Professional Landscape Architecture

Dr B Snaith CMLI, C Penny MA CMLI, Nick Miller MA CMLI, Dr R Tobe

Our Professional Landscape Architecture programmes span practice and research. Our programmes explore the complex social and environmental issues that inform professional landscape practice every day. Our students are encouraged to consider their place in the world as both humans and landscape professionals and our programmes provide them with the tools to address the social and environmental challenges the world faces.

This year we asked our students to consider the relationship between water and cities in a project called ‘Waterlands’, focusing on the coastal city of Portsmouth. Portsmouth faces considerable challenges relating to social inequality, access to green space and coastal flooding. These issues are felt across the UK and worldwide, and reflect the range of challenges our profession faces.

This year we returned fully to in-person teaching and were able to work with professionals in person and on site visits. In term one Design Studio students used site survey techniques to develop responses to sense of place, using a wide range of media, including sketching, technical drawing, collaging and modelmaking. This informed our design project in term one, where our Conversion/PG Dip students worked on a project turning an underused space in Southsea from ‘Grey to Green’ and Masters students undertook ‘Design through Management’ in a woodland nature park called the Hilsea Lines. These different approaches to design link closely with our Mental Wealth approach, preparing students for professional life.

In term two Design Studio we undertook areawide mapping of north Portsmouth, looking at Landscape Character, Green and Blue Infrastructure and Equalities. This mapping informed our term two design project where students developed their own approach to the brief, with some taking a strong ecological and biodiversity focus and others focusing on leisure and recreation. All students had to consider coastal flooding as part of their design.

In theoretical studies, Masters year students explored the challenges of professional practice and urban design theory, selecting topics including Superblocks for Ecosystemic Urbanism and Public Spaces in Dense Metro Cities. Conversion/ PG Dip students undertook primary research at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Kings Cross to ascertain how the design of these spaces addresses community needs, and in term two they considered landscape history and theory in the context of contemporary issues such as social inequality, colonisation of landscape and climate change. The student work illustrated here is selected from our MA, MA (Conversion) and PG Dip Professional Landscape Architecture programmes this year.

Students:

PG Dip/Conversion: Syed Younus Ali, Nathalie Foster, Lily Garbutt, Khaled Hadi, Jerome Jarrett, Niki Joshi, Susan Reed, Roger Watson, Lucy Williams

MA/Conversion 2: Finlay Capps, Shannon Du Hasky, Lewis Reynolds, Anne-Marie Osei-Sarfoh, Lajja Shah, Joe White

Special thanks to:

PRG: Fenella Griffin (Untitled Practice), Susan Lowenthal (WSP), Tom Lonsdale (Placecraft), Eduardo Carranza (Gustafson Porter Bowman)

Landscape Institute: Sarah McGee, Christina Hirst & Landscape Institute London Branch

With thanks to our visiting professionals: Madhur Gurjar (London Borough of Lewisham), Charlotte Waters (AECOM), Kirsty Barker (LDA Design), Nicole Yeomans (AECOM), Robyn Grant (Tobermore)

Study Visits: Cain Blythe and Nick May (Ecosulis), Jack Skillen (Team London Bridge), Portsmouth City Council

External Examiner: Saruhan Mosler

Model Making

Project: Waterlands

6 Extract from Green and Blue Infrastructure Assessment, Group: Lajja Shah, Anne-Marie Osei-Sarfoh, Lily Garbutt, Roger Watson 7 Extract from Design through Management Plan, Shannon Du Hasky 8 Extract from Design through Management Plan, Finlay Capps 9 ‘Selling the Vision’ - Hilsea Lido Park, Susan Reed 10 Representing a sense of place, Group: Anne-Marie Osei-Sarfoh, Finlay Capps, Roger Watson, Susan Reed 11 Visualisation of design proposals for Hilsea Lido Park, Khaled Hadi

Meadow

Wildfower meadow: The meadow supports and attracts endangered native pollinators including some bee species, moths and butterflies. They provide safe spaces to lay eggs and nectar to eat. These insects are important as they also pollinate farming crops.

Alternative grass walkway: Walkways will contain a combination of different hardy, ground-cover plants. These can be walked on but also provide habitats for wildlife, unlike amenity grass. This plant mix will include, among others, Geranium sanguineum ‘Vision Violet’, Armeria ‘Bevan’s Variety’, and lawn daises (Bellis perennis).

made of FSC approved wood will be dotted through the space as well as insect hotels which provide shelter for invertibrates including pollinators.

Scrubland habitat

15 Detailed Plan, Site Section and Site model for Hilsea Lido Park, Roger Watson 16 Representation of Form & Structure in Planting Design, Susan Reed 17 Extract from Design through Management Plan, Lajja Shah