly around infrastructure, what would need to change, what policies would be needed, and how accurate our weather forecasting is, amongst other things. Rory Stewart is now designated ‘flooding minister’, and, since his constituency is in Cumbria, is heading the Cumbria Flood Partnership to determine new ways of delivering better catchment management and planning through local engagement and involvement. In this respect the LI is directly involved, being part of a group of professional Institutions and membership organisations who offered to assist by providing a professional review and guidance to the Partnership.

to review the impact of climate change, with a vision much aligned to our own around the need and potential for landscape to play an important role in adaptation. So, the whole subject is now very high profile, and for once likely to stay high up the political agenda – which certainly didn’t happen after the floods subsided in Somerset in 2014. All I can really say is ‘watch this space’ when they report this summer, and remember to watch out for the drought at the same time!

Sue Illman is the Construction Industry Council’s champion for flood mitigation and resilience

3 – Floods can affect large areas of both farmland and housing.

34 Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: 3 – Steve Mann

The EFRA Select Committee is looking at future flood prevention on a broad scale, and at the same time the Environmental Audit Committee is considering government policy and action on flooding, and whether it is ‘joined-up’ across departments. Again we continue to make direct representations to these committees, where our views are received very positively. At the same time, the work of the Adaptation Sub-committee of the Committee for Climate Change continues

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The people problem There is a wealth of data and technical information available on dealing with flooding, not to mention some excellent case studies from around the world. But if we are to make progress we will need to deal with the structure of organisations and government commitment to funding. BY RUTH SLAVID 1

MANY

p eople are suspicious of the government’s interest in privatisation, which seems to be driven by budgetary concerns and ideology. Witness for example, the decision announced in March to make every school an academy. So when a representative of a water company suggests that they should be given more responsibility – in fact that they should take full responsibility for drainage – many of us will have an instant horrified reaction.

production of a paper with engineering giant AECOM entitled ‘Visioning a water-sensitive Yorkshire’. According to AECOM, this ‘has been produced to share the vision with a wider audience and to outline water sensitive design elements that Yorkshire could adopt to enhance water conservation, management of runoff and water quality. It also reaffirms the commitment by key stakeholders to continue to collaborate and place WSUD at the centre of water management strategies’.

This, though, is what Brian Smith, drainage strategy manager at Yorkshire Water, believes and his argument is cogent. If we are to have watersensitive design, then he believes that the water authorities may be the best people to deliver it.

Brian Smith and a colleague also produced a paper in 2014 entitled ‘Evaluating the benefits and risks of water sensitive urban design in the Yorkshire region’. This paper ‘identified opportunities for integrating wastewater networks using dynamic optimally controlled systems to deliver increased water supply security, river quality and environmental improvements.

Through Brian Smith and others, this is an area that Yorkshire Water has looked at seriously. This is evidenced by the fact that he contributed to the

36 Landscape Summer 2016

1 – Flooding on the shore of Buttermere in the Lake District. 2, 3 – Peat bog restoration work being carried out by Yorkshire Water.

‘The three streams of the urban water cycle – potable water, wastewater and storm water, are intricately linked. Different technologies and strategies apply to each stream with several strategies applying to one or more. ‘Opportunities and risks associated with different types of measures which potentially could be applied were linked to relevant parts of the water cycle, demonstrating how multiple policy drivers and life cycle thinking could influence policy integration. 3

‘The study concluded that there were double the number of positives to negatives, with significant opportunity to enhance the benefits of managing water systems and land use in a more coordinated way.’

department of civil and structural engineering at the University of Sheffield, certainly believes this.’ ‘The main issue is that it is not taken seriously, he says. He has been contributing to investigations of reports on flooding since the end of the 1990s, most notable of which have been the Foresight Future Flooding report published at the start of 2004, and the report by Michael Pitt in 2007. Despite evidently being valued for his engineering expertise, the problems that Richard sees are organisational. In particular there is a lack of will on the part of governments, largely he thinks because the issues fall beyond their five-year remit. Dealing with flooding means spending money now to receive possible benefits (because of course you might be lucky and there might not be a flood) in the future.

Image ©: 1 – Kevin Eaves 2, 3 – Yorkshire Water

A lot of what the water companies have to deal with is beyond their control at present. For instance, between 30 and 70 per cent of the flow into compound storage systems comes from highway drainage. There should, Brian believes, be ‘a single responsible body for drainage including SuDS and highways’. Water companies, he argues, ‘have a good understanding of strategic planning, We can raise equity and do finance. We are ideally placed. There would of course need to be of lot of decisions and some changes in legislation.’ Many might feel that this would be an excellent idea – provided that somebody like Brian Smith was in charge. What is not at doubt is that something needs to be done. And it is hard to see how. Richard Ashley, emeritus professor in the

He has seen some changes in attitude, because at least the Environment Agency has begun to address urban drainage – previously seen as outside its remit and the responsibility of individual householders. Now, Richard says, there is an understanding that flooding from backed up drainage can be as serious as river flooding. There are people around the world who are making a better attempt to integrate their approaches. Richard cites Australia and the Netherlands, but neither he says are getting it entirely right. Nevertheless there are lessons to learn, particularly in terms of ‘sweating assets’ in using new infrastructure projects to help with water management as well.

Landscape Summer 2016 37

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So can things get better? The Landscape Institute certainly believes that they can. In March it issued its response to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee inquiry into future flood prevention. Among the points it made were: ‘At present funding arrangements are too disjointed, dealing with flood risk and river and floodplain restoration as if they are for different purposes. A more integrated approach to catchment planning and development would lead to better value for capital investment, for instance through the appraisal and design of multi-benefit schemes which provide year round benefits rather than single use structures which create long-term liabilities. To achieve this will require greater use of landscape planning and design skills and improved cooperation between the various stakeholders involved... ‘Achieving this multifunctional and coordinated approach to land use requires a much better balance of the professional skills related to land use, green infrastructure, landscape planning and landscape design as well as traditional water management skills such as water engineering... ‘The role of upland management in controlling the flow of water downstream in key locations should not be underestimated. These areas are not densely populated and tend to receive high levels of rainfall. Slowing and controlling the

38 Landscape Summer 2016

release of water will help reduce problems at source. Examples of where positive results have already been achieved are in both Wales and Yorkshire where peat bogs have been allowed to re-establish through the stopping-up of drainage ditches, thereby preventing downstream flooding, improving the colour of the water extracted for drinking, providing a substantial carbon sink, and re-establishing peatland habitat. It should be noted that these cheap and effective measures have provided substantial financial benefits for water companies who have funded these works...

