The High Streets Task Force

The Landscape Institute (LI) is one of four professional bodies participating in the High Streets Task Force: a consortium of organisations helping to revitalise England’s high streets and town centres by providing training, guidance and data to the people who make them.

Through the Task Force, a register of experts, mentors and facilitators provide direct support to local authorities and local communities.

highstreetstaskforce.org.uk

The proposition

What do landscape architects bring to multidisciplinary regeneration projects?

Relative to the size of our membership, the Landscape Institute is well-represented on the High Streets Task Force Experts Register.

‘Landscape architects are often the brokers, the collaborators, the binding agents. We hold multidisciplinary design teams closer together because we consider context and understand how people use space between built form and engineered elements.’

Landscape architects create places to endure and evolve, serving multiple uses and users. But far from being generalists, landscape architects are skilled specialists. They have the professional tools to decipher the often-complex interconnectivity of places. They envision, communicate, design, and ultimately deliver tangible benefits, not only for the people who inhabit or use a place, but for wildlife and the wider environment.

What’s more, a landscape-led vision is not immutable. Landscape architects are trained to not approach a project with a pre-conceived vision; they take inspiration from the site, the planning context, the local environment and the people.

Landscape architects work inclusively with communities to create places that not only meet people’s needs, but also enhance their spirits. They recognise that people, place and nature are interconnected, and that by empowering and improving all three, they deliver the best possible outcomes.

With their holistic, inclusive and equitable approach, from vision to delivery and ongoing management, landscape architects are a vital player throughout a project. They can shift dexterously from delivering singular, specialist interventions to broad strategic direction, creating discussion and bringing together the views of all stakeholders to help a place reach its fullest potential.

Services

About Landscape Institute HSTF Experts, Mentors and Facilitators

All LI experts, mentors and facilitators:

  • work for a Landscape Institute Registered Practice
  • are a Fellow or a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute
  • have at least five years’ experience in a relevant landscape specialism

The 12 specialist areas in which LI members are delivering expert advice and support are:

  1. Public realm design
  2. Masterplanning (including visioning)
  3. Visualisation and photography
  4. Landscape assessment
  5. Sustainability, climate change and resilience
  6. Community engagement (including co-design)
  7. Inclusive design
  8. Landscape construction and implementation
  9. Landscape engineering
  10. Landscape, park, or visitor management
  11. Procurement and tendering
  12. Water Management (including water-sensitive urban design and SuDS)

See the full list of of experts, mentors and facilitators appointed by the Task Force.

Latest news

Resources

Partnerships for People and Place

Understanding future users of the high street

Task Force briefing with Daniel Houghton

Guidance, 12 July 2021

Guidelines on how to apply to be one of up to 15 pilot local authorities for the Partnerships for People and Place project, which aims to improve place-based policy outcomes for local places.

Webinar, 5 July 2021

The demographics of high street users are changing. This webinar helps place leaders understand the needs of young people, and how they should shape future plans for towns and cities.

Webinar, 19 May 2021

Daniel Houghton, the first LI member to work on an HSTF project, discusses his experience with some of the pilot high streets.

Delivering change through landscape

HSTF resource hub

Webinar, 22 February 2021

A 30-minute discussion about how landscape design can transform town and city centres, presented by the Landscape Institute as part of the High Streets Task Force webinar series.

Resource library

Hundreds of open-access case studies, evidence and research papers, best practice examples and more, curated by the Task Force, to support high street transformation.

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