debor056

                 It is already clear when exiting the tube station that King's Cross is an up-and-coming neighbourhood. The market vendors have set up quite early and it’s not even the weekend. The areas surrounding the station are still not busy at 10.30 in the morning, but come lunchtime the place really fills up. Turning north and moving towards Granary Square we find the grass covered stairs leading down to the riverfront, where they function as an amphitheatre facing the houseboats on the other side. For me, as a Norwegian student, the idea of grass covered steps is as foreign as houseboats on the river. It’s like the British wall to wall carpet taken to the extreme, but I have to admit it is extremely inviting. As we see on our way back, a couple of hours later, it is lunch time and carpeted stairs are filled with families (term holiday) and workers already! After a brief introduction to the site and a look at the model we head towards the ...

                 It is already clear when exiting the tube station that King's Cross is an up-and-coming neighbourhood. The market vendors have set up quite early and it’s not even the weekend. The areas surrounding the station are still not busy at 10.30 in the morning, but come lunchtime the place really fills up. Turning north and moving towards Granary Square we find the grass covered stairs leading down to the riverfront, where they function as an amphitheatre facing the houseboats on the other side. For me, as a Norwegian student, the idea of grass covered steps is as foreign as houseboats on the river. It’s like the British wall to wall carpet taken to the extreme, but I have to admit it is extremely inviting. As we see on our way back, a couple of hours later, it is lunch time and carpeted stairs are filled with families (term holiday) and workers already! After a brief introduction to the site and a look at the model we head towards the ...

Van Alen Institute recently launched Opportunity Space, an international design-build competition to support economic opportunity and social inclusion in Malmö, Sweden. Opportunity Space invites international, multidisciplinary teams of designers, economic development experts, sociologists, community organizers, and others to submit their ideas. Focusing on two sites – a well-used public park and an underused industrial building – in a rapidly changing district of Malmö, teams will have roughly five weeks to propose their interventions. Responding to Europe’s migration crisis, Opportunity Space will install a temporary mobile structure in Malmö’s Enskifteshagen Park for two months to support education, job assistance, and social inclusion programs offered by government, business, and nonprofit partners. The winning team, to be announced in early December, will receive a $10,000 award and $25,000 to build their proposal. Opportunity Space is the first in a new Van ...

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Landscape and Garden Design students enjoyed an autumnal tour of Beth Chatto’s Garden, in Essex, investigating the planting strategies for the different garden environments and finding out how easy it was to lose a member of the lecturing staff in a clump of Gunnera manicata. Thanks to Daisy Hyland, undergraduate student, for capturing the moment!

A common complaint from employers in Landscape Architecture is that graduates don’t have strong sufficient planting knowledge. Coming from the conversion route into the profession, this is something that I’m well aware of as a problem. I simply hadn’t had much exposure to planting in my previous career as a teacher. Stepping into a completely new area of knowledge with its own alien language seemed quite daunting. But fortunately the School of Design recognised the need to support MA students with additional planting workshops. Resident plant expert  Dr Jill Raggett has led a weekly session since the start of the semester of our MA Landscape Architecture Course. Sessions have included plant identification, biological structures and understanding how to design with plants. A particular highlight has been the time spent exploring the rich examples of planting dotted around the campus. Seeing and touching each plant has really helped me picture how I might use it in future design...

CFP: Kitchen and Kitchen Gardens in Britain and Europe, 1500-1950: Centre for the Study of the Body and Material Culture Royal Holloway, University of London Submission deadline: 10 November 2016 Workshop date: 18 January 2017 Workshop venue: Senate House, University of London In recent years the home has come to be the focus of multidisciplinary and cross-period enquiry, yet the kitchen, although seen as the 'heart' of the home in some places and periods, is still a relatively underexplored space. Studies of material culture, technology and domestic work all point to the kitchen's wider social and cultural importance.  Since the early modern period, kitchens have been a nexus of class interaction, and the place of domestic food production. Subsequently, studies of the kitchen have the potential to contribute to social and cultural histories of everyday life. This one-day workshop aims to bring together historians of the early modern and modern periods studying any aspect o...

MA Landscape Architecture and Garden Design students are exploring design solutions for the post-industrial site of Chelmsford Gasworks alongside the confluence of River Chelmer and Can. This year the focus topic in the module   “Urban Territory Studio” is   water in the landscape, more specifically, some of the problems and challenges faced with increasing river and coastal flooding as a result of climate change. But students are also considering design opportunities for building resilience and sustainability into future landscapes. . The project will consider a wide range of factors across several scales relating to river systems and will involve   in-depth analyses   of the physical attributes of the ecosystem as well as the socio-economic and cultural interests. By applying principles of landscape ecology, design theory and different modes of design process and techniques, students will develop innovative designs for the designated site.   They will also cri...

The finalists in The SGD Awards 2016 have just been revealed. This year's independent judging panel placed 39 inspiring projects on the shortlist including the walled garden of an historic British palace and several community gardens that are engaging neighbourhoods up and down the country. The shortlisted projects in the three Residential Garden categories and in the International, Public & Communal, Outdoor Space, Garden Jewel and Roof Garden categories will now be entered into the People’s Choice Award supported by Awards media partner, Homes & Gardens magazine. The same finalists will also be competing for the highly coveted Grand Award , which will be decided by the main judging panel. Visit the SGD Awards website to see images of all the shortlisted projects in the main award categories. www.sgdawards.com  

LI East of England together with SouthEast of England Branch and Cranfield University have organised the   LIEE-Cranfield Conference 2016:  Ecosystem Services by Design , which will be held on the  18th of November  in Milton Keynes. This conference will explore the integration of ecosystem services into landscape design, planning, and management practice, stressing the role of science to facilitate this. The lectures and workshops will show the value of a services-led landscape practice to create more resilient, multifunctional and cost-effective liveable landscapes. This event will provide an introduction to the topic of ecosystem services, a look into innovative methodologies, approaches and recent case studies from a landscape perspective. The event is designed to be useful for landscape professionals with or without previous knowledge in ecosystem services. Please, see detailed information about this event (venue, speakers, schedule) in the following lin...