4 – From tiny seeds: new sphagnum on a regenerated peat bog.

‘Management that exacerbates flooding includes over-stocking, conversion of grassland to arable crops, plough lines that encourage runoff, removal of hedgerows, copses or trees, loss of soil, and soil compaction. At the same time, too many aquifers and watercourses are being polluted through the migration of applied chemicals including nitrates. A new contract with the farming industry is needed to both manage water and to secure water quality and water supply through public intervention systems... ‘It is clear that Government must offer its full support for SuDS in all new development and that it is now imperative that Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act (2010) is implemented in full. New development should also include the redevelopment of brownfield land, as many of these sites are substantial, and would otherwise fall within the original criteria of “major development”. The requirement just for an agreed level of “betterment” is both insufficient, and misses a significant opportunity to improve water management within the urban environment. It is clear from CIRIA’s newly published SuDS manual that “difficult” sites, such as brownfield land and contaminated land, are equally capable of utilising SuDS, if designed appropriately, and many brownfield sites are not contaminated. Therefore the same standards must apply.’ Better technical knowledge is always welcome, but in terms of dealing with flooding it is clear that it is the organisational and funding problems that need sorting out. Could there finally be an impetus to do this? Let’s hope so.

Image ©: 4 – Yorkshire Water

And we need to think about this financially he says. ‘All landscape is valuable. All space is valuable. Being hard-nosed we can put natural capital and ecosystems services values on this. I resisted for years but gave in. The numbers are rubbish but decision makers only listen to money.’

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Landscape Summer 2016 39

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Fighting spirit The town of Pickering worked out its own approach to tackling and preventing flooding, with some help from outside experts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and even medieval monks. BY RUTH SLAVID

40 Landscape Summer 2016

1 – Pickering suffered a number of floods which caused severe damage and disruption.

floods hit the north of England at the end of last year, one town that was relatively unscathed was the old market town of Pickering in the North Yorkshire district of Ryedale. Although water came into the town it was not enough to flood any properties – in contrast for example with the catastrophic floods of 2000. This was largely thanks (although one national newspaper blogger was sceptical) to the efforts taken by the town and particularly by the civic society, and especially by one man, Mike Potter.

WHEN

Image ©: 1 – Pickering & District Civic Society

He describes himself as ‘non expert and non qualified’ but by the end of the project he knew enough to be asked to talk at several conferences. Phrases such as ‘leaky dam’, ‘bund’ and ‘catchment area’ trip off his tongue – and that is not surprising. We hear a lot about the rise in and necessity for volunteering, but to most people that means a couple of hours a month. In Mike Potter’s case it was (‘conservatively’ he says) a matter of 10 hours a week for five years. But it was not just one man’s passion that made Pickering a success. It was also that he and others in the town brought together local knowledge, and that there was excellent cooperation between the agencies involved. This was made easier by the fact that the catchment area for Pickering is relatively small and local, so the number of organisations involved was restricted. In addition the project benefitted from some research funding, and intelligent use of grants. Landscape Summer 2016 41

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To defend the town it would have been necessary to build very high walls, which would have virtually destroyed its links with the river and would also have caused problems both upstream and downstream. In any case, after a large report from the Environment Agency and considerable amendments, a revised scheme was produced that was costed at £7 million – far more than could be justified on a cost-benefit basis.

Nevertheless, although the solution Pickering adopted, which was largely of natural flood management, would not translate directly to another location, the approach and the lessons learned are worth disseminating more widely. The story begins after the floods of 2000 that hit much of the north of England, including Pickering. There were hastily designed flood defences for several towns in the region again, including Pickering. But in the case of Pickering, there was considerable opposition. This is partly to do with position. The Pickering Beck, which feeds into the River Derwent, is in a deep gorge and is near to the catchment area. As a result it is, says Mike Potter ‘very flashy’. That is, it rises fast and falls equally fast, often within a day.

42 Landscape Summer 2016

It was at this point, with the town at continued risk of flooding and no obvious solution, that Pickering & District Civic Society became involved, and with it Mike Potter, a relative newcomer to the area, having moved there in 1998. The first move was to look back – a long way back. ‘The monks at the nearby Byland Abbey had built leaking dams across the valley,’ Mike said. ‘We thought this could be done above us.’ There were two other, unrelated events. Really serious floods hit the town in 2007 – so serious that they would have overtopped the earlier planned defences, had they been built. At much the same time, academics working on a joint project involving Oxford, Durham and Newcastle universities approached the town to take part. A mix of physical scientists and social scientists, they were looking at how a community in which there was quite a lot of conflict could come together to solve problems. Led by Dr Sarah Whatmore in Oxford’s school of geography, the project was called ‘Slowing the flow in Pickering’. ‘We worked with them for a year and learnt about flooding,’ Mike said. ‘I don’t like bullshitters. This was an ideal opportunity to work with experts.’ A flood modeller worked on the proposed solutions. The result was a mix of natural flood management, largely funded by the Forestry Commission, and the construction of a bund about one and a half miles upstream of the town. These were designed to resist a one in 25 year flood. This was as far as the money would stretch and means the town is still vulnerable to the worst flooding. But, Mike said, ‘an affordable 1:25 scheme will protect from numerous small events – still vital for the more vulnerable properties.’

Image ©: 2, 3 – Pickering & District Civic Society

2,3 – The bund allows normal flows to pass through but at times of flooding the water backs up and runs into the surrounding fields. 4, 5, 6 – Construction of the bund was a major engineering undertaking.

Image ©: 4, 5, 6 – Pickering & District Civic Society

Landscape Summer 2016 43

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7 –The Pickering Beck is ‘flashy’, rising and falling fast. 8, 9, 10 – Debris dams in the forest slow the flow of water.

44 Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: 7, 8, 9, 10 – Pickering & District Civic Society

11 – The branches that make up the dams allow a certain amount of flow to pass through. 12, 13 – The aim is to stop the catastrophic flooding that has hit the town several times this century.

The natural flood management was mostly on Forestry Commission land. It consisted of building debris dams, mostly from tree branches, that would slow the flow of water through without holding it back so completely that they would be overtopped violently or ripped away. A lot of the moorland drainage has been reversed, either by ripping out drains or by blocking drainage channels with heather bales. There has been replanting of heather wherever possible. And in some of the valleys trees have been planted. These, Mike said, have been shown to slow down flow. The difficult is finding land in the right ownership that will allow the planting to take place. The overall aim of all this work was to increase the storage capacity of the ground by reducing drainage, increasing plant cover, preventing peat drying out, holding back some water and preventing it rushing down slopes and gouging channels. In some areas, for example around Hebden Bridge, establishing this kind of regime is difficult, Mike said, because the land is used to raise sheep and grouse, both of which benefit from good drainage.

