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Read now an explanation from those THE LAWNS no means exclusively English, the who know……... Lawns may be about to host the picnic Contributors “Phytophthora ramorum (P. by Philip Pacey party depicted in Manet's Déjeuner sur Phi li p Pacey ramorum) is a fungus-like pathogen of After leaving Southampton, the train l'Herbe — you can almost hear the Owen Manning plants that is causing extensive damage from London to Christchurch and be- jangle of the harness of their pony trap; yond, wends its way through the New Tessa Goodman and mortality to trees and other plants soon they, but not it, will appear, open in parts of the United Kingdom”. (I am Forest, stopping at Brockenhurst and, the hamper, pour champagne, and — Davi d Harman and rarely, at Beaulieu Road, a station, a quoting now from the Forestry joy of joys! the ladies will undress as if landscape Emma Waterton Commission website). “ It has also been handful of cottages and a hotel sur- nothing could be more natural. rounded by heath, exposed on all sides, research Bärbel Franci s and found in a number of European coun- Vera Vicenzotti tries, but mostly on plants and shrubs, in the middle of nowhere. The heath The New Forest is a landscape of doesn't quite reach the horizon; this Bud Young especially rhododendron, viburnum and 'prospect and shelter', not exactly extra 62 camellia, and has caused significant vast open space is — distantly — en- 'picturesque', contrived and planted to closed; the train emerges from wood- damage and mortality to many trees be seen as a picture, but designed and Copy deadline for and other plants in parts of the USA. land and, after crossing the heath, is managed precisely to give shelter to reclaimed by woodland, immersing its LRE 63 However, few trees in the UK were the monarch's deer and to enhance the June 2012 affected until 2009, when P. ramorum- passengers once again in the depths of prospects of the chase. To enter the September 1st the forest, running through patches of was found infecting and killing large woodland and walk among the Lawns numbers of Japanese larch trees in dreary, regimented plantation but also, is to sacrifice the view for shelter and exquisitely, affording glimpses of South West England. Then in 2010 it opportunities to study the flora and was found on Japanese larches in lawns, sunlit glades where cropped fauna close-to; it is to be unable to 'see

Wales, Northern Ireland and the Re- grass grows beneath the trees where, the wood for the trees'. Deer are here, public of Ireland, and 2011 it was con- or so it seems to me, grass shouldn't be relatively secure, not too afraid to able to grow — where it should by Sudden larch death firmed at locations in western Scot- emerge cautiously from the bracken; land.This sudden change in the patho- rights be undernourished, suffocated by not spooked by the trains. One day, it may have been March, driving from Moretonhampstead to Bovey Tracey those familiar shade and fallen leaves and whatever gen’s behaviour was the first time in larches on the hill side of the Wray valley — the ones that go to red gold in the autumn, you know the the world that P. ramorum had infected plants succeed on the forest floor. This But what am I doing! writing as if in ones — they aren’t there any more! Or they are but just look at them! No one performs forestry like forest floor is a carpet, kept trim by the and sporulated (reproduced) on large the forest when a moment ago I was numbers of a commercially important constant grazing of ponies and cattle, peering at it from a passing train? The this! And they are still there months later as I write this. What a mess, what a loss! What’s it all about? conifer tree species. It was also an un- not natural but a by-product of forest truth is, that having seen the Lawns

expected setback to efforts to tackle management over hundreds of years, from trains so many times, there came a but, to my eyes, utterly magical. ramorum disease. We (the Forestry day when I simply had to experience Commission) and our partners have them directly. So I claimed a few hours

moved quickly to respond to this devel- The Lawns, for so they are called, are for myself and caught a stopping train opment. Full details about the pathogen scenes from a mythic, pastoral land- to Beaulieu Road, where the platform is scape which nymphs and shepherds and what’s being done to research it, so short that passengers can only alight minimise its impact, and support af- have only just left and to which they from the front coach. I was reminded of may return at any moment. fected woodland owners are available another day, many years ago, when my at the links on this page. The wife and I got off a train at Berney end-of-season report on the P. ‘The fairies break their dances/ and Arms in Norfolk, then watched the ramorum management programme leave the printed lawns’ train disappear into the distance, taking

