Why so Special? Insights into 21 iconic post war designed and listed landscapes and gardens
Harlow Town Park
7 September 2021
David Allen will be presenting the historic background of Harlow Town Park in the context of the new town movement and the work of Sir Frederick Gibberd and Dame Sylvia Crowe, its development and decline through the 1960s-80s and Allen Scott’s subsequent Heritage Lottery Funded restoration scheme. Alison Fox will talk about how the restored park was received, managed and what community involvement there has been since.
David Allen is a Director of Allen Scott Landscape Architects with over 30 years’ experience in a wide range of design and planning projects. Public park restoration projects include Robert Marnock’s Grosvenor and Hilbert Park, a number of James Pulham restorations notably the largest and first public park installation at Battersea Park, and at Worth Park. Other significant public spaces such as Reculver seafront and distinctive new parks in Lowestoft, Peacehaven and Crawters Brook have also been recognised achievements.
Alison Fox has over 30 years’ experience of working in the public sector in social housing, community participation and regeneration. For the past decade she has worked at Harlow Council and is currently a Regeneration Projects Manager. She was the Project Manager for the HLF funded regeneration of Harlow Town Park. Her role currently involves key regeneration projects across the town and delivering economic development related projects such as supporting skills provision for the residents of the town.
Changing attitudes to open space and landscape preservation in the UK 1920-1930s
A review of the early landscape preservationist movement and the creation, in 1926, of the CPRE
24 August 2021
Speaker Dr Francesca Church
Dr Francesca Church will look at the early Preservationist movement and the creation, in 1926, of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. A key part of the Council's founding aims was amenity, an idea around which much of their practices, approaches and identity were based. Drawing on ideas that were important both to the Institute of Landscape Architects and the CPRE in the first half of the 20th century, the talk will explore two examples of such overlaps: education (in particular, CPRE exhibitions) and roadside planting.
Changing attitudes to open space and landscape preservation in the UK 1920-1930s
Rediscovering the stream garden at the Rookery Streatham Common
17 August 2021
Speaker Dr Lee Heykoop
Dr Lee Heykoop explores the history of the Stream Garden at the Rookery, Streatham Common and its transfer from private to public open space .
Changing attitudes to open space and landscape preservation in the UK 1920-1930s
The Open Spaces Society lantern slides collection and the ideal landscape in the early 20th Century
10 August 2021
Speaker Dr Katrina Navickas
Dr Katrina Navickas will examine the Open Spaces Society's collection of lantern slides, held at the Museum of English Rural Life. The Society was founded in 1865 and has campaigned ever since for the preservation of public open spaces and rights of way. The slides offer a view of the ideal landscapes that they sought to preserve in the early 20th century. The talk will focus on the designed landscapes in the image collection, including the metropolitan parks and commons, in an era of suburbanisation.
Women in Landscape Architecture
Brenda Colvin 1897-1981
25 May 2021
Speaker Hal Moggridge
Hal Moggridge will talk about his former partner, who started her own practice in 1922, went on to share her office with Sylvia Crowe and, in 1969, took Hal into partnership, forming Colvin & Moggridge
Women in Landscape Architecture
A snapshot of modernity: the photographs of Susan Jellicoe defining the post war landscape
18 May 2021
Speaker Sally Ingram
Sally Ingram will talk on Susan Jellicoe and her journey with a camera. Her photographic record continued throughout her life, constructing a visual diary of the post war era.
Women in Landscape Architecture
Diana Armstrong Bell: Sculpting the Land - Landscape design influenced by abstract art
11 May 2021
Speaker Diana Armstrong Bell
Diana will discuss a selection of her aesthetically compelling projects, many of which have won international design competitions and show the influence of her study of abstract art.
Women in Landscape Architecture
From Adam architecture to toasted sandwiches – Elisabeth Beazley in principle and in practice
4 May 2021
Speaker Dr Phil Back
Dr Phil Back will argue that she deserves to be better remembered than she currently is, and will explore her work, her publications, and the principles she espoused and articulated.