Image ©: 11, 12,13 – Pickering & District Civic Society

These natural flood management measures probably provided around 10 per cent of the storage that was needed to prevent a one in 25 year flood. The rest of it came from the bund. This is effectively a dam with a culvert cut through it. In normal times the water flows through the culvert, but when the flow is extra heavy the water backs up behind the dam and floods the adjacent fields rather than rushing down into the town. The cost of all this was around £2.1 to £2.5 million with the funding coming from a variety of sources, including the local council, Defra and the ‘slowing the flow’ project. The Forestry Commission paid for most of the natural flood management work. Mike Potter pointed out that for a town like Pickering, with a population of 7,000 not all of whom would be affected by flooding, the Environment Agency’s cost benefit analysis would never work without some special funding from elsewhere.

Landscape Summer 2016 45

Feature

He is full of praise for the people within agencies who really ‘got it’ and made working together not only possible but pleasurable. There was also work to do in the town itself and below the town, clearing channels including some dredging to ensure that the water can flow fast out of the town – before of course being slowed again in advance of the next town.

Jeremy Biggs wrote in the Guardian on 7 January that ‘Working with nature didn’t save Pickering from the floods – it just didn’t rain much.’ His point was that the rainfall in December overall was low for the area. But Mike Potter argues that because the river is so flashy, a brief storm raised the levels significantly. He saw this on a gauge, and he saw some additional water get into the town. Without the flood measures, he is confident that there would have been significant flooding, as there had been several times over the past decade.

14, 15 – The defence system in Pickering should prevent one in 25 year floods, so canoeing will be restricted in future.

I think I would rather trust a local, especially an ‘amateur’ with as much knowledge, dedication and fighting spirit as Mike Potter has.

46 Landscape Summer 2016

Image ©: 14, 15 – Pickering & District Civic Society

One potential problem with this approach is that there may be some flooding of outlying properties, actually built on the floodplain, but Mike has little sympathy in the longer term. ‘The flood plain is part of the river,’ he says. We have got to list the cost benefits of building on the flood plain. Those benefits are all up front – and the costs are all downstream. The benefits are private and the costs are social. Any property newly built within the footprint of a 1:200 flood event should be built to be flood resilient (solid floors, high electrics etc). I have suggested to my MP that this should be a national standard and included in building regs. I’m not holding my breath. Owners of existing properties within the 1:200 year flood event zone should be made aware of this fact and should seriously consider flood resilience measures, particularly during any renovation work. Perhaps this could be partially grant funded?’

Landscape Summer 2016 47

Feature

Living on water We should look to the Dutch to make living on the water more prevalent – if we can just overcome our bureaucratic and financial barriers. BY ELEANOR TRENFIELD 1

r esilience and understanding how to work with nature in development are key to the future of development in the UK. A recent video series by The Architectural Review titled ‘Architecture + Water’ discusses London’s waterways within this context: the challenges regarding flood resilience faced by London’s waterways and its inhabitants, and the opportunities that rivers present if we see water as an asset rather than a barrier.

FLOOD

My husband and I are among the many who have sacrificed living in London for more space, a garden, and a place that we can afford. If I could have my pick of locations, I would live somewhere along the River Thames. Not on the 34th floor of one of the many recent developments along its banks; but a place that would allow me to feel more connected to the river and its tides. For my husband, an architect, and myself, a landscape architect, this lack of alternative, affordable living options in London spurred our interest in the potential provided by London’s waterways and the possibilities for what form such development might take. 48 Landscape Summer 2016

A few years ago the Evening Standard published an article about floating homes and living on the water. For a fifth of the price of a studio apartment in Canary Wharf, we could have a floating home of a comparable size within one of the marinas in London. Our floating home would not necessarily be a boat or even look like a boat; it would be more akin to a contemporary studio: a minimum of 4.5m x 9m (the equivalent of a studio apartment in London), fully serviced with plumbing and electrical connections, clad in something durable like black powder-coated steel, and with a glazed facade onto a sunny courtyard garden from where we can observe and be part of life on the river. My research into floating homes highlighted a current lack of support for this kind of development within London. Mortgages are not easy to find for floating homes: there are a few companies that offer 14 year loans for floating homes, and require a deposit of around 30%. Their APRs are higher than standard mortgages, and the shorter term of the loan would result in comparatively higher monthly payments than a standard mortgage.

1 – IJburg in the Netherlands has a district of floating homes. 2 – There are already houseboats on the Thames but moorings are in short supply. 3 – IJburg has properly planned and serviced ‘streets’ between the floating homes.

There is also a shortage of available moorings: I could not find a mooring for sale in central London, and while there are moorings which can be leased, the leasing arrangements vary as many are privately owned. The Canal and River Trust controls the licences for moorings on the canals within London and the non-tidal part of the River Thames (from its source to Teddington Lock). East of Teddington Lock, the River Thames becomes tidal and licences are controlled by the Port of London Authority (called ‘River Works Licences’). The Port of London Authority’s remit is to maintain safe passage of the river, enhance the environment and promote the use of the river for trade and travel. Note, there is no reference to using the river for residential occupation.

As an example, in Poplar Marina near Canary Wharf, the lease of a mooring from BWML, which owns the marina, is around £7000 per year (residents would also need to pay Council Tax and electricity bills). However there is a substantial waiting list, and only about one in every ten moorings is likely to come up for lease each year. At South Dock Marina, Southwark, there are 650 people on the waiting list for a residential mooring. A water district Judging by these waiting lists, there is clearly a market for new moorings. IJburg, a neighbourhood in Amsterdam which is formed of man-made islands, is an interesting case study. Waterbuurt (or Water District), within IJburg, includes a community of approximately 95 moorings in a marina. Of these moorings, 55 are uniform floating homes, each of three storeys, designed by architect Marlies Rohmer, and the remaining are occupied by an eclectic mix of individual floating homes, each two or three storeys, offering visual richness to the scheme.