during 2011 is now available. As is an (as it seemed) civilisation with it, leav- update report. The Forestry Commis- wrote Housman, not of this landscape ing us without concealment, alone un- but of somewhere equally enchanted. sion have published a one-stop-shop der the sky in a silence embroidered by 'update' report in accessible language Printed lawns? Printed, presumably, by birdsong. Here, as I had known there summarising all aspects of the P. the lightest of footprints, leaving almost would be, there was at least a hotel. ramorum outbreak in larch. It summa- no impression. Nobody can be seen; After partaking of some local ale, I set somebody must be there, in such a rises a range of topics including the out across the open moor, on a path of current scientific knowledge, symptoms kempt landscape, yet their presence is white sand. I soon found myself under not felt to be threatening. I'm reminded and treatment, its impact on the timber the trees, amid a silence broken only by market, and advice and assistance to of Tolkien's Rivendell — a secret val- occasional trains and aircraft high over- woodland owners”. ley rather than a sprawling forest — a head, the mocking laugh of the green wooded place, where in an 'open glade' woodpecker, and a deer crashing there is heard a 'burst of song' – the Note through bracken. If I had hoped to see I am grateful to the Forestry Commis- singing of elves who initially choose birds I would have been disappointed; not to reveal themselves. Or the scene sion website for this explanation. My what I did see were butterflies in abun- first instinct as I looked this up was to is set for the entire company of A Mid- dance, including Silver-washed Fritil- read about it in Nature but found that summer Night's Dream. 'This green laries. So much larger than most British this would have cost me $18! plot shall be our stage...' Or Shake- butterflies as to seem even larger than speare's Puck may be about to reappear, they actually are. At close quarters I conjured up by Kipling's imagination. witnessed the green sward growing Or, since such pastoral scenes are by under the trees (oaks and birches), sur-

3 4 rounding the trunks. And I satisfied my From the outset, the session’s ambition Refiguring the geopolitics of the mu- desire to engage physically with this was to showcase the growing interest in seum cabinet: Doing post-Imperial Clarke and Waterton illustrate signage landscape by taking off my shoes and both ‘heritage’ and ‘landscape’ as cate- ecologies of nation, art history and cul- socks and walking a little way on the gories of scholarship, identity, experi- ture (Divya Tolia-Kelly) turf in bare feet. (Do not follow my ence and performance, as well as for Contested landscapes of heritage in a example. Adders are common in the purposes of entertainment, commerce suburban housing estate (Gunhild Set- Forest, though I guess on the heath and policy engagement. For us, the two ten and Hilde Nymoen Rortveit) rather on the Lawns). concepts have always seemed to fit Land, Landscape and Heritage from PP nicely together, tagged as being cultural Below in the Scottish Highlands (Iain and natural; tangible and intangible; Robertson) personal, collective and especially Signs of a Distant Past: interpretive ‘national’. The session, then, was an signage and the representation of In- attempt to provoke international and digenous history in Australian pro- interdisciplinary discussion and conver- tected areas (Annie Clarke and Emma Landscapes of sation between those working within Waterton) Heritage and Heritage the realms of landscape and heritage studies, and explore the tensions and Landscapes opportunities that exist with the pairing David Harvey began the session by Report of an LRG-sponsored session at of these most slippery of terms. When examining the recent histories of heri- the inaugural conference for the putting the session together, we hoped tage and landscape studies, focussing Association of Critical Heritage to include papers that covered the upon the twinning of their epistemo- Studies, “Re-theorising Heritage”, range, intensity and quality of the rela- logical, ideological and methodological University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 5–8 tionships between landscape and heri- twists and turns within a common intel- June 2012. tage, with each paper providing explo- lectual and interdisciplinary space. rations of the elements of, and linkages This, he argued, has not been a co- The Association for Critical Heritage between, the production, consumption dependent evolution as such but, rather, Studies hosted its first international and circulation of heritage landscapes a mutually supporting and sometimes conference at the University of Gothen- within a variety of contexts. We were parallel endeavour of academic, policy burg, Sweden, in June 2012, where it not disappointed. Indeed, the papers and popular inquiry that explores the welcomed over 500 delegates and 360 presented collectively canvassed an significance of landscape and heritage papers delivered in 62 themed sessions. array of relationships, including those as meaningful categories of an emer- phers in the production of Finnish na- through the grammars, textures and seen by the same experts to represent One of those sessions, titled Land- occurring in the city and suburbia, as gent and processual nature. Using the tional landscape imagery. His focus geopolitics of museum display in- continuity, tradition and heterogeneity scapes of Heritage and Heritage Land- well as rural contexts. Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site as a was landscape images published in the formed by Imperial values of world on a human scale. Fuelled by the al- scapes, co-organised by David Harvey journals of the Geographical Society of cultures. The second part of Divya’s leged failure of the housing estate, in- and Emma Waterton, was sponsored by Finland after Finland’s independence in paper explored these exhibitionary ner city landscapes were rescued in the the Landscape Research Group. This Clarke and Waterton. 