News
Landscape Centrepiece of Thames Gateway
24th November 2006
The Landscape Institute has welcomed the announcement by Secretary of State Ruth Kelly of the Thames Estuary Parklands initiative at the Thames Gateway Forum.
“This initiative has put landscape architecture centre-stage in the Thames Gateway, the biggest strategic development project in the country,” said Nigel Thorne, president of the Landscape Institute.
The Thames Estuary Parklands report was commissioned by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) from Landscape Institute registered practice LDA Design, on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government. It followed research for CABE and the Countryside Agency, also undertaken by LDA Design, into the character and identity of the Thames Gateway.
John Hopkins, LDA design director and a fellow of the Institute, was the chief author.
LDA Design’s aim for the Estuary Parklands is to create an international flagship for regeneration and development, adding economic value, championing great design and promoting sustainable living.
“The Parklands concept is the core of the Strategic Framework for the Gateway,” said Nigel Thorne, “and with the masterplanning for the Olympic park at the west of the Gateway also being led by a landscape architect, Jason Prior of EDAW, it is clear that the future health and prosperity of the South East is dependent on inspiring visions of landscape.
“Landscape is the context within which strategic development takes place. These sites are complex but unified by landscape. Landscape architects have the holistic skills to understand their disparate characters and provide the transforming design and management talent which can serve the environment and the communities which make their lives there.
“Issues like climate change and the need for well-designed new homes in sustainable communities are increasingly bringing home to politicians and key decision-makers the strategic importance of the profession of landscape architecture.”
Source: LI