From the Contemporary Archive
Cross Boundaries - The Interdisciplinary Approach in Design by Jun Huang
23 March 2021
Speaker Jun Huang
Jun is the design partner of the urban planning firm of Wei Yang + Partners, and was formerly a director of Benoy Architects. Although not a landscape architect, he has a passion for landscape design, and recognises its key role in his wide range of work. He will speak about the need to break down boundaries and encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Sharing some similarities with I.M.Pei (who valued landscape greatly and wanted to be ‘a garden designer in the next life’) in terms of upbringing, cultural foundation, early career path and the approach towards design, Jun will share his thoughts on how landscape inspired him as a designer and shaped his design philosophy in undertaking projects in a range of contexts. The talk will be about new and innovative perspectives.
From the Contemporary Archive
In our Space - local places - global challenges, by Guy Denton
16 March 2021
Speaker Guy Denton
Guy is a Director of re-form, landscape architecture, and will in part make reference to his practice’s work over the last 10 years as well as comment on current issues and challenges facing the centres of our towns and cities. He will focus on Hull (as part of City of Culture 2017); Lincoln, a historic city centre for which his practice prepared a public realm strategy and currently the regeneration of the Cornhill Quarter, a heritage led regeneration scheme for the city centre, Leeds ‘Our Spaces’ Strategy which is the city’s public realm manual produced to inform the transformation of the city centre. Using these examples, he will focus on culture and heritage as a catalyst for regeneration, together with how issues of climate change, city living, and shopping trends are likely to impact on the nature and character of our urban centres going forward.
From the Contemporary Archive
Master planning of Tin Shui New Town, Hong Kong, 1980-1985 and the role of the Landscape Architect, by Mark Loxton
9 March 2021 zoom
Speaker Mark Loxton
Mark is a former Director of Shankland Cox, an international firm of planning consultants, who were commissioned to design a new town in Hong Kong for a population of 350,000. He will explain how a multi-disciplinary team of 60 professionals prepared a master plan for the development and subsequent construction of Tin Shui Wai, located in the north western territory of Hong Kong. Landscape Architects played a key role in the planning and preparations of subsequent plans which led to the current city layout which reflects those early concepts evolved during the master planning stage. Mark will also highlight the lessons and skills Landscape Architects may need to undertake such large scale projects.
From the Contemporary Archive
Creating the Post Industrial Landscape - Principles and Practice - Works by Richard Cass 1970-2020
2 March 2021 zoom
Speaker Richard Cass
Richard is due to set out the key principles which have underpinned his career, illustrating how these have been applied in practice, with reference to three projects: Silksworth in Sunderland, Riverside in Liverpool, and Bold in St. Helens. He will explore the political, economic and social background for his work, as well as the more traditional environmental and design aspects. Given that these projects have been completed between 20 and 40 years ago it will also provide a useful perspective on the subsequent evolution and long term performance of these created landscapes.
FOLAR AGM and FOLAR + LI NE Event: Speaking out for Landscape - Oral History and Landscape Architecture
October 22 2020 zoom
Speakers: Marie Lagerwall, Sally Watson, Colin Moore
The FOLAR Review of Landscape Oral Histories, plus appendices and addenda is available here
FOLAR is launching a new oral history project capturing memories and experiences of landscape architects. But how is oral history relevant to practising landscape architects? Who have we already got on tape? Who should be on the new list to be interviewed? Who else is interested in our spoken histories? What significant projects should we cover that have not made it into the journals or received awards? These talks will shed some illuminating insights, but we need and welcome your input too.
[COVID has resulted in the postponement of this project but we hope to get on with this as soon as we can.]
FOLAR AGM Oct 2020 Meeting Minutes here
FOLAR presents the MERL lunchtime series of five zoom meeting talks: Designing Landscapes for the People - from the Clapham Omnibus to the Royal Parks
April 30 - June 11 2020 at The MERL
This series of five free lunchtime online illustrated talks will span the early 20c UK approach to city planning, civic design, parks and gardens, encompass the formation of the UK professional body of landscape architects, the evolving Royal Parks, the impact of corporate landscapes, and profile the design approach of a landscape architect. Everyone is very welcome to plug in!
