New guide for clients in progress

16 Sep 2011

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A very big thank you indeed this week to all of the practices who sent in case studies for our new Client’s Guide, which is due to be published early next year. An amazing 125 case studies came in, which was many more than expected and a wonderful improvement on the usual response rate. 

All the schemes submitted were posted along the wall of a large room and the picture above shows what an amazing range of projects we received. So many in fact that it was hard to fit them all in.All of the submissions were considered by a selection panel who have managed to reduce the 125 submitted to a long list of 40. The final selection will be made next month.

These 125 schemes are a very interesting cross-section of the profession’s work and as I looked at them they very much brought to mind the recent work we have done on specialisms. We asked practices to indicate whether they were presenting each scheme as an exemplar of landscape design, urban design, management, planning, or science. The interesting thing was that a large proportion of projects ticked two or more of those boxes, and even if the practice had not ticked several boxes, it was clear from looking at the scheme that each had its own particular mix of relevance across these areas. 

This very much echoed what members had said in the recent consultation about specialisms – that the idea of fixed divisions within the membership has long ago ceased to have any useful meaning. Landscape architects work on all kinds of projects, each requiring a particular blend of specialist skills , but it is the skills which are specialist, not the professional. For several years the intention has been to replace the old fixed divisions with a more flexible set of descriptions that better reflect the scope of work members currently do.

The final proposals on specialisms will go to Council in October and we expect to publish the Client Guide in January. 

 

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