Image ©: 1 – mediagram 2 – godrick 3 – Rosie Lewis/ Barton Willmore

The jetties/walkways designed by Rohmer give the impression of narrow pedestrian streets. Lighting is incorporated into the railings and services (water, electrics, waste) are attached to the underside of the walkways, plugging into each property within the development. Two steel mooring poles on each property keep the houses fixed to the jetties and allow the houses to move up and down with the water level. The Dutch model of community self-build is also popular within IJburg. Within this model, local authorities take a proactive approach to development by identifying land parcels and supporting local communities in building their own homes, within a set of fixed parameters and rules. It is this strategic, coordinated approach to development which is lacking on the Thames by the Port of London Authority and the various local authorities, including, until recently, no clear structure of fees for River Works Licences. The development of floating homes would be a great opportunity for these authorities to explore a proactive, communal, self-build model evidenced by IJburg, one which references the eccentric and rich mix of vessels present in UK harbours and marinas.

Landscape Summer 2016 49

Feature

A wider reach Potential locations for floating homes could include much more than just river banks and marinas, and have the benefit of touching the ground lightly and being reversible. They could be located on floodplains and challenging locations where the standard development model would not be appropriate, allowing new areas for development whilst maintaining the important water-storage function of the land. With rising house prices and increasing flood risk, this is an option that could work with nature and provide a lower-cost property type which is aligned with build cost rather than ever increasing land values. Floating homes offer a potential solution to a much wider housing need in areas far beyond London and the River Thames.

4 – Photographer Jim Naughten lives on a boat near Kew Bridge in London. 5 – It doesn’t have to be overplanned some of the more eclectic floating housing in IJburg.

His boat adjoins the site for the new Watermans Park Marina, proposed by Hounslow Council and currently occupied by illegally moored boats. Proposals include moorings for 26 vessels up to 30m in length, set out in a saw-tooth fashion to reduce the extent of the encroachment of the boats on the waterway and also to take full advantage of the views up / down the river. The tidal changes would be addressed in a similar way to the floating homes in IJburg, with additional proposals for a webbing system below the boats to offer support for the further varying tidal levels of the Thames. Whilst it is evident that the proposal for Watermans Park Marina resulted from the need to address the degradation of the riverside and illegal moorings in this location, Hounslow Council is taking a proactive approach to development of this nature, a positive step towards coordinated development on the river.

50 Landscape Summer 2016

To create the infrastructure required, the concept needs political will and investment. It needs developers who are willing to commit to the infrastructure and lifestyle, local authorities and waterways authorities that will collaborate to create new policy and new communities, mortgage lenders who are happy to widen their portfolios, and most of all, residents who are open to an alternative to traditional bricks and mortar. Rivers, waterways and floodplains have huge potential to accommodate growth in a way that is sensitive to the environment, to offer creativity in design and to establish engaged communities, and we need to see them as the assets that they are. While our dream of a floating home is not yet an affordable option, for my husband and I the quality of living on the water, of being connected to nature in this way, is very valuable.

An artist’s impression Jim Naughten is a photographer who lives on a boat near Kew Bridge and owns his own mooring and adjacent land on the river bank which accommodates parking, storage and a grassy courtyard. His boat has a large retractable glazed roof over a studio space, the light and airiness of which contrasts beautifully with a dark wood-panelled living room which houses a glowing log burner.

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52 Landscape Summer 2016

Technical By Paul Shaffer

SuDS come up to date CIRIA’s new SuDS Manual deals with creating better places and spaces, managing floods and delivering multiple benefits

1 – Good SuDS schemes provide amenity as well as water management.

he new SuDS Manual, launched at the House of Commons in November 2015, is the most comprehensive sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) guidance available in the UK. It is more of a re-write than a simple update to the first SuDS Manual (C697) that was published by CIRIA back in 2007. At over 900 pages, two years in the making and with a collaborative project team incorporating more than 70 experts in various advisory capacities, the publication marks a step-change in progress not just for those involved, but also for the wider community that will undoubtedly benefit from this new guidance, including landscape architects, engineers, planners, designers and developers. Back in 2007 information on SuDS was sparse, spread across multiple publications and not widely applied in the UK. Things have moved on a great deal since then and SuDS implementation in the UK has significantly increased, as has the technical knowledge and the number of case studies that can be drawn on. This has been further supported by a Government announcement in early

2015 that it expects that sustainable drainage systems will be provided in new major developments ‘wherever this is appropriate’. Although the true impact of the policy, remains yet to be seen! For those not familiar with SuDS, sustainable drainage systems slow the rate of surface water run-off and improve infiltration, by mimicking natural drainage. This reduces the risk of ‘flash-flooding’ which occurs

when rainwater rapidly flows into the public sewerage and drainage systems. As those closely involved will tell you though, it is not just about managing floods through controlling surface water flows and volumes. SuDS also contribute to improving water quality, local amenity, and habitats for increased biodiversity as well as improving health and wellbeing and air quality. So what has changed in the new

Landscape Summer 2016 53

Technical

54 Landscape Summer 2016

The four pillars of SuDS design

Control the quantity of runoff to • support the management of flood risk, and • maintain and protect the natural water cycle

Water Quantity

Manage the quality of the runoff to prevent pollution

2 – A rain garden at Derbyshire Street in east London, designed by Greysmith Associates.

Water Qualaity

SuDS Design Amenity

Create and sustain better places for people

deliver multiple benefits and BeST provides a structured approach to evaluating a range of wider benefits, often based upon the overall drainage scheme. When evaluating SuDS the cost is only one side of the equation, and to make an informed decision an understanding of other benefits needs to be realised and compared to the likely cost – in other words viability

Biodiversity

Create and sustain better places for nature

and an economic justification for SuDS needs to articulate more than just costs, by presenting and valuing the multiple benefits. The entire manual should be of interest to the landscape profession depending on what level of master planning, design and construction they are involved in. The early part of the manual provides an overall philosophy of SuDSm recognising that the types of benefit that can be achieved by SuDS will be site dependent. The manual considers four categories: water quantity, water quality, amenity and biodiversity, also referred to as the four pillars of SuDS design. Each pillar has a design objective and associated criteria. The early chapters lead the designer into increasing detail from the application of the philosophy, through to the technical detail and good practice. Chapters on biodiversity and amenity will be of particular interest to landscape professionals; both include detailed information on design criteria and example indicators to maximise the value of SuDS for both

manual and why should this matter to landscape professionals? The short answer is that the new SuDS Manual (again, published by CIRIA) not only updates the extensive technical information; there is also new guidance to improve the design approach including sections on designing SuDS for urban areas, roads and highways, biodiversity, amenity, and overcoming challenges with specific site conditions. Information on SuDS components has also been updated with additional information on using trees to manage surface water runoff. The overriding message from the manual is that through effective and early engagement SuDS can be delivered on any site and the best schemes are likely to be delivered by interdisciplinary teams. The new manual suggests that SuDS isn’t just for engineers, it’s also a design process recognising the role of different disciplines, encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to SuDS design (particularly between landscape architects and drainage engineers). The SuDS Manual stresses that surface waters should be used as an asset and viewed as an opportunity to deliver multiple benefits for schemes. The manual’s revision complements CIRIA’s BeST (Benefits of SuDS tool) project – aimed at strengthening the business case for SuDS. As previously hinted, SuDS can cost-effectively