1917, which he compared to illustra- practices as framing mechanisms for name of larger environmental and heri- was one of two landscape-themed ses- Site with signage board at foot. tions of popular geographical books the naturalising of Imperial values and tage concerns voiced from the 1970s sions on offer, and added six strong and school books written by profes- their taxonomies of race and culture. onwards. Romolslia, as Gunhild and contributions to the eighteen papers sional geographers. In these examples, Divya also played a key role in generat- Hilde demonstrated, forms one such dedicated to the notion of landscape Hannu explored how the ways of pic- ing and guiding critical debate example. Thus, in addition to outlining delivered at the conference. turing Finnish landscapes continue to surrounding her own and other papers Romolslia as a landscape of heritage, carry the ideals of a modern nation- delivered in the session. they set about questioning how the The session was extremely well at- state in their emphasis on the economic casting of one landscape as heritage tended, with the lecture room filled to relations between society and environ- The fourth paper, offered by Gunhild creates huge tensions both within heri- capacity with approximately 50 confer- ment, which in turn reveals the produc- Setten and Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit, tage debates as well as among residents ence delegates. It opened with an intro- tion of elite-led geographical and his- presented findings from a qualitative of these contested landscapes. duction to the Landscape Research torical imagination. study among residents in the housing Group alongside an accompanying estate ‘Romolslia’ in Trondheim, Nor- Iain Robertson provided the fifth pa- PowerPoint that showcased the Group’s In her presentation, perhaps the high- way, which was built in the late 1960s/ per in the session, in which he explored new website and associated processes light of the session, Divya Tolia-Kelly early 1970s. Soon after its develop- the dissonant nature of the use we put for recruitment and membership. Es- revealed the ways in which the linking ment, Romolslia was stigmatized as a the past to, through the lenses of heri- sentially, this allowed the Group and its of text, artefact, materials and peoples failure, where the morphology of the tage landscapes. Taking the crofting brand to be profiled to a relatively large can reflect a notion of ‘national’ culture estate was mistaken with its inability to landscapes of the Scottish Highlands number of history, geography, sociol- starting-point, David sought to share and art experienced within exhibition- provide its residents with a sense of and, indeed, the croft house itself as his ogy, tourism and heritage scholars at a The running order of papers given was: with the audience the mutual ground of ary practices. The first part of her paper home, a critique voiced by a number of main focus, Iain explored how the very well-attended international confer- heritage and landscape, underlining the explored the effect of Imperial taxono- experts, among them planners, archi- ‘scape can be better understood as an ence. As organisers, David and Emma Landscape and heritage: the parallel spaces between issues of obduracy and mies of culture on the exhibition of tects and psychologists. Crucially, this expression of heritage from below. In hope to bring together the papers from lines of emerging landscapes of heri- dynamism; the personal and the public Maori culture and artefacts in the Brit- critique was paralleled, maybe even this presentation, the croft house was the session and develop them into a tage (David Harvey) that are common to both fields. ish Museum and Te Papa (Aotearoa). determined, by the attention paid to seen as a locus, or focal point, for con- special journal issue, subject to the Landscapes, state, and geography: na- By narrating the ways in which Maori often heavily decaying inner city land- temporary conceptualisations of land usual peer-reviewing process. tional content of Finnish geographical Following from David, Hannu national culture has been exhib- scapes, many of them under threat of and identity, and as tangible manifesta- landscape imageries (Hannu Linkola) Linkola discussed the role of geogra- ited, Divya guided the audience demolition. These landscapes were tion of heritage from below. Based 5 6 upon this particular rendering of his A good high street, in one building sad emptiness of a threadbare land Trust's office tenants (which included case study, Iain was able to argue that some exceptionally interesting without people. Hardly understanding the Scottish Secretary of State, no less) heritage landscapes act as powerfully masonry, geologically that is — is this HOW TO BECOME A what I saw, I seized on the one other — put me on a rapid learning curve. as signifiers of local and counter radiolarian chert of the lower Culm? ANTHOLOGY obvious lack and wrote passionately to “What about these drains, then?” hegemonic identities as they do for — a one time station, a wonderful LANDSCAPE the The Times, at a time of public de- greeted me as I breezed on to the site, national identity. archaic latrine at the bridge flushed