Posh Indulgence
For many people, landscape means glamorous garden shows, latin plant names and wealthy landowners indulging the latest trend in perennials. In cities, landscape architecture is often seen as a soft posh luxury sprucing up dubious regeneration projects with cosmetic greenery – a pleasant but bougie addendum to the hard graft of urban design. For too long allotments, community gardens and city farms have only appealed to a small minority of predominantly middle class, largely white and usually retired hobbyists. But in recent years set piece projects like the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park have democratised landscape culture. And now ambitious strategies to activate landscapes and bestow a sense of ‘place’ are delivering a powerful new sense of common ownership which transcends title deeds.
Critical Struggle
Land, and who has access to it, has been at the heart of all struggles for a more equitable society for centuries. Bound up in wealth, power and democracy the question of who shapes our landscape is a question of who controls the city. Holistic landscape design is often the difference between a thriving neighbourhood and an alienating streetscape. Decent space for gardening and growing is a lifeline for thousands supporting good health, independence and tackling food poverty. Landscape is at the root of how we fight climate change, address urban inequity and create a better city. There is no justice without land justice and no cityscape without landscape. The two are inseparable, and the next generation of urban practitioners must democratise them both.
Created as part of the Open City Stewardship Awards and the Accelerate programme in association with Peabody, this debate will examine the role of land ownership, bringing together essential voices in the conversation to discuss the role of landscape architecture in relation to the burning social issue of land justice in London.
Each speaker will both defend and critique the world of landscape design, celebrating its strengths and challenging its failures. For any designer entering education or practice in the built environment, this is a battle that needs to be fought.
Guests:
Marcela Escobar (Architect at Van Heyningen and Haward Architects)
Dilip Lakhani (Landscape Architect and Chair of Landscape Institute London)
Phil Askew (Director of Landscape & Placemaking at Peabody)
Carole Wright (Manager of Peabody Blackfriars and Brookwood Triangle community gardens)
Nicola Read (Founder and Director, Host of Leyton, Designer and Educator)
Louis Smith-Lassey (Urban Designer and Projects Officer at Shared Assets)
This event will finish at 9pm.
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