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the development and the wider community. Further chapters examine how and when to apply these criteria. The SuDS Manual is primarily aimed at UK applications, though it will be of interest to all engaged in sustainable drainage work globally. It recognises the need for better information and engagement for those involved in the development process and it is structured in a way that allows easy access and navigation, whether that is for high level appreciation of the concepts only, or for detailed design guidance. The SuDS Manual (C753) can be downloaded for free from the CIRIA website (www.CIRIA.org) (where printed versions can also be purchased) and further information on both SuDS and BeST can be found on the susdrain website (www.susdrain.org).

3 – The ponds at Rathbone Market in east London are part of a balanced SuDS approach.

Amenity design criteria and example indicators as featured in Chapter 5: Designing for Amenity

Example indicators

1. Maximise multi-functionality

The number, variety and quality of additional and multi-functional uses for SuDS, such as recreational areas, car parking or traffic management

2. Enhance visual character

The proportion of the drainage system that is designed to be visually attractive, adds visual value to the development, supports local heritage and landscape character and integrates appropriately with the surrounding area

3. Deliver safe surface water management systems

The consideration of public safety within the design of each SuDS component (related to the “use” of the system as an amenity feature)

4. Support development resilience/ adaptability to future change

The proportion of the drainage system that is designed with an allowance for future climate change or development change The proportion of the drainage system that will contribute to the development’s climate resilience, such as reducing the heating/cooling needs of buildings or through shade provision

5. Maximise legibility

The proportion of the system that is visible

6. Support community environmental learning

The extent of community awareness strategies, school involvement, community education strategies, visitor provision etc

Amenity design criteria

Landscape Summer 2016 57

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Practice By Michelle Bolger

Expert Witness Knowing your subject is essential if you are to be a success as an expert witness – but there are other things you need to understand as well.

h en choosing landscape architecture as a career few people are aware that landscape architects act as expert witnesses. Yet is it an area of work with which a significant number of landscape architects, mostly those working within landscape planning, are involved. It is work that requires a range of skills, including good report writing, thinking on your feet and composure under cross examination, that are not always demanded by landscape architecture. Although some people find the prospect daunting for those of us who enjoy it, expert witness work is challenging, exciting and rewarding. In the following pages, I set out some of the information that may assist those considering working as an expert witness. Understanding the basics What is an expert witness? An expert witness is a professional who has acquired sufficient expertise that their opinion can be relied on by a public body. Expert landscape witnesses are concerned with the planning process. How do you become an expert witness? Most landscape architects’ first experience as an expert witness comes when a scheme that they have been working on at the planning application stage is refused by the Local Planning Authority (LPA). If the applicant decides to appeal the decision, the landscape architect is called upon to give evidence about the scheme and the effects of the scheme on the

landscape and on visual amenity. The applicant now becomes the appellant. The LPAs will also need an expert landscape witnesses to defend their reasons for refusal. Who is the appellant appealing to? Most planning decisions are initially taken by the LPA which issues a decision notice setting out the reasons why it has refused the application. The appeal, which is made to the Secretary of State (SoS) for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), is asking for the decision to be reversed and the planning application to be approved. DCLG has delegated its powers to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) which appoints a Planning Inspector to look at the facts and reach an independent decision. Expert witnesses help the Inspector by providing their expert opinion which is known as ‘evidence’. Types of appeals Appeals can be heard by written representations, by a Hearing or at a Public Inquiry. For Written Representations only written evidence is required which is submitted by the appellant and the LPA to PINS. A Planning Inspector reviews all the evidence, makes a site visit and issues a written decision.

elucidation. Hearings are meant to be suitable for less complex appeals. Neither advocacy nor cross examination is allowed. A Public Inquiry is the most formal of the appeal procedures, and usually involves larger or more complicated appeals. Expert evidence is presented, and witnesses are cross-examined. Why Public? The public in public inquiry means that all the evidence submitted is available to the public. They can hear what the experts are saying, put forward their own views and question the experts. The Script The evidence is exchanged four weeks before the start of the Inquiry. In addition to the written document, known as a Proof of Evidence, plans

An expert should provide a well-reasoned analysis which can withstand scrutiny at a public inquiry whilst at the same time taking a realistic/pragmatic approach Anne Williams, Barrister, 6 Pump Court

A Hearing is an inquisitorial process led by the Inspector who identifies the issues for discussion based on the evidence received and any representations made. The Inspector’s questions may be fact checking or Landscape Summer 2016 59

Practice

and photographs and other supporting documents are submitted as Appendices. PINS provides guidance on how evidence should be presented in Guide to taking part in planning, listed building and conservation area consent appeals proceeding by an inquiry – England http://bit.ly/1RLmY6e If your proof of evidence is longer than 15,000 words, a Summary Proof of about 1,500 words is also required. Summary proofs often don’t get the attention they deserve. They are read out so it’s very important that a Summary Proof is written in a style that can be read easily. It should put

forward the bones of your argument – that is your reasoned justification for the opinion that you are giving the Inspector. The back-up, the detailed evidence on which you are basing your opinion, should be in your main Proof of Evidence. The Cast The diagram below provides the cast list for the inquiry. The LPA and the Appellant are the first two parties to the inquiry and anyone else can make themselves a third party, also called Rule 6 parties. Landscape architects often get involved with local action groups who generally

Secretary of State (S0S) Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Currently Greg Clarke Planning Inspectorate (PINS) based at Temple Quay, Bristol

The Inspector

LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITY (LPA)

APPELLANT

Advocate for the LPA (usually a barristaer)

Advocate for the Appellant (usually a barrister)

LPA’s Solicitor (usually only at larger inquiries)

Appellant’s Solicitor

Planning Witness for LPA (may be the case officer)

