5. Cummins Engine Factory

12 October 2021

Defined as ‘very pure, very simple and very effective’ by John Winter, this rare landscape design in the UK is by influential American landscape architect Dan Kiley. Historic England describe the factory as ‘a classical temple of rusty brown steel and glass’. This was designed by Roche and Dinkerloo, and is set in Kiley’s landscape of lawns, a rectangular pool and with a ha-ha plus corten steel fence located inside the site boundary. The view from the road to the factory building is of a sweep of grass with just the top of the fence visible.  Jane Amidon will discuss this design in the context of Kiley’s lengthy body of work.  Matthew Benians will offer an insight to the landscape designed by James Hope at Cummins’ other UK factory at Shotts, Scotland.

Jane Amidon is professor of Landscape Architecture in the Northeastern University School of Architecture. She was a studio associate with Dan Kiley and co-authored with him the monograph of his work, she is currently writing a book examining the influences on Dan Kiley. She has also written other books including on Kathryn Gustafson.

Matthew Benians CMLI is a practicing landscape architect based in Glasgow and also a Scotland's Garden and Landscape Heritage Trustee.  In 2018, with support from the LI Scotland, he established Sco.Mo. the Scottish Modernist landscape recording project with the aim of promoting the documentation, preservation and celebration of Scotland’s modernist landscape architectural heritage. The Cummins Engine factory in Shotts, Lanarkshire is one of the sites included on their list.