7. Urban Renewal and Rural Infrastructure
About this video
Barry Scholefield set up Brian Clouston and Partners (BCP) Glasgow office in 1972 and was soon involved in a design competition for the River Clyde, reaching stage two while coping with Conservative government’s three day week restrictions in 1974. The project area covered virtually all the Clyde docks down to the city centre and the BCP team was awarded joint first prize with London based Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall. The area went on to host the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1998 (an area designed by Ian White still exists) and the construction of many new facilities including the BBC, Transport Museum, commercial outlets, and the Glasgow Seaplane terminal.
Further urban renewal work in Glasgow includes the creation of a new residential environment in an area of multiple deprivation (following on from the Possil Park and Keppoch environmental project), which is currently enabling social and economic improvements for this area north of the Clyde.
In London, BCP prepared a master plan for the infilled Surrey Docks area and followed on with its implementation. Tim Gale highlighted the re-use of toxic material on site to create a hill and viewpoint, plus a sculpture to remind what docklands had been like. Some of the docks were also re-excavated to keep the memory of the wharves and their artefacts.
In the Yorkshire Dales, Alex Novel illustrated an exemplar project of rural multiple land use planning and multidisciplinary working for the expanding Grimwith reservoir. The Durham office team provided all planning, landscape architecture and architecture skills, working with Water Authority engineers. The budget was appropriate for the creation of a very large piece of rural infrastructure. The late Peter Dowen was the project architect, using dark Shap aggregate and black sand to create the curving dam formation, and adopting local roof pitches, fenestration and local material elsewhere in the architectural design. The project received a Civic Trust award. Other schemes included Fawley power station near Southampton and preliminary work on the A64 between Bath and Bristol (subsequently abandoned due to landscape issues – ‘a result in itself’).
About this series of talks
Landscape architect Brian Clouston OBE, past president of the Landscape Institute, established a landscape practice in the 1960s that became multi-disciplinary and operated internationally. By the 1990s it was one of the leading practices in the UK and employed more people than any other in Europe. FOLAR wanted to learn more about Brian Clouston, what he did, how he attracted so many young talented staff and what type of projects they worked on. FOLAR also wanted to know what they went on to do on leaving BCP. So we invited lots of former staff to tell their stories at an event in September 2023, with Brian Clouston as the star. Brian continues to think about the role and contribution that landscape architects can make to society and to world affairs and in an interview, and he chose this opportunity to discuss his current big vision for Africa. We recorded this event and two interviews with Brian Clouston, as a contribution to the oral history of the profession of landscape architecture.
Section One: Introduction; Early days and the formation of the practice; Reclamation; Garden Festivals; Work in the Middle East, Work in Asia and Australia; Urban renewal and Rural infrastructure; Business Parks
Section Two: Legacy Practices and practice, discussion.
Section Three: Brian Clouston’s future vision.
These sessions were chaired by Annie Coombs FLI who was Managing Director of BCP Asia and Tim Gale PPLI who was a Director of BCP.