FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Past Talks

Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Past Talks

Almost from the outset FOLAR has - with generous permission from our speakers - recorded virtually all the talks we have held at symposia and online.There are currently over 130 recordings available under Past Talks and Specials. The Past Talks section covers topics ranging from the Festival Pleasure Gardens at Battersea Park, Susan Jellicoe’s photographs, The Open Spaces Society, working on Byker in Newcastle with Ralph Erskine to landscape designs that promote human health and well-being.

There are a number of talks that focus on women landscape designers, from Fanny Wilkinson, Marjory Lady Allen of Hurtwood, Brenda Colvin, and Sylvia Crowe in Bristol, to Elisabeth Beazley, Diana Armstrong Bell and other contemporary landscape architects in the can…

Our speakers include past presidents of the Landscape Institute - Brian Clouston, Hal Moggridge, Tim Gale; landscape academics - Ed Bennis, Jan Woudstra, Alan Powers, Luca Csepely-Knorr, Catharine Ward Thompson; historians - Elain Harwood, John Boughton, Katrina Navikas; practitioners – Annie Coombs; Neil Chapman, Jennette Emery-Wallis, Paul Rabbitts, Ian Baggott,  young researchers – Joy Burgess, Sally Watson, Karen Fitzsimon and many more.

The Specials section includestalks celebrating the life and works of two of the Institute’s significant practitioners – Bran Clouston and Hal Moggridge;  and a series of twenty one talks on the C20 designed landscapes that were added to the Historic England register in 2021.

So how can anybody find anything in all these recordings?  The quickest way is to use the search box – type in a strong and simple key word linked with what you are searching for, eg play, Jellicoe, Sweden, and hopefully you will find something that is useful for you.

 

From the Contemporary Archive

FOLAR decided it was time to look at more recent landscape projects. This series of four talks covers the master-planning of a New Town in Hong Kong, implementing a regenerative planning approach - designed to transform some run down areas in northern English cities - that embraces local culture and heritage at its heart; how contaminated post industrial landscapes can be restored and transformed into desirable and economically flourishing places for sports, housing and cultural activities, and finally how a close study of the work of deeply significant designers and planners can impact the thinking, design approach and ability to develop new and innovative response to projects. [It is with much regret we have lost the recordings of three of these talks but intend to invite the speakers for a second run].

Jun Huang is the design partner of the urban planning firm of Wei Yang + Partners, and was formerly a director of Benoy Architects. Although not a landscape architect, he has a passion for landscape design, and recognises its key role in his wide range of work. In his presentation Cross Boundaries - The Interdisciplinary Approach in Design he speaks about the need to break down boundaries and encourage an interdisciplinary approach. Sharing some similarities with I.M.Pei (who valued landscape greatly and wanted to be ‘a garden designer in the next life’) in terms of upbringing, cultural foundation, early career path and the approach towards design, Jun shared his thoughts on how landscape inspired him as a designer and shaped his design philosophy in undertaking projects in a range of contexts. The talk focuses on new and innovative perspectives.

In our Space - local places - global challenges Guy Denton is a Director of re-form, landscape architecture, and includes some references to his practice’s work over the last 10 years as well as comment on current issues and challenges facing the centres of our towns and cities.  He focus is on Hull (as part of City of Culture 2017); Lincoln, a historic city centre for which his practice prepared a public realm strategy and currently the regeneration of the Cornhill Quarter, a heritage led regeneration scheme for the city centre, Leeds ‘Our Spaces’ Strategy which is the city’s public realm manual produced to inform the transformation of the city centre. Using these examples, he will focus on culture and heritage as a catalyst for regeneration, together with how issues of climate change,  city living, and shopping trends are likely to impact on the nature and character of our urban centres going forward.

Master planning of Tin Shui New Town, Hong Kong, 1980-1985 and the role of the Landscape Architect, Mark Loxton is a former Director of Shankland Cox, an international firm of planning consultants, who were commissioned to design a new town in Hong Kong for a population of 350,000. He will explain how a multi-disciplinary team of 60 professionals prepared a master plan for the development and subsequent construction of Tin Shui Wai, located in the north western territory of Hong Kong. Landscape Architects played a key role in the planning and preparations of subsequent plans which led to the current city layout which reflects those early concepts evolved during the master planning stage. Mark will also highlight the lessons and skills Landscape Architects may need to undertake such large scale projects.

Creating the Post Industrial Landscape - Principles and Practice - Works by Richard Cass 1970-2020 Richard sets out the key principles which have underpinned his career, illustrating how these have been applied in practice, with reference to three projects: Silksworth in Sunderland, Riverside in Liverpool, and Bold in St. Helens. He will explore the political, economic and social background for his work, as well as the more traditional environmental and design aspects. Given that these projects have been completed between 20 and 40 years ago it will also provide a useful perspective on the subsequent evolution and long term performance of these created landscapes.

Speakers: Jun Huang, Guy Denton, Mark Loxton and Richard Cass
March 2021 online

Annabel Downs