Landscape architects appointed for Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent
Congratulations to Spacehub on being appointed as landscape architects for Ebbsfleet Garden City. I hope they will be able to follow the landscape urbanism principle, that urban design should be led by landscape architects. A possible problem with this is that a firm of master planners (Aecom) and a firm of architects (Maccreanor Lavington) have also been appointed. Let’s hope the landscape architects will be doing more than the planting design.
The Wikipedia entry on Landscape Urbanism opens with the statement that ‘Landscape Urbanism is a theory of urban planning arguing that the best way to organize cities is through the design of the city’s landscape, rather than the design of its buildings.’
Tom Turner
Spacehub are led by founder Giles Charlton and Tom Smith and have been going since 2010. Charlton is from the Capita Lovejoy stable where he spent ten years, his education as a landscape architect was at Cheltenham (Univ. of Gloucester). His fellow director Tom Smith is ex AECOM which took over EDAW and he spent nine years at EDAW/AECOM. He is also a landscape architect, educated at Kingston University: he has lectured on the landscape urbanism course at the AA since 2009.
AECOM were awarded the masterplan commission for Ebbsfleet last week (beginning 12 Oct. 2015) by the Ebbsfleet Urban Development Corporation, see http://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1368723/aecom-lands-ebbsfleet-garden-city-masterplan-contract.
Spacehub are a sub-consultant to AECOM along with architects Maccreanor Lavington, commercial property and real estate consultant, Cushman & Wakefield, see
http://www.costar.co.uk/en/assets/news/2015/October/AECOMCushman-team-picked-for-Ebbsfleet-masterplan/
Essentially Ebbsfleet is about the re-use of the new town Development Corporation model.