Richard Sudell: Suburban Garden Pioneer and Forgotten Man of Landscape Architecture
30 April 2020
Speaker: Michael Gilson
Richard Sudell was an early twentieth-century suburban garden pioneer, founder member of the Institute of Landscape Architects, a prolific writer, and a man largely forgotten to garden and landscape history. His best preserved and almost entirely intact designs for the garden at Dolphin Square, London, recently added to Historic England register Grade II, is currently under threat from redevelopment. From the outset, Sudell was different from his contemporary Landscape Architects in a number of ways, and this new research reveals much more of how and why and what he was about.
Patrick Geddes, Ian McHarg and Landscape Urbanism
7 May 2020
Speaker: Tom Turner
The work of Geddes and McHarg is now a central strand in the most promising approach to landscape and ecological planning in the twenty-first century (so far): landscape urbanism. Ian McHarg, also a Scot and also born near the Highland Boundary Fault, was greatly influenced by Geddes and drew upon his ideas when writing the most widely read landscape architecture book of the twentieth century: Design with nature (1961). Patrick Geddes was the first European to call himself a ‘landscape architect’ in Frederick Law Olmsted’s sense. He was also, in Tom’s view, the most important town and regional planning theorist of the twentieth century and the author of a great book, on Cities in Evolution. Geddes and McHarg represent a key strand in landscape architecture, quite distinct from the strand that comes from garden history and design.
Succession and Survival; The Royal Parks in 100 years of change
May 14 2020
Speaker: Richard Flenley
This illustrated talk looks at how The Royal Parks have held a relatively steady course through the 20th century while all around has witnessed dramatic changes in style, capacity, intensity, social and culture diversity. But masked beneath this “steady state”, the Parks have frequently been battered and have had to adapt and adjust, often to resist, and to rise again to challenges and expectations. We shall look at the challenges brought in by WW1, the adaptations in shifting from Royal to wholly public patronage and the ever-threatening accumulation of layers, hard surfaces and artefacts. The 21st century now brings its own changes of agenda with greater pressures on use, resourcing, funds and even brand……. ecology coming to the fore; horticulture perhaps going backwards ? Yet the Parks survive …. England expects …..
Michael Brown Landscapes: detailed delight
4 June 2020
Speaker Colin Moore
Michael Brown’s Office (…) produced the best UK housing landscape designs of the 1960s and 70s. The outdoor space was well conceived, well designed, well built and well planted. The office was a hive of activity and remarkably prolific. Tom Turner. The Office developed a set of standard details which were refined from experience and modified for each project as necessary. They featured in almost all of the housing schemes as well as other projects. This established a practice ‘style’ characterised by brick slopes, brick steps and brick paving, which made Michael schemes easily recognisable. Michael was accomplished in many other things which are characteristic of his style, for example meticulous earth shaping, planting and other space defining elements. However, most of the estates of that period were high rise and/or slab blocks with elevated walkways and many suffered from poor building design and construction, poor management and maintenance of buildings and landscape, as well as social problems. Some were demolished entirely, or partly, and redeveloped within a relatively short period. Others survived until recently when many have been partially demolished, redeveloped and the remaining buildings refurbished for predominantly private rather than social housing. Hence the majority of Michael’s council housing landscapes of that period have been lost. Some of Michael’s projects are in the Landscape Archive at The MERL and Colin will use photographs and drawings from the archive as well as his own photographs to illustrate his talk. Colin worked for Michael in the early 1970 when the office had about 20 staff. He was involved on-site during the construction of Michael’s projects both before and during his university landscape education.
