Five ways to use landscape to teach, heal and regenerate
The Landscape Institute has announced the shortlist for this year’s Landscape Institute Awards. Five of the 43 shortlisted projects are featured on the following pages.
We have highlighted projects that integrate green landscapes into health, education and housing projects, and which work closely with local communities. The Forth Valley Royal Hospital employs the UK’s first hospital ranger to help deliver activities in a woodland setting, while Rotunda College in Liverpool has a community garden at the heart of its campus. Here+Now are shortlisted for their work to place people at the heart of design and Cornwall Council is recognised for its guidance to local developers on the Cornish ‘sense of place’. A Groundwork UK project is climate-proofing a number of London housing estates.
- For the full shortlist click here.
- Click through the pages below to read featured projects from the shortlist:
- Creating gardens in educational spaces: BCA Landscape
- Assessing a Cornish sense of place: Cornwall Council
- Putting people at the heart of design: Here+Now
- Climate proofing housing estates: Groundwork
- Using woodlands for healing: Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Ian White Associates
Creating gardens in educational spaces: BCA Landscape
BCA Landscape was commissioned to create a community garden as part of the campus of the Rotunda community college in Liverpool. The college is learner-led and runs a range of education programmes for adults and young people, particularly those who have been failed by mainstream education. The kitchen garden grows food for the college’s cafe and provides training and educational opportunities as well as a space for events.
Assessing a Cornish sense of place: Cornwall Council
The public space team at Cornwall Council has created guidance to protect the natural heritage and beauty of the Cornish countryside as communities take steps to create local plans for their neighbourhoods. The guidance says: ‘Cornwall’s landscape is our greatest finite economic asset.’
Putting people at the heart of design: Here+Now
Here+Now is celebrating its first year in practice as Scotland’s first not-for-profit landscape architecture and co-design studio. Its multi-disciplinary team aims to put people at the heart of place and design. Its projects include the Inner Forth landscape initiative to engage people in the Inner Forth area in the stories of its heritage, including walkabouts with school children.
Climate proofing housing estates: Groundwork
Groundwork worked with local residents on three housing estates in the Hammersmith and Fulham council area of London, to design and implement climate change adaptations from green roofs to sustainable urban drainage systems.
Using woodlands for healing: Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Ian White Associates
The Forth Valley Royal Hospital was built in the early 19th century in the grounds of a 13 hectare estate. The woodland and greenspace adjacent to the hospital had been left unmanaged however, until Ian White Associates was commissioned to revitalise the landscape and create spaces that patients, staff and locals could use to enhance their wellbeing and speed up their healing.
The hospital now holds Tai Chi classes in the woodland, ‘Branching Out’ activities to improve mental health, and employs the first hospital ranger in the UK to engage patients in woodland based recovery. The hospital is a case study demonstrating the potential of using hospital green spaces for health and wellbeing.