by ‘Character and Growth of Outer London’ ARCHITECT bate about forestry, that this land was prepared to be tough about tree-roots. a river offtake — a gushing leat which not merely desolate, but “derelict, dev- (Drains? What drains? Our surveyors The final paper of the session was of- once carried waste straight into the Between the wars, during the various PART TWO abortive attempts to plan the growth of astated, its bare hills eroding before hadn't found any.) Work on the M9 – fered by Annie Clarke and Emma river. The churchyard stands on a low By Owen Manning one's eyes.” It needed trees – any trees where meeting engineers on site I Waterton and their examination of hill right in among the town and there London as a whole, and in spite of the at all! proudly trained my new binoculars on how indigenous cultures and their con- we were astonished to find very old piecemeal planning characteristic of a I ended the first part of my stroll into a distant building and the slogan GO nections to country are presented to the yew trees (usually called venerable or period unparalleled in the production the landscape profession around 1968 Scotland never ceased to excite and HOME ENGLISH leaped out at me -- public in protected areas. For this, An- ancient but let’s say v. old) their bases of approved and interim schemes, an with lessons learned from charmingly disturb all at once, but later I came to was quickly followed by the Kelvin nie and Emma drew upon the lenses of unbridled rush of building was pro- eccentric Frank Clarke and Laurie understand its history, and also – en- Walkway linking Glasgow's heart with textual analysis, which they applied to ceeding in the form of a scamper over Fricker in Edinburgh: to question eve- thused by Tansley's classic Britain's its countryside, and then an ambitious the interpretive signage found within the home counties, practically uncon- rything, to work things out for oneself, Green Mantle – that there might be private golf-course carved out of dere- Uluru Kata -Tjuta National Park. At trolled by the so-called planning con- and to start from a belief that ordinary better things to grow than the forester's lict estate woodland, where I annoyed the heart of their paper lay the proposi- trol, which was at best a veneer, in the people mattered. Reinforced by the favourite sitka spruce! In my first po- clients by committing them to provid- tion that in protected areas different absence of powers to preserve agricul- writing of Jane Jacobs and Nan Fair- sition following the Edinburgh course, ing public access throughout (I wonder representational tropes are used to in- tural land without incurring enormous brother, this was a golden thread to on a new landscape team led with quiet if it ever was?). terpret colonial/settler, natural heritage claims for compensation. weave into my perceptions of what passion by Mike Tooby for Renfrew and Indigenous landscapes and places. landscape design was all about. County Planning office, I absorbed the Bill Gillespie was a new kind of land- These tropes present to the visitor an The relationship between housing and Meanwhile Scotland itself was opening beauty of native woods and hedgerows scape architect for me, fizzing with interpretive strategy that is largely industry was almost entirely ignored. my eyes to still more...... in gentle lowland landscapes while energy, relishing the business of office hierarchical in scope, leading — Huge schemes of decentralised dwell- assessing old estates for TPO's and practice – his own due to expand into potentially, at least — to the alienation ings were carried out by local authori- ties, and vast housing estates were It already had done shortly before, dur- exploring the feasibility of countryside one of the country's largest – while of contemporary communities from recreation. This was the bold new idea enthusiastically seizing every opportu- country and history through a distant created by private enterprise, while ing three months on a volunteer project unrelated trading estates, or ‘parks’ of which took me to far north-west Suth- of the time (Renfrewshire's Muirshiel nity for creative and pioneering design. and detached view of culture, author- Country Park was Scotland's first, I ised via the template of scientific ob- industry on the one hand, and isolated erland. I'd done such things previ- factories on the other hand, largely ously: laying on a water supply for an believe), though it, or I, was not always Charlotte Square itself demonstrated a jectivity. (See the two illustrations welcome. “What's brewing in that new integrated approach for gardens back from this text). abandoning the traditional industrial Austrian village, fencing and shepherd- sitings, wallowed in the sea of subur- ing on Fair Isle, and other worthy ac- bloody mind of yours, then?” asked backing splendid Georgian terraces one landowner as I approached with which avoided their destruction solely All six papers engendered lively ban housing. tivities, in situations quite new to someone of my cosy background. naïve enthusiasm and an irredeemably for car parking. For the M9, called in debate and discussions from the audi- English accent. to reduce the impact of a contentious ence, prompting, perhaps, a broader The lack of focal points for the new Sutherland, however, was a more pro- community life became tragically evi- found experience altogether. route (engineers had not been