Planning Witness for Appellant

Other Expert Witnesses for LPA eg: Landscape Ecology Transport Hydrology

Other Expert Witnesses for Appellant eg: Landscape Ecology Transport Hydrology

Third Parties (rule 6) may have an advocate and expert witnesses or may be laypeople, usually local residents

Members of the Public

60 Landscape Summer 2016

hold strong views about their local landscapes. Each of the parties has an advocate who puts their case to the Inspector. LPAs and Appellants generally use barristers to do this. QCs (Queen’s Counsel) are the most senior barristers but all are generally described as Counsel. It is the role of Counsel to put forward their client’s case to the best of their ability even if they have privately told their client that their chances of winning are slim. In contrast an expert witness is there to help the Inspector and must offer only their honest professional opinion. The Inquiry At the inquiry, each expert witness puts forward their evidence. This generally consists of reading out your summary proof and answering questions from your own Counsel, called Examination in Chief. Unlike in criminal cases, it is quite acceptable to have rehearsed these questions in advance. This is your opportunity to get the Inspector to see the landscape and the proposed development through your eyes. Make sure you are talking to the Inspector and keep an eye out that s/he has found the right photograph or plan before you start explaining what it shows. After Examination in Chief, Counsel from the other side will cross-examine you. It is usually the case that the other side has also employed a landscape architect who has come to a different conclusion from you. During the cross examination, the other side’s Counsel will try to persuade you that you are wrong and their landscape architect is right. This might involve finding holes in your evidence or pointing to issues that you have not considered. It is rare these days, but not unknown, that the other side’s Counsel will try to denigrate your professionalism. Having the appropriate professional qualifications is essential.

1– At the inquiry, each expert witness puts forward their case.

After the cross examination, the Inspector may have some questions to ask you. Some Inspectors don’t wait until the end and ask questions as issues come up. The Inspector’s questions are some of the most important questions you will be asked. Unlike those from the opposing Counsel they are not intended to trip you up or make a point. The Inspector genuinely wants to know the answer because it may be important in order to reach a decision. Make sure you think carefully and answer clearly.

application stage, either for an applicant or a LPA, you should do the work with as much care as if it were an appeal. There is nothing more harmful to the case, or to the reputation of a landscape witness, than changes of mind between the planning application and the appeal. There is nothing more likely to lose you a client as well. 3. Be prepared At every stage you must be prepared, know your evidence and everyone else’s. Preparing your Evidence

Golden rules 1. Tell the truth It is your duty to the inquiry to tell the truth and that excludes being economical with the truth.Telling the truth is not just matter of fact but also of opinion. You are being asked to give evidence because your professional opinion is considered reliable. 2. Start early (when you can) If you are involved at the planning

Identify what matters and why Landscape proofs of evidence are sometimes very strong on the detail of the assessment whilst failing to draw clear conclusions. Make sure your evidence identifies what matters and why. Use reasoned arguments There is always a degree of subjectivity to landscape evidence. You must be able to back up your opinion with a

reasoned argument supported by independent evidence that explains why you have reached your conclusions. All opinions are not equally valid; in the end the Inspector must decide which opinion to believe. Good English is essential This is not just a question of punctuation and grammar. A reasoned argument cannot be presented in paragraphs of one sentence. Cross reference everything and everywhere Make cross-references to your plans, figures and photographs throughout your evidence including your summary proof. This may appear repetitive but will help you find the figure / photograph you need when you are in the inquiry room. A good Summary Proof is invaluable Don’t leave your Summary Proof to the last minute The Summary Proof is a good place to set out what matters and why without the detail. Landscape Summer 2016 61

Practice

Before you take the decision to go to an inquiry that is to be complex, packed full of expensive experts and vexatious amateurs what you really want is a genuine expert to advise you of the good and bad so you have your eyes wide open. When you finally get to such an inquiry you expect no surprises or changes from your expert and that they are as knowledgeable, credible, professional, confident and compelling under cross examination as they were when you first sought their advice. Tim Sargeant CEO City & Country

Read all the evidence of your own side at least once This may seem onerous but it is vital that you know what the other members of your team are saying in case it conflicts with what you say. There is nothing opposing Counsel like better than to find inconsistences between witnesses on the same side. You are the Expert Witness On big projects you will have a team to support you and help prepare the evidence but it is your evidence and must be written by you. You must have done sufficient site work to understand the landscape and the issues. Know your own evidence Make sure you know your own evidence thoroughly and can find key passages quickly. Organise your files Use whatever method suits you best to make sure you can put your hand on a reference in a document immediately if you want to refer to it.

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Sticky notes are very popular. Nothing makes you feel worse than searching madly to find the quote that you are sure would answer the question conclusively if only you could find it.

Take your time If, despite all your preparations, you are having difficulty finding something don’t be rushed into giving up. Take your time – everyone will wait for you.

At the Inquiry

On balance

You are the expert landscape architect Counsel on the other side may be much smarter than you are but they are not a landscape architect. If you can convince the Inspector that you really understand your field of expertise s/he will be much more inclined to believe your opinion.

Some landscape witnesses end their evidence with the statement ‘Therefore I respectfully ask the Inspector to allow / refuse this appeal’. I consider that this should only be found in the evidence of the planning witness.

Answer the question When being cross examined always answer the question first and then go on to qualify your answer if necessary. Inspectors get very cross with witnesses who won’t answer the question. Focus on the issue Focus on the issue you are being asked about and don’t stray off the point. Watch the Inspector, if s/he has stopped writing you should stop speaking. Help the Inspector Remember your role is to help the Inspector. If you can persuade the Inspector to see the landscape through your eyes you will also be helping your client. The Inspector should be the focus of your attention and not the other side’s Counsel. Defend your position (but not if it’s indefensible) You need to have all your reasoned arguments to hand to defend your position and your client will expect you to stick to your evidence. However, if it becomes apparent that there is something you have overlooked it is far better to accept it and move on than to try and defend an indefensible position.

Planning decisions are a question of balance – balancing whether the benefits of a proposal are sufficient to outweigh the harm. This is not an easy task as the benefits and the harm are often very different (e.g. the benefits of new houses v harm to the landscape). As landscape experts we are identifying the weight that the Inspector should give to the harms and benefits to the landscape when s/he undertakes the balancing act. We are not undertaking that act ourselves.

Michelle Bolger runs Michelle Bolger Expert Landscape Consultancy

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Culture By Maisie Rowe

Bring back play A recent exhibition highlights how much our attitudes to play have changed – and largely not for the better.

‘H

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1 – The Playground Project exhibition. 2 – Play sculpture at Humlegården, Stockholm, 1949, by Egon Møller-Nielsen, Tufsen.

century social project. The design of playgrounds took on artistic and social importance: ‘If childhood is a journey, let us see to it the child does not travel by night’, said Aldo van Eyck, who designed around 730 playgrounds for the city of Amsterdam. But despite being described as ‘The Century of the Child’, the twentieth century was not kind to children. Conflict and upheaval devastated childhoods and, while the enlightened pedagogues sought to nurture the innate creativity and spirit of each child, cities blindly privileged the motorcar over the child and sacrificed open space to bricks and concrete. So playground design was always going to be contentious. From early on, it was beset by a tension between mass delivery of practical municipal play facilities and provision that emphasised deep play and contact with nature. Some of the earliest

playgrounds were severe, gymnasiumlike spaces provided by reformers and philanthropists to engage slum urchins in purposeful activity, once they were liberated by reform from factory labour. By contrast, the progressive designer C. Th. Sørensen spent time watching how children, left to their own devices, played on waste ground, building dens and damming streams. Sørensen’s collaborator was Hans Dragehjelm, ‘the father of the sand-box’. They drew inspiration from the German idea of sand play; in Berlin, in the 1850s, huge piles of sand, called sand bergs, had been provided for children to play with. Dragehjelm set up Copenhagen’s first sand playground but Sørensen took the idea further, says Burkhalter: ‘Sørensen made even more room for the creative moment: the children were given materials and tools to build their own worlds.’ Of his ‘junk

ardly any other modern concept had a more farreaching and enduring influence than the Skrammellegeplads’, says Gabriela Burkhalter. She is talking about the ‘junk playgrounds’, which were conceived in Denmark by the landscape architect Theodor Sorensen in the 1940s. Burkhalter is curator of an excellent recent exhibition, The Playground Project, held at the Kunsthalle, Zurich, which reviews a hundred years of playground design through pictures, books and full-size play installations. Her exhibition contained much to inspire the landscape architect, not least by reminding us what design looked like when it was rooted in theories of human development and the belief that play is a right of the child. Freidrich Froebel, inventor of the kindergarten, wrote: ‘Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.’ Froebel, Jean Piaget and Maria Montessori were just some of the key figures in a discourse that, by recognising childhood as central to human experience, would put children at the heart of the twentieth-

3 – Notting Hill Adventure Playground, photographed in about 1959. 4 – The show contained a mix of physical exhibits and archive photography.

playground’, established at Emdrup in Copenhagen in 1943, Sørensen said: ‘They (the children) can dream and imagine and make dreams and imagination reality... It is so obvious that the children thrive here and feel well, they unfold and they live.’ An English landscape architect, Lady Allen of Hurtwood, chanced on Sørensen’s project while on a British Council lecture tour through occupied Europe. Lady Allen came from the class of eccentric, posh-butpenniless bohemians. Enamoured of nature, she spotted that these gloriously chaotic environments – with their dens, ropes, bonfires, gardens and animals – offered urban children freedom, self-expression and an outdoor life. She wrote: ‘In a flash of understanding I realised that I was looking at something quite new and full of possibilities... There was a wealth of waste material... and no man-made fixtures. The children could dig, build houses, experiment

with sand, water or fire, and play games of adventure and make-believe.’ Adopting a rallying-cry of ‘Better a broken arm than a broken spirit!’ she reinvented Sørensen’s Skrammellegeplads as ‘adventure playgrounds’. Continental adventure play-

grounds are relatively orderly affairs. Small groups of children work assigned plots of land; at Kolle 37 playground in Berlin, children to this day are given 20 nails per session to work with, which they use, re-use or barter. Britain’s adventure playgrounds developed a more anarchic

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and squalid character – photographs of Clydesdale Road Adventure Playground in the 1950s show children revelling in daubed paint and old sofas – while our playwork practice evolved into a highly-skilled (but under-valued) profession. Sørensen was aware of this contradiction: ‘Of all the things I have helped to realise, the Junk Playground is the ugliest; yet for me it is the best and most beautiful of my works’. It is curious that this most significant of contributions to landscape architecture should be a sort of

anti-design; produced by childbuilders with the minimum of involvement by the professionalised adult designer, without aesthetic consideration. While it is difficult to escape the sense that playground design today has become formulaic, the Playground Project exhibition reminds us that it need be anything but that by describing a wealth of innovative sculptural forms, derived from an array of design practices. The play sculptures of Josef Schagerl and Egon Møller-Nielsen ‘combined the

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5 – Group Ludic’s spheres on stilts at Hérouville-SaintClair, France, 1969. 6 – Michael Grossert’s schoolyard at Aumatten, Switzerland, originally built in 1967 and restored in 2010. 7 – The Go Ape centres offer a great experience but not free play. 8 – Kidzania tries to give children a taste of adult working life.

into the fabric of the city of Amsterdam between 1947 and 1978, combining playground design with a form of place-making. And so to the present day, where we face growing evidence that children are spending less and less time playing outdoors. The phenomenon is variously ascribed to parental fears, stranger danger, perilous roads, over-structured leisure time and electronic games;

autonomy-based language of modern sculpture with the goals of play and functionality’, according to Burkhalter. Their underlying anti-elitism aimed to encourage public acceptance of abstract art. In America, Joseph Brown, who was a boxer, sculptor and teacher of architecture, experimented with kinetic works like Jiggle Rail and Swing Ring, while Paul Friedberg and Richard Dattner made the playground itself into an abstract sculptural composition. Their landforms invited children to hide, clamber and interact, but designed out parental hovering. In Italy and France, the radical spirit of ’68 informed the experimental practices of Riccardo Dalisi, Palle Nielsen and Group Ludic, whose spaces were tools of political engagement and subversion. And the architect Aldo van Eyck earned himself a special place in playground design heaven by inserting more than 700 playgrounds

9 – Joseph Schagerl 3-Flügel-Rutsche, Schrankenberg, Vienna, constructed in 1963. 10 – Playground at Chisenhale Primary School.

the costs are commonly named as childhood obesity, poor mental health, disconnection from nature and the breakdown of community. While the true nature and effects of this crisis – if indeed such a crisis exists – are up for debate, negativity surrounding the question of children’s play is leading to a reconsideration of what constitutes a playground. One expression of this is the proliferation of adult-controlled monetised play experiences. At Westfield, London, Kidzania brings children indoors to try out an array of professions, at a cost of £29.50 per child. The experience is claimed to ‘teach kids essential life skills including financial literacy, team work and independence.’ With 28 UK sites, Go Ape, (£18 per child), enables harnessed visitors to navigate a fixed circuit of high ropes, zip-wires and walkways, suspended from trees. These are terrifically fun days out, but what they offer is not true play, defined in the British playwork tradition as ‘freely chosen, selfdirected and intrinsically motivated’. At Go Ape, the activity is neither

How do you provide the maximum of space for imaginative play in a constricted space? Architect Asif Khan has tackled this problem at Chisenhale Primary School in east London (his children’s school) by designing an elevated structure which effectively creates more space. Access via a rope or a rope trellis,

the space not only offers access to exciting slides, but areas designed for quiet and contem-plation. The structure is clad in heat-treated tulipwood, an abundant American hardwood that combines the sensuality of timber with a smooth surface devoid of splinters and great durability.

freely chosen nor self-directed. You cannot choose the sequence in which you use the equipment, nor are you free to go back and do something again (and again). At Kidzania, which conceives childhood merely as preparation for adulthood and rewards the acquisition of specific skills, the activity is not intrinsically motivated. Of greater interest to the landscape architect is the fact that practitioners from the fields of playwork and design are questioning the logical basis of the playground itself. Adrian Voce is author of the excellent Policy for Play, which describes the twenty-year campaign to enshrine the right of the child to play in government and planning policy. He told me: ‘Adventure playgrounds responded to the loss of spaces where children could play. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need playgrounds because spaces where Landscape Summer 2016 67

Culture

children grow up and go about their day would be spaces which they – and their parents – could perceive as safe. Playgrounds condescend to children’s need to play. They make it separate: but is this to keep children safe – or is it to keep society orderly and safe from children? Sadly, however, we don’t live in a perfect world so if it wasn’t for playgrounds, where else would children play?’ Some of the most radical thinking about children in the built environment is coming close to eliminating the playground all together. A cross-disciplinary team, led by Dinah Bornat of ZCD Architects, is using people-counting methodologies developed by Jan Gehl to gather evidence of the extent to which housing design fosters or discourages free outdoor play. Bornat describes this as a new way

environment has to be designed and shaped with their needs in mind... Every step the city takes to reduce the dominance of motor traffic makes the city more accessible to the child. It also makes life more tolerable for every other citizen.’ We should question our practice. We should make cities playable. But let’s not give up entirely on that playful, sculptural, experimental landscape that is experienced with both body and imagination known as the playground. The design of playgrounds still has plenty to say about the design and experience of all landscape.

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11 – Models of spatial structures and objects at Rione Traiano, Naples, 1971 / 1973. 12 – Joseph Brown, Jiggle Rail, c. 1953. 13 – Richard Dattner’s water playground in Central Park, New York, 1972. 14 – Group Ludic: a playground for a holiday resort in Anglet, France, 1970.

Image ©: 11 – Riccardo Dalisi 12 – University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Special Collections 13 – Richard Dattner Architects 14 – Xavier de la Salle

of looking at external spaces: ‘In housing schemes that work well, play happens spontaneously. What’s needed is for children to have access to car-free, communal space from their doorsteps. We’re looking at ways in which housing design can enable this to happen.’ The origins of these ways of thinking can be found in the work of the anarchist, urbanist and educator, Colin Ward. In 1979, he looked outside the playground and said: ‘I don’t want a Childhood City. I want a city where children live in the same world as I do... If the claim of children to share the city is admitted, the whole

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A Word By Tim Waterman

‘Unity’ of the British Garden’. In four parts, it covers the history of British landscape design from the 17th century until the present, with each episode spanning an entire century. Naturally, such a large scope compressed into four hours is inevitably going to involve some simplifications and generalisations, and much is guaranteed to be missed. In the final episode, some familiar characters from modern and contemporary British landscape architecture appear: Geoffrey Jellicoe (without mention of his wife and design collaborator, Susan), Dominic Cole, and Phil Askew. While Cole and Askew both manage to make articulate plugs for landscape architecture, Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe aren’t alive to insist on identifying the profession, and thus Monty Don refers to their work repeatedly as a garden design, even when he is talking about large-scale masterplanning such as their work at Hemel Hempstead. Does this do landscape architecture a disservice, or does it simply highlight a reality of public perception that we can either fight or accept? In the public mind, garden design and landscape architecture are synonymous, and despite a century or so of clever and articulate people championing a difference, this conflation has not shifted at all. From a garden design perspective, what is conspicuous about Monty Don’s treatment of twentieth and twenty-first century gardens is that, after having checked in at Hestercombe and Sissinghurst, his focus thereafter is strictly upon the work of landscape architects, which may well explain why he felt the need to identify Geoffrey Jellicoe as a garden designer – in order to throw a bone to garden designers who might feel they had been given short shrift. Indeed, where was Dan Pearson or Todd Longstaffe-Gowan or Arabella Lenox-Boyd or any number of garden design personalities who are not, by any means, shy of the lens or press? It’s worthwhile considering that 70 Landscape Summer 2016

garden designers are going to feel just as aggrieved about Don’s programme as landscape architects are about Jellicoe’s misidentification. Are both professions forever doomed to play second fiddle to each other? Pearson and Longstaffe-Gowan are both garden designers who employ landscape architects, and both are undertaking large-scale public projects. In the case of their two practices, it is impossible to make a distinction between the two professions, with the possible exception of the fact that garden designers tend to be more visible to the media. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that the two professions, while distinct, are interpenetrating. Perhaps, given that the big issues of our profession, from climate change to water-sensitive design, are being addressed in gardens as much as in public landscapes, we need to treat gardens with the utmost seriousness. Perhaps the British garden needs total reinvention. Perhaps we also need to insist that garden designers are educated as thoroughly and licensed as strictly as landscape architects. And now that I’ve opened that can of gardenenriching worms, I shall open another. It is not just garden design, but also urban design that is a nebulously defined discipline which is nibbling away perennially at our borders. If we are to increase our visibility and viability as a profession, it will not be by retreating to a well-defined position that is almost certainly indefensible, but by opening up the discussion about how to build a unified voice with other professions and about how to ensure that all concerned are as highly qualified as possible. Opening up this discussion is very seriously overdue. If we can manage this discussion, which we must, then perhaps we can eventually get on to the one about how property developers also ought to have rigorous built-environment qualifications.

Monty Don hosted a series on LAST ytheearBBC called ‘The Secret History

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