The last couple of weeks have been a bit strange. Out of the blue, the world seemed to go completely mad for a few of days as riots and looting broke out – first in London and then in Manchester, Birmingham and other cities across England. It was a time when I had serious, if brief, concerns about staff members, some of whom had to find their way home on Monday evening through lines of riot police, rioters and broken glass. On the Tuesday, we closed the office at six so everyone could get home before dark. In the end nobody was directly affected and things seemed to go back to normal fairly quickly.
What, I was left wondering, is so odd about England, given that there were no riots in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland? I wondered too about public space, about the parts of our cities which are effectively gang territory and where others fear to tread. I thought about the city centres like the Birmingham Bullring, where a lot of money has been spent and big improvements made, and where, until a few days ago, people could feel safe and confident. As well as the loss of property, the riots have resulted in a loss of trust and that kind of social vacuum can be very damaging. No doubt many landscape architects will be in the front line of work to help communities rebuild, restore public spaces and recreate the feeling of genuinely shared public space, which is so vital for civilised life to flourish. Initiatives like the amazing Eastern Curve project in Hackney will play a really important role in restoring a local community`s and, indeed, an entire city`s sense of itself.
Hopefully September will be a much more positive month than August for London, as we unveil a major new initiative to put people in touch with fascinating landscapes of many different types and scales. For nearly 20 years, Open House London has made it possible for the public to see hundreds of architectural treasures that are not normally open to the public. For the first time this year, we have persuaded the organisers to include landscapes as well as buildings, so there will be more than fifty landscapes to explore.
Have a look at http://landscapeinstitute.org/openhouse.php to see the fantastic choice of walks available, many of them led by members of the London branch of the LI. We are confident this new initiative will be a great success in London and hope that, in the future, cities outside of London (which take place in Heritage Open Days, a similar initiative to Open House) will include landscape in their event. And, after all, there is no reason to wait for the buildings to open up first – it would be great if the landscape architecture profession could lead another UK city to focus on landscape. Is anyone up for the challenge for 2012?
Woah nelly, how about them aeplps!