The bicycle began as the ultimate dream machine, cheaper, healthier, more exciting and more glamorous, than horse-drawn vehicles or horses. In the 1940s, almost half the trips in London and Copenhagen were cycled. And the figure was over was over…
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Invest 20% of the transport budget to raise the cycling mode share by 2.5%/year
Posted in cycleways, urban design
9 Children’s play landscape design videos FOLAR
Here are the other six videos from the 2019 FOLAR Symposium on Children’s Play. To find the full set of videos on Youtube please visit the Playlist for Children’s Play. Dr Luca Csepely-Knorr & Dr Amber Roberts, Manchester Metropolitan University.…
Posted in landscape architecture Tagged with: adventure playgrounds, childrens play, landscape design
FOLAR Symposium on Children’s Play
Congratulations to all involved with an excellent FOLAR symposium on children’s play.There are 3 videos embedded in this blog post and the other 6 can be found on another blog post on chidren’s play. Particular thanks to Merrick Denton-Thompson who…
Posted in landscape architecture, landscape design theory, public parks Tagged with: childrens play, fun, nature
Landscape and garden weddings
Landscape architects, who pay increasing attention to programming the events which take place in the spaces they plan and design, could give more thought to weddings and wedding photography. Every couple likes to have brilliant photographs of their wedding and…
Policy for London’s Quietways
London’s ‘quietways’ are not quiet enough. TfL explain them as: ‘continuous and convenient cycle routes on less-busy backstreets across London’. They are on backstreets. But they not continuous, because there are so many unimproved junctions. Their convenience is for local trips:…
Posted in London cycle network
Costing and phasing London’s Cycleway Network
Should London’s cycling infrastructure be planned for a mode share of 9% or 41%? And when should the plan be implemented? The TfL 2018 London Cycle Action Plan is strong on intentions, vague on phasing and vague on costings. So here’s…
Green the Redways: Copenhagenize the TfL Transport for London Road Network TLRN
TfL should Copenhagenize London’s the TLRN (Transport for London Road Network. Copenhagenization means confiscating the warships of a defeated enemy, which is what the British did in 1807. Mikael Colville-Andersen uses ‘Copenhagenize’ to mean good cycle planning. I’ve been…
Little Free Libraries for urban landscapes
Little Free Libraries are a great idea. Landscape architects should include them in designs for public open spaces including parks, squares, piazzas etc. Universities should have several on every campus for textbooks as well as leisure reading. In 2010 I…
Michael Brown and the landscape architecture of housing
Many thanks to Colin Moore for remembering Michael Brown’s work in a Merl blog post. Michael Brown’s office (in which Colin worked) produced the best UK housing landscape designs of the 1960s and 70s. The outdoor space was very well…
The Yorkshire trod is a great way to make a footpath
The OED defines a trod as ‘A trodden way; a footpath, path, way. (dialect)’. Phillips New World of Words (1678) explained Trode as ‘an old word signifying a path’. It slipped out of general use but survives in some parts…
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