FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

Celebrating Hal Moggridge's Career In Landscape Architecture

A celebration of Hal Moggridge’s Career in Landscape Architecture

FOLAR wanted to understand what impact working with two founding members of the Institute has had on his own approach to landscape architecture, but also in the positions he took on with the LI and IFLA. He has developed a broad and deep knowledge on many aspects of landscape architecture. FOLAR wanted to learn more about some of his key interests and their practical applications that cover both his commissioned and voluntary work. Through a varied programme of speakers and topics we hoped to discover more about his work, ideas, principles, and also about him.

How can such a quiet and modest man achieve so much?

Colvin and Moggridge is now the UK’s oldest landscape practice. The archives of both Hal Moggridge and Brenda Colvin are safely housed at MERL, fully catalogued and open to all: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/brenda-colvin.

One of the most valuable objectives with FOLAR’s celebrations on special lives is being able to discuss, ask questions, see projects and learn and also share so much more about different aspects of peoples’ life and work, rather than guessing or making assumptions.  We hope you will enjoy what you find here.

Hal Moggridge, OBE, is an architect, landscape architect, author, past president of the Landscape Institute (LI), twice winner of the LI gold medal, recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour. And, in September 2025, he was honoured with the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) President’s Award, given in recognition of his contribution for the advancement of the profession of landscape architecture through participation with IFLA.  

Continuing FOLAR’s special series celebrating the life and works of UK’s renowned landscape architects, Hal was an obvious choice. He has spent almost all of his working life in landscape architecture. Hal has spent his working life in landscape architecture. Throughout this time, he has shared his knowledge and wisdom guiding multiple landscape focused organisations and professional bodies at international, national, and local levels. Hal has long provided a compass of wisdom, generosity, and diplomacy. He sees landscapes not only as cultural treasures, but also tools for reconciliation and he embraces diversity as a strength. His courage, clarity, and humanistic vision continue to inspire. He continues working now as a consultant to his practice and advising on multiple committees, including FOLAR.  

We wanted to understand what impact working with two founding members of the Institute has had on his own approach to landscape architecture, but also in the positions he took on with the LI and IFLA.

2. Introduction

About this video

Welcome and introduction to FOLAR by Annabel Downs. Why archives are so important, especially for future generations, and also for practising landscape architects to consider what they do now with their drawings and records, and what their connection with the Landscape Institute collection at The MERL could be. This is a living collection—it must reflect changing ideas, needs and times.

Hal Moggridge is unusual amongst his fellow professionals in all sorts of ways and not least in that he recognised the value of the archive of his partner Brenda Colvin (1897-1981). He looked after it following her death and in 2014 gifted it, fully and comprehensively catalogued, to The MERL https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/brenda-colvin/. What is its value? To Hal and his then new partner, Chris Carter, it will have been of considerable financial value, providing a reservoir of information on clients, contractors, many hundreds of projects and thousands of details, before and after photos, and so on. It will have saved time, and also offered insight, guidance and inspiration. This is the intellectual property of his practice. It is also the intellectual property of the broader profession. It includes information about Brenda Colvin's long (the longest?) direct involvement with the Institute of Landscape Architects, of which she was a founder member and its evolution as the Landscape Institute, of which she was in favour, as it embraced landscape management and landscape science in addition to landscape design. So, its value as a record of the profession’s history is inestimable. It has not taken many years at The MERL before it has been explored, investigated and interrogated by some landscape academics and their growing number of landscape students at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. Interest and recognition have grown across Europe and across disciplines. A great gift indeed. Hal has since deposited his own archive of work with Colvin & Moggridge at The MERL.

At a meeting with European landscape architects a couple of years ago, to the delight of everyone, someone exclaimed to Hal - You are a living archive! It is true, he is, but he is more than displaying an accurate memory. He is a torch bearer for the values and principles of those founder members, the profession, and the Institute they helped create. This responsibility underlies all his thinking and actions.

About this series of talks

Hal Moggridge was an obvious choice to continue FOLAR’s special series celebrating the life and works of UK’s renowned landscape architects. He has spent almost all of his working life in landscape architecture. Throughout this time, he has shared his knowledge and wisdom guiding multiple landscape focused organisations and professional bodies at international, national, and local levels. Hal has long provided a compass of wisdom, generosity, and diplomacy. He sees landscapes not only as cultural treasures, but also tools for reconciliation and he embraces diversity as a strength. His courage, clarity, and humanistic vision continue to inspire. He continues working now as a consultant to his practice and as a volunteer advising on multiple committees, including FOLAR.

Through a varied programme of speakers and topics we hoped to discover more about his work, ideas, principles, and also about him. How can such a quiet and modest man achieve so much?

One of the most valuable objectives with FOLAR’s celebrations on special lives is being able to discuss, ask questions, see projects and learn and also share so much more about different aspects of peoples’ life and work, rather than guessing or making assumptions.

The archives of both Hal Moggridge and Brenda Colvin are at The MERL, fully catalogued and open to all by appointment: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/brenda-colvin.

The Landscape Institute collection at MERL: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collections/landscape-institute/

For more information about FOLAR: https://www.folar.uk/

Annabel DownsComment