Cathy Dee's New Book 'To Design Landscape' Out Now.
To Design Landscape sets out a distinctively practical philosophy of design, in accessible format. Based on the notion that landscape design is a form-based craft addressing environmental processes and utility, Dee establishes a framework for approaching such craft with modesty and ingenuity, using the concept of "aesthetics of thrift".
Employing numerous case studies-as diverse as Hellerup Rose Garden in Denmark; Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, USA; Rousham Gardens, Oxfordshire, UK and Tofuku-ji, in Kyoto, Japan - to illustrate her ideas, the book is a beautiful portfolio of Dee's drawings, which are both evocative and to the point.
The book begins with a 'Foundations' section, which sets out the basis of the approach. 'Principles' chapters then elaborate eleven significant considerations applicable to any design project, regardless of context and scale. Following on, 'Strategies' chapters reinforce the principles, and suggest further ways of designing, adaptable to different conditions. Dee ends with a focus on 'Elements', case studies and verb lists providing sources for the designer to consider how the components - vegetation, water, terrain, structures, soils, weather, and the sky - might be engaged, mediated and joined.
Catherine Dee’s book is for all those who would craft landscape, from the gardener, to the professional landscape architect, to the student of design.
More information about this book can be found here.
NEW BOOK ADDED TO THE ‘SHEFFIELD BOOKSHELF’!
Small Green Roofs: Low-Tech Options for Greener Living by Nigel Dunnett, Dusty Gedge, John Little and Edmund C. Sondgrass is published by Timber Press. This is the first book to focus on the small-scale green roofs, calling on case studies of projects from around the world.
NEW BOOK ADDED TO THE ‘SHEFFIELD BOOKSHELF’!
Urban Wildscapes, edited by Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan (published by Routledge), is one of the first edited collections of writings about urban ‘wilderness’ landscapes. Evolved, rather than designed or planned, these derelict, abandoned and marginal spaces are frequently overgrown with vegetation and host to a wide range of human activities. They include former industrial sites, landfill, allotments, cemeteries, woods, infrastructural corridors, vacant lots and a whole array of urban wastelands at a variety of different scales. Frequently maligned in the media, these landscapes have recently been re-evaluated and this collection assembles these fresh perspectives in one volume.
More information about the Urban Wildscapes book can be found here.
Nigel Dunnett's Latest Book Shortlisted for Award
Nigel's latest book 'Small Green Roofs' has been shortlisted for 'book of the year' by the Garden Media Guild, for their 2011 annual awards.
Her Majesty the Queen visits Sheffield´s award winning garden
Her Majesty the Queen visited a garden created by Professor Nigel Dunnett from the University of Sheffield's Department of Landscape at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week (Monday 23 May 2011).
The Chelsea Flower Show is the world's premier garden design showcase. Professor Dunnett's entry, the New Wild Garden, won the Silver Gilt Flora Award in the prestigious Show Garden category.
Students from the University's Department of Landscape helped to create the garden, sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada and delivered in collaboration with York-based landscape architecture practice, The Landscape Agency.
The students created sculptural elements of the garden in Sheffield before installing them at the show in time for the opening. The garden uses Professor Dunnett´s main research areas to showcase features such as a green roof, water conservation, rainwater recycling, biodiversity and cutting-edge horticulture.
Out of hundreds of entries at the show, the Queen only visited a select number of gardens. Professor Dunnett was honoured to be in the chosen few, saying: "The Queen visiting our garden was a huge honour as she only sees five or six from the whole show. It was wonderful to meet her and to see how much she appreciated our entry. We're also really happy to have won the Silver Gilt. What means the most is the overwhelming positive response from all the visitors to the show, with many of them saying it was their favourite entry."
In 2009 Nigel was awarded a Silver Gilt medal at the Chelsea Flower Show for his garden called Future Nature. This garden was partly supported by the University's Alumni Fund and has since been relocated to Sheffield where it was formally opened this month as part of a news artist's studio complex on the Green Estate at Sheffield Manor Lodge.
To find out more about the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, visit:
RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Text taken from http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mediacentre/2011/queen-visits-sheffield-garden.html
Professor Nigel Dunnett Designs Garden for Chelsea Flower Show
Nigel Dunnett has designed one of the main show gardens at this year's Chelsea Flower Show. The garden is called 'The New Wild Garden', and is sponsored by The Royal Bank of Canada, and being delivered in collaboration with the landscape architecture practice, 'The Landscape Agency'. The garden represents a contemporary re-interpretation of the Arts and Crafts movement in garden design (celebrating local materials, sense of place, and high quality craft), and the ideas of Victorian Horticulturist, William Robinson, who pioneered the use of perennials in gardens, and wrote the classic book 'The Wild Garden'. The garden is intended to be a place of inspiration and relaxation, and of work: a garden studio forms the centre-piece of the garden which is used by a writer, artist or sculptor. The building is created from a former shipping container, which has already travelled 10,000 miles around the world. Key themes include: rain water conservation and infiltration; biodiversity and habitat structures as sculptural elements in the garden; and colourful plantings of native and non-native plants in naturalistic mixes.
Four students from the Department of Landscape have been heavily involved with the preparations for the garden: Amelia Sullivan (level 2), Monika Lis, Emily Schroeder and Sam Whithall (MA1) have made sculptural inserts that form the main parts of 'urban drystone walls' within the garden. The insert boxes were all made in Sheffield, and then transported down to the show site. The students have present during three days of the garden build, helping build the walls, and also helping with planting activities.
