‘Rethinking the Urban Landscape’ opens on 8 January
A new exhibition curated by The Building Centre and the Landscape Institute will exemplify how landscape architecture can offer sustainable solutions to the big challenges facing contemporary urban society including flooding and public health.
‘Rethinking the Urban Landscape’, opens at The Building Centre on 8 January sponsored by ACO Technologies Plc and Penter.
Showcasing some of the UK’s most powerful contemporary landscape projects, including King’s Cross and the Olympic Park, alongside small, community-led schemes including pocket parks and community allotments, and a number of award-winning schemes from overseas, the exhibition will highlight the importance of investing in green infrastructure if our cities are to become more liveable, healthy and safe.
Noel Farrer, President of the Landscape Institute, says: ‘Proper land use is now becoming a matter of urgency, with concerns such as the housing crisis, flooding, public health and even food shortages coming to the fore. Lives are being threatened and billions of pounds are being wasted for want of earlier stage investment in the landscape.
‘This exhibition is about highlighting the urgent need for a landscape-led approach to our towns and cities. Landscape architects are able to find solutions from within the natural landscape, avoiding highly engineered responses and ultimately creating schemes that are more sustainable, better-designed and nicer to live in.’
Colin Tweedy, chief executive of The Building Centre, says: ‘While this Show features fantastic projects, it’s a major concern that most of our city planning does not meet these standards. We’re delighted to work with the Landscape Institute on this major celebration of the value of good landscape architecture.’
The Show’s co-curators, Lewis Blackwell, executive director of strategy at The Building Centre, and Paul Lincoln, deputy chief executive at the Landscape Institute, call for earlier input by landscape architects into major projects in order to create healthier, safer and happier places in which people can live, work and play; and to counter blights on modern life such as flooding and poor air quality.
They argue for more long-term and joined-up thinking from government and developers, to ensure that landscape know-how is embedded into planning, transport and environmental policies.
‘Re-thinking the Urban Landscape’ will run from 8th January to 10th February. The exhibition will feature 45 leading contemporary landscape projects from the UK and abroad.
There will also be a seminar programme reflecting many of the themes of the exhibition.
The exhibition will then go on tour later in the year.
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