CITY as LANDSCAPE architecture

There is a very fully illustrated version of this podcast on YouTube.

Edward Hutchison is a London artist, landscape architect, architect and author of a very popular book on Landscape Drawing (published by Thames and Hudson). In this podcast he talks to Tom Turner about his work and about how he sees the relationship between art, painting and landscape architecture. He sees drawing and painting as analytical tools which help the landscape architecture understand the nature of the world and the place which will be designed. Edward also paints what happens below the ground and above the ground - the world of soil and the world of birdsong (which will be the theme of his next exhibition, in London in 2022). The podcast features a project he did, in Nimes, France, with Norman Foster (for whom he worked at one time).

Though published out of sequence, this is is the first of nine or ten podcasts about the relationship between the Environment, Art and Landscape Architecture. I’ve also done a short YouTube video about this -  with rather a long title. It was called A History of Land Art, Ecological and Environmental Art  in relation to Landscape Architecture and  made to set the scene for a discussion. But before getting into the discussion I’ve got a news flash about the City as Landscape series of podcasts. I’ve done 18 episodes so far and they began, during the 2020 Covid lockdown, as a narrated version of my book on City as landscape. I’ve recorded most of the 20 essays and published three of them in 2020 -  as both  podcasts and YouTube videos. Reading the essays is easy enough. Converting them to videos is slow work, which may be why I’ve turned to shorter projects. I do however plan to finish the City as Landscape audio book - sometime. Perhaps I’ll do the podcasts but not the videos.

Brodie McAllister gives an outline of land art, environmental art and their relationship to landscape architecture. The debate was organised by LANDSCAPEmatters and held on 15th June 2021. Brodie became the Landscape Institute’s President Elect a few days before the debate.

"Environmental Art" can be seen to have originated in the early 20th century, with Picasso, collage, Duchamp, readymade artworks, Cubism and Minimalism.  Or it can be seen to derive from the ancient world, including the Pyramids, Stonehenge and many projects in the history of landscape architecture and garden design. Asking "what is the difference between Environmental Art and Landscape Architecture" this video sets the scene for a debate, using art projects by Charles Jencks (for Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art) and Tom Turner (for a Sea and Sand Mandala) as debating points.

Landscape architecture is a very good job and a very satisfying career. The work is creative, exciting and a great way to solve environmental problems and contribute to the mitigation of climate change.  See illustrated version of this podcast on YouTube. It was made for people thinking about a career in landscape architecture AND for professionals who would like to expand the scope and work of landscape architects.

As an art, landscape design can be traced back 30,000 years. You work with nature, with local communities and with the other environmental design professions, including architects, engineers, horticulturalists, hydrologists and scientists. The documented history of landscape design theory dates back 2000 years, to Vitruvius. It became an organised profession with the work of Frederick Law Olmsted on Central Park in New York City in the 1860s.  As societies become richer the demand for landscape architects goes up. Tom Turner makes these points and sees the design approach known as landscape urbanism as the direction landscape architecture design methods are likely to develop. 

More information is available from the Q&A section of the LAA Landscape Architecture website http://www.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/qa-landscape-architecture/ and there is YouTube playlist for the Q&A videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0tjuOrn4n20OnXwUS0r1iKHUJqTf0D-S  Websites with information about salaries for landscape architects include: 

USA:  https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/landscape-architects.htm

UK: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/landscape-architect

The UK Landscape Institute election, in May 2021, is a good opportunity to think about the future of the landscape profession, the art of landscape architecture and the UK Landscape Foundation.  The LI dates from 1929 and the LF from 1992. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe was right that both are needed. As well having a major role in shaping the LI, Jellicoe established the International Federation of Landscape Architects and the UK Landscape Foundation. In my view, the LI should concentrate on the administrative aspects of landscape architecture and the LF on the imaginative and  developmental aspects of what Jellicoe believed to be 'the most comprehensive of the arts': Landscape Architecture. It needs more voices.

Landscape Institute (LI) Past President Merrick Denton-Thompson OBE looks to the future in a wide-ranging  debate with Past LI Vice President Brodie McAllister. They see many ways in which landscape architects contribute to the adaptation of project designs to mitigate the impact of global warming on climate change. Landscape architects' work can be more functional, more beautiful, higher valued, more exciting - and more fun.  In cities, the discussion includes green technology and post-Covid changes to living and work patterns. In the countryside it includes forestry, agriculture and recreation. Landscape architecture is already one of the world’s fast-growing professions. The new challenges can only raise the demand – if we step up to the plate and take a strategic approach. This podcast is also available on YouTube where you can use the comment system to make points and ask questions.