briefed reflection on the intersection of They were sedately exciting times, to consider amenity!) he showed how research on heritage and landscape dent. The two opposite tendencies only produced a jumble; industry, finding Alighting at Lairg railhead from my enlivened by our very own ecologist, sensitive landform and planting could from a broad disciplinary and meth- Frank Bennet, brewer of beer in the – almost — persuade objectors that the odological background. On the back of housing established, followed in the first ever journey to the ‘Real North,’ I hope of recruiting local labour, while cycled (how else?) the sixty narrow cleaners' cupboard, whose parties at his massive road had evolved naturally this, we hope, as organisers, that the decrepit smallholding were legendary (my own contribution being some large session provided an opportunity to elsewhere industry arrived first and miles to Durness in a state of lonely houses were then dumped around the exhilaration through a landscape of (guests might find their cars sunk into Brownian hills and a contractually fea- challenge the way both heritage and a bog; one councillor found his gored sible way of varying the shape of em- landscape scholars have traditionally factories. On the other hand, another growing scale and wildness, in which I anomaly appeared, and there is the encountered only three points of hu- by a bull). But disillusion set in at a bankments). And for the River Kelvin understood people’s understandings of, planning office tempo tuned to carry- project, driven by the vision of a char- and engagements with, the places that paradox of houses for City workers man contact the entire day. The pro- built near factories, whereas the homes ject (intended land improvements sup- ing one's tea around without spilling it; ismatic parks director, he helped de- surround them. then finally at the discovery that my velop a unique partnership of planning Report by Emma Waterton of those who work in the factories ported by the County Council) proved were still in the built-up centre. The abortive, yet left me with new ideas work on our most exciting project – department, private design office and and David Harvey. assessing feasibility of a giant generat- public works team. Conflicts between suburban houses were generally built and extraordinary images. Two espe- to sell; the rented houses except the cially abide: tiny Durness seen on my ing station on the coast – was a sham. parks tradition and landscape design Politics ruled, decisions had already were (as so often) not always resolved, municipal cottage estates, were in the approach, sunlit, homely and jewel-like older urban areas. on a ribbon of green pasture in the been made. I was easily lured away especially with my own attempt to encased in masonry. We have visited into the dynamic world of William exploit the potential of a dramatic site, Taken from page 2. Greater London empty peat-lands – and Durness lost ‘YEW TREES IN scores of churches over the years but Gillespie's Plan, 1944. Patrick Abercrombie. and hidden as I gazed from a northerly growing Glasgow practice but Kelvin remains a significant this landscape architectural detail is — “ the world of private practice be- achievement for its time. VAS ES ’ new to us. London. His Majesty’s Stationery headland, chillingly aware as dusk fell Bampton, Devon is a surprisingly Office 1945. that in twenty miles of dark coastline tween consulting adults” as Mike Tooby put it. This was exciting and thought- attractive small town once famous for BY / RY not one light, not one human abode, a huge sheep market. Surprising as we could I see. provoking stuff, and best of all was the Supervision of Gillespie's prestigious project which took me all the way back have never been there! It lies in steep land at a site on the River Batherm just Notions of heroic wilderness were Charlotte Square project in Edin- north to Sutherland, with family, in a burgh's New Town — communal camper-van. north of its confluence with the River overcome here by the reality: the grow- Exe. Its on the south side of Exmoor. ing dark of autumn, the storminess, the parking and gardens for the National 7 8

My role this time was to assess land- structive development of formerly the event. Around 30 academics and The event was also intended to discuss Torridge District.’ Peter asked her if on colour 1:3000 scale stereo photogra- scape character across a vast area for a healthy countryside, and his is one of the practitioners came together to discuss the the future of the German language net- she would consider attending the work- phy for the NRA1 …river corridor was regional planning study by another un- greatest books on landscape design ever challenges that arise from the landscape work (of Landscape researchers), an shop of the German Speaking LRG. the buzz descriptor of the time — re- usual partnership, this time of Gillespie written. His concept of landscape plan- changes through renewable energies, initiative founded in Hanover in May member John Gardiner2 . He was look- with private planners and traffic engi- ning on natural principles was for me a which is driven by the ‘Energiewende’ in 2011 that aims to connect landscape Dr Vera Vicen zotti is a visiting fel- ing for pollution sources and hazards, neers – and now I went with knowledge, vital principle for tying together all that Germany. By way of explanation, the researchers and