LI life: AGM 1 https://europa.eu/ new-europeanbauhaus/index_en 2 https://www.ucl.ac.uk /bartlett/publicpurpose/publications/ 2021/jan/new-bauhaus -green-deal 3 https://www. designwest.org.uk/ shape-my-city/ Shape My City is supported by the Landscape Institute
Beauty, diversity and design highlighted at LI AGM Sue Morgan
CEO, Landscape Institute
I was delighted that within my first few months at the LI, I was able to attend both the LI Annual Awards and the Annual General Meeting. I was keen to see the AGM as an opportunity to be more outward focused and engaging to members and non-members. So, in addition to voting on business issues, the AGM explored the work of a number of fascinating speakers.
Dan Hill is Director of Strategic Design at Vinnova, the Swedish Government’s Innovation Agency, and Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. His most recent work has
been in responding to the European Commission’s New European Bauhaus1 initiative, a project which “calls on all Europeans to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds and souls.”2 Dan posed a number of important questions which I feel should influence our work: “What does it mean to live with circular products and services?” and “is this way of living, meaningful, equitable, beautiful?” His work in Sweden invited those that he welcomed to his workshops to think creatively about the role of bodily decomposition, cemeteries, forests, woods, and how places that we might use for burial grounds might link to how we design the landscape. Provocative and slightly disturbing, there was a freshness to Dan’s thinking about landscape design and the way in which we think about our towns, villages, and cities. He concluded by saying that “social and cultural infrastructures and landscape like gardens, streets, playgrounds, housing, energy, museums, buses, libraries, parks, pools, squares, markets, saunas, co-op housing......can embody and engender the beauty, dignity and utility of shared things in everyday life.”
Kay was followed by Shankari Raj, head of Education at Design West and an architect. Shankari spoke about the Shape My City3 Courses which she runs, and which are focused on inclusion and diversity. She explained how they offered an opportunity for young people to come together to speak out about their environment and to address the climate anxiety which many are now facing. She argued passionately that within our built and natural environments we should be including young people in the design and consultation process. It is important to make parks and green spaces really inclusive and to ensure that everybody had a say on quality of design in the environment. A good example of this approach, she argued, is the Olympic Park, which has many great spaces for children to play and to feel safe. If you missed the AGM, do have a look at the presentations and get in touch.
Sue Morgan is CEO of the Landscape Institute.
1. A New Bauhaus for a Green Deal.
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Kay Hughes, Design Director for HS2 talked about the landscape that was being restored, changed, created and in some cases, recreated as part of an overview of this massive project.
Watch the AGM, including all of the speaker presentations: https://vimeo.com/662547765
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