The Chelsea Flower Show is the world's premier garden design showcase, and presents a great opportunity to experience creative and innovative approaches to design, and use of materials and planting
Department of Landscape featured in the New Scientist
2 April 2011, Magazine issue No 2806, p. 23, article by Duncan Graham-Rowe, www.newscientist.com
Not in my backyard! App to spot eyesores in the making
It is the dream app for Nimbys everywhere: an augmented reality (AR) iPhone app that allows you to visualise what new developments will look like. That means you can complain, if necessary before construction begins, which could make life easier for town planners.
Interested parties can view a 3D digital model of the proposed build in situ, so they can work out how it might affect them, says Eckart Lange, head of landscape planning at the University of Sheffield in the UK. He has been looking at different visualisation tools as part of a project called the Urban River Corridors and Sustainable Living Agendas, which aims to regenerate urban rivers. With the Walkabout 3D Mobile app installed on their iPhone or iPad, visitors to a building site can view the 3D model, created with Google's tool SketchUp, overlaid on the landscape. They can check if the work will overlook their property, block out sunlight or simply be an eyesore, he says.
(excerpt from the article)
Student Videos from Recent Field Trip to Paris Now Online
Our 3rd year and 1st year postgraduates went on a field trip to Paris in June 2010, visiting various parks and open spaces around the city. The students filmed and documented what they saw and these videos are now available on YouTube.
Click here to go to the departmental YouTube page
Landscape Institute Awards 09: Sheffield student winners!
Congratulations to Sheffield graduates Rowland Byass, Marta de la Bellacasa, and Katherine Jackson on winning Landscape Institute Awards. The awards are presented to encourage and recognise outstanding examples of work by the landscape profession.
The Department of Landscape together with Ark Design and Management Ltd are exhibiting an innovative garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The “Future Nature” garden is based on principles of sustainability, making the most of recycled materials and stored rainwater to create a colourful, wildlife-friendly display. Dr Nigel Dunnett, Reader in the Department of Landscape says “The garden is a living demonstration of research that has been carried out in the Department of Landscape over the past 10 years: research which has helped to gain the Department an international reputation as a leader in its field. In particular this research relates to green roofs, living walls, rain gardens and sustainable urban drainage, and to new approaches to urban public planting, and the naturalistic use of herbaceous perennial planting. All these feature and components have a positive environmental function in either sustainable management of rainwater and flood prevention and/or the promotion of biodiversity in urban areas.”
Much of the hard work in constructing the garden has been done by students from the Department, and it has received generous sponsorship from the Sheffield University Alumni Fund and Yorkshire Water. When the Show is over, the garden will be re-located at the Manor Estate in Sheffield, where it will be an important asset for the community. It will also provide a unique teaching resource for future students in the Department.
Click here for Sheffield Telegraph article
*UPDATE* Congratulations to Nigel Dunnett and his design team at Chelsea on being awarded the Silver-Gilt Flora, just below a gold.
Click the link to see Nigel and Ark Designs award winning garden at Chelsea
Dr Anna Jorgensen and Marian Tylecote of the Department of Landscape, together with Richard Keenan and Katy Atkinson of Environment Room, have just published an ebook entitled ‘Urban Wildscapes’.
This richly-illustrated book is based on the speaker presentations at the Urban Wildscapes conference on 7th September 2007, and is a fascinating, inter-disciplinary and agenda-setting collection of research and ideas about the value, meanings and functions of wild and nature-like urban landscapes. The book contains chapters by Anna Jorgensen, Chris Baines, Tim Edensor, Catharine Ward Thompson, Christopher Woodward, Ian Rotherham, Steve Hinchcliffe, Andreas Langer, Cathy Dee, John Deller, Helen Morse Palmer, Marion Shoard, Marian Tylecote and Katy Atkinson.
Visit the Urban Wildscapes web site to download a copy free of charge.
'Natural' Play Environments Conference - July 1st and 2nd and September 16th and 17th
The aim of the event is to provide additional information about designing play spaces in a more ‘natural’ manner.
Click here to download a booking form
Click here to download programme
This conference is sponsored by
European Landscape Convention Workshop - 20th November 2007
On 20 November, academics, politicians, government officials and advisers from across Europe came to Sheffield for a seminar organised by the Landscape Research Group, an educational charity, in association with the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield.
Click here to read more
For more information, contact Paul Selman
The Oriental Garden: Changing Perspectives and Horizons - 18th January 2007
This conference will present some of the ground breaking research on Far Eastern landscape and garden design that is currently being undertaken at British Universities. The aim of this conference is to serve as an exchange of ideas and to encourage a lively debate. The three key note speakers of the day are Dr Frances Wood (British Library), Dr Alison Hardie (Leeds University) and Dr Jill Raggett (Writtle College).
Click here to download the programme
Please contact Jan Woudstra or Denise Hall for more information.
Green Roof Conference 2006: What Can Green Roofs Do For You? - 20th and 21st June 2006
An internationally recognised group of speakers, focused discussions, and inspiring events to showcase the real and practical benefits of roof greening in Britain.
This is a conference that won’t revolve around general statements about how wonderful green roofs are. Instead it will focus on hard information, and translate proven green roof benefits into language we can all understand – how can investment in green roof infrastructure give us pay-back, whether this be in financial terms, fitting legal and policy requirements, or simply meeting essential social, aesthetic and environmental needs in different settings.
Click here to go to the conference website
This conference will be hosted by
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