practitioners in Ger- low at the School of Architecture, Plan- recreation uses and land management. having read not only Tansley but John was in my mind. Ideas and experiences German Government passed a law in many, Austria, Switzerland and Bol- ning and Landscape at Newcastle Uni- Prebble on that grim episode in Scottish were coming thick and fast at this time 2011 to phase out nuclear power by 2022 zano (Italy). It was decided that it will versity. Her research into landscape Later he tutored staff of English Heri- history, The Clearances. Now I knew (marriage and parenthood amongst them) and ambitious targets for the replace- continue its work under the name architecture theory, methodology and tage in 3D airphoto interpretation and what to look for, and found the evidence and increasingly I wanted time to absorb ment of nuclear energy with renewable “ Arbeitskreis Landschaftsfor- history is funded by a Feodor Lynen chose to use multiple copies of their of it in every strath and glen throughout and reflect on them. But time was now a energy have been set. In the UK there is schung” (Working Group Landscape Research Fellowship for postdoctoral 1971 aerial photography of this area. the county: a land derelict because delib- rare commodity. The intensity of work no requirement to meet MW or GW Research, see researchers from the Alexander von From those airphotos he can now show erately depopulated, and kept so by hu- for Gillespie — especially its contract (mega or giga watt) targets, but there is a http://www.landschaftsforschung.de). Humboldt Foundation. an attractive record of a landscape had man action. Communities flour- management side, which I loathed — need to meet the EU Renewables Direc- For the time being the network aims to which will never be seen again — not ished in those now-empty valleys, and was now itself a burden and I was tem- tive which sets the UK the obligation to publish the papers delivered in Erkner; at least without resort to archive pho- surely could again in favoured locations; peramentally incapable of delegating produce 15% of its energy requirements to hold annual seminars (the next one tography. I (editor) have marked in the trees had clothed those eroding hills, and work to others. (electricity, heat and transport) from will take place in Rottenburg in Baden- approximate limits of the Central certainly could again – but not only by renewable sources by 2020. Württemberg in autumn 2013); and to Arena. The arrow- straight diagonal afforestation: just remove the sheep! “ You should be teaching,” people said. inform its members about on-going THE LOWER LEA across the south of the photo is Joseph Native shrubs and trees were surviving, And finally, this is what I did, for the The discussions focused on exploring events, publications etc. via an e-mail Bazalgette’s Northern Outfall Sewer even flourishing, wherever sheep could rest of my professional life, in Sheffield some of the reasons for resistance among newsletter. The German initiative is VALLEY (worth reading about) from which won- not safely graze. University's new department of land- citizens against landscape changes interested in developing and deepening In 1991 The editor investigated the derful access, you can (could and will scape headed by the alarming Professor brought about by renewable energy, pri- its contact with LRG and it was there- Lower Lea Valley in great detail based be able to) get an instructive view I attempted a scheme of landscape Weddle...... marily wind turbines but also biomass fore agreed that Vera Vicenzotti could evaluation across Sutherland based on crops such as maize. Bärbel Francis act as a contact person for the time be- my own perceptions of topography, (To be concluded) gave a presentation introducing a Land- ing. Ordnance Survey Crown scale, wildness, human impact and po- OM scape Sensitivity Assessment for On- Copyright 1971 tential for people and nature: well- shore Wind Energy & Field-Scale Photo- The seminar at Erkner was a successful All rights Reserved Licence number 100050214 meaning though somewhat arbitrary. voltaic Development that had been un- inaugural event for the German lan- What I nonetheless missed and have dertaken by consultants for the District guage network, and we are sure that regretted ever since was the possible Council she works for. The study was both, the Arbeitskreis Landschaftsfor- impact of creeping afforestation in one carried out in order to help understand schung as well as LRG, will profit im- unique part of Sutherland: the vast lonely NEW ENERGY, NEW how best to accommodate wind and solar mensely from future cooperation: new mountain-rimmed peat lands of its cen- PERSPECTIVES FOR electricity generation installations in the energy for landscape research!. tre, the Flow Country. Only now, by a landscape. Apart from further insights sad irony, is this precious landscape be- LANDSCAPE into the everyday practice and academic Those in the photo on the previous page ing clawed back, inch by expensive inch, RESEARCH research , a challenging observation has fro m ri g h t t o l eft : with public money through the efforts of to be made: The results of research sug- such as the RSPB. by Bärbel Francis and Vera Vicenzotti gest that e.g. slowing down the speed of Dorothe Hokema (Technische Universität Berlin), Wera Wojtkiewicz (Technische landscape changes, participation at early Universität Berlin) and Tobias Plieