Beyond Green: Rethinking Nature in Urban Public Spaces Is the idea of nature relevant to public open space in urban areas? Yes. Should landscape architects be involved? Yes. But what, why, how and where can and should nature influence the…
Blog Archives
Landscape Institute: election of the next LI President
Congratulations to the Landscape Institute on its publication of candidate videos for the 2019 LI presidential election. Great that there are four of them – and thank you to the candidates for putting their names forward. But it’s not a…
Posted in landscape architecture
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…
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…
Parliament Square in Westminster should be re-designed
The public open space outside the Mother of Parliaments should be re-designed as a place for MPs to talk to constituents and demonstrators. It was filled with protesters on 15th January 2019. This was the day on which the first…
Posted in landscape architecture, urban design
Four truths about London cycling
1. Cycling in London is unsafe. Everybody knows this. London has 3.6 times as many accidents/1000 cyclist commuters as Copenhagen. 2. The London Cycle Network did almost nothing for the safety of London cyclists. I therefore look forward to its…
Posted in cycleways, landscape architecture, London cycle network, London Cycleway Plan Tagged with: London Cycleway Network Plan
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