design of public spaces

Landscape design is much more than the tidying up of the spaces left by development, yet that is how it is often treated. I like to take a different approach, looking at the whole environment and working wherever possible, with architects, planners, civil engineers etc to help create whole environments which are sustainable, ecologically benign, psychologically nourishing and which therefore upgrade our experience of living in the built environment.

There are pressures on our resources, the like of which have never before been seen. Within the next few years, designers of our environments will have to provide answers to difficult questions - how do we live better lives, in a sustainable way? How do we cut pollution and save resources, without compromising the quality of our individual lives? The design of landscape has a part to play in answering some of these issues and is the underlying discipline which unites all others - architecture, urban design, civil engineering, transportation, housing. All these things take place within our landscape. Landscape design ties them all together and to find the future answers that we need today, all these sectors must learn to work together.

What other discipline can take elements as diverse as art, ecology and rainwater drainage and tie them together into a coherent whole? The visionary designer can take the aspirations of the artist and the practical concerns of the engineer and produce something that works for both, to the betterment and the delight of many.