Chocolate Heaven to Tech Nirvana: corporate landscapes from Bournville to Google
11 June 2020
Speaker: Helena Chance
How are gardens and parks used in workplaces to inspire and support the people who work there? How beneficial are they to corporate identity and profit? Helena Chance will talk about some of the gardens
provided by tech companies such as Google and Apple, and will discuss how we can better understand them by looking at the past. She will examine the landscapes of some of the British and American corporate giants of the 19th and 20th centuries such as Cadbury and the National Cash Register Company (NCR), the motives behind their making and the role of design and designers in their success. Helena’s talk will be based on her recently published book The Factory in a Garden. A History of Corporate Landscapes from the Industrial to the Digital Age (Manchester University Press).
The Landscape Hour: nine online lecture series Sundays 7 pm on YouTube
April 19, 2020 online
As food for thought, learning and CPD in these COVID-dark days, FOLAR and the London branch of the Landscape Institute, are hosting a series of YouTube Premieres to be published on Sunday evenings. The aim is to gather online to watch ‘together’ and chat while they play. Popcorn is allowed. YouTube will show a countdown for 2 minutes before the video appears. They will run for about 30 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A session. Further discussion can follow on on Twitter. Please include the hashtag #LandscapeHour. The first Season is in three parts: [the last six talks were from Heroines in Landscape and Presentations from Landscape of State Financed Industry and are not repeated here]
Speakers: Benz Kotzen, Tom Turner, Robert Holden,
The Landscape Architecture of high buildings and Skylines
Landscape of State Financed Industry - FOLAR Annual Symposium
March 7, 2020 The MERL
Speakers: Dr Alan Powers, Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr, Richard Flenley, Hal Moggridge, Helen Neve, Christoph Brintup [no recording of this presentation], Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr & Dr Richard Brook; Chair Jane Findlay
This year’s FOLAR symposium deals with the landscape design, planning and management of state financed industry, both post-war and today. State owned industries have had an enormous impact on the UK's landscape and on UK infrastructure, but the influence of these businesses and their landscape staff has often gone unnoticed and uncelebrated - and there is much to laud and many lessons to learn. Chaired by LI President Elect Jane Findlay, the Symposium’s speakers bring a wealth of knowledge on an extraordinary range of British infrastructure. Dr Alan Powers on the Landscapes of Post-War Nationalised industries and the work of landscape architects, Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr on Electric landscapes and the CEGB, Richard Flenley on the Landscape of Coal, Hal Moggridge on reservoirs, Helen Neve on the construction of the National Gas network, Christoph Brintup on HS2, and Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr & Dr Richard Brook on The Landscapes of Post-War Infrastructure: Culture, Amenity, Heritage and Industry project.
Heroines in Landscape Architecture LI London / FOLAR event
January 14, 2020 Marshalls showroom, London
Speakers: Elizabeth Crawford, Paula Laycock, Wendy Tippett
Fanny Wilkinson, talk by Elizabeth Crawford, surrounded by her influential friends including Octavia and Miranda Hill, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and sisters, and Millicent Fawcett, probably became the first trained female landscape architect in the UK, and who charged proper fees for her work. She was taught by Edward Milner principal of the Crystal Palace School of Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture in 1881. she went on to design c75 public gardens in London with the Metropolitan Public Gardens, and in 1904 took over as principal of Swanley Horticultural College (where Sylvia Crowe and Brenda Colvin studied) All this and more information was researched by Elizabeth Crawford - watch the video for this talk, and Wendy Tippett research on Sylvia Crowe’s design solutions for major road works in Bristol, and Paula Laycock and her fascinating story on the life and works of Sheila Haywood.
Pioneering Women in Landscape Architecture - Brenda Colvin, Susan Jellicoe and Diana Bell [no recording - but we did on another occasion]
October 16, 2019 at Department of Architecture and Landscape, Kingston University
Introduction to landscape design's pioneering women practitioners, by Karen Fitzsimon. Many will have seen Susan Jellicoe’s photos in old landscape journals, as illustrations in a book, or Susan and Geoffrey Jellicoe’s Landscape of Man. Susan took photos wherever she and Geoffrey travelled – in UK and overseas. Sally Ingram will tell us about her research into Susan’s photographic collection and what that tells us about her and her times. Hal Moggridge will also speak on Brenda Colvin and the phenomenal range of projects she tackled, and from where she got her drive and self-belief. Today, we have many pioneering women in landscape and we will hear from Diana Armstrong Bell about her philosophy and ethos and some of the ground breaking work she has done in the UK and overseas. We are an unusual profession in that we appear to be nearly fifty-fifty male/female, but Robert Holden will, through the facts and figures, demonstrate that we have a lot more pioneering to do to be truly equal. This event is the first of a series on women in landscape architecture, and will be chaired by Karen Fitzsimon.
Jellicoe, The Subconscious, Serpents And Postmodern Landscape
October 8, 2019 at The MERL
Speaker: Tom Turner
Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens - FOLAR site visit [no recording]
May 18, 2019
FOLAR led by Oliver Rock and Katharina Erne, HTA Design LLP landscape architects, on a guided walk around the newly restored Water Gardens in Hemel Hempstead. The Water Gardens (1957-9) by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, were conceived of as an integral part of the New Town masterplan and formed the principal civic space serving the town centre. The gardens represent an important period in landscape design and in Jellicoe’s own work, when philosophical, cultural and social aspirations were realised through an integrated approach to town and landscape planning. Oliver and Katharina will talk us through their research and the restoration project of both Water Gardens and Flower Gardens, which combined Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe’s vision and masterplan with new, contemporary landscape design and facilities.
Landscape and Children: design for children’s play - FOLAR Annual Symposium
March 16, 2019 at The Merl
Speakers: Tom Turner; Carley Sefton, Chief Executive, Learning through Landscapes; Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr & Dr Amber Roberts, Manchester Metropolitan University; Nicola Butler, Chair of Trustees, Play England; Helen Woolley, Reader in Landscape Architecture and Society, University of Sheffield; Andrée Davies, Davies White Landscape Architects; Jennette Emery-Wallis, Landscape architect, Director LUC ; Chair, Adam White, President of Landscape Institute;
Five Ways - to interrogate, be inspired and learn from the Landscape Architecture Drawings at the MERL - FOLAR AGM and TALKS [no recording made]
Speakers: Guy Baxter, Associate Director (Archive Services), University of Reading, MERL; Marylla Hunt, on the restoration of Stoke Poges ; Oliver Rock Senior Associate HTA on restoration of Hemel Water Gardens; Colin Moore landscape architect on Michael Brown and the Brunel Estate; Karen Fitzsimon, landscape architect, horticulturalist and landscape historian on the work of Preben Jakobsen chaired by Tony Edwards, FLI, landscape architect, Director of Place Design & Planning
May 2018 at The University Of Greenwich
Image: Plan of Stoke Poges Gardens of Remembrance 1937, by Milner, Son & White
British Agricultural Landscapes: past, present & post-Brexit
Speakers: Prof. Adrian Phillips; Dr. Simon Mortimer, University of Reading; Paul Tiplady, FLI Craggatak Consulting; Kate Ahern, CMLI, Head of Landscape Planning, LUC; Duncan MacKay, Natural England; Dr. Andrew Clark, NFU Director of Policy; Chair: Merrick Denton-Thompson, FLI, President, Landscape Institute
April 2018 at The Merl
Landscape Architecture & Management Education in the UK: past present and future
Speakers: Guy Baxter, Jan Woudstra, Richard Bisgrove, Robert Holden; Chair John Stuart-Murray
April 2017 at The MERL
New Towns, Landscape & Gordon Patterson - Celebrating mid 20C Design
Speakers Elain Harwood, Tom Turner, Oliver Rock, Caroline Gould; Chair Robert Holden
March 2016 at The MERL
Brenda Colvin and the Colvin & Moggridge practice; Archival issues relating to the Brenda Colvin Collection
Speakers: Hal Moggridge and Caroline Gould
March 2015 at The MERL No Recording
FOLAR Inaugural Meeting at the Museum of English Rural Life
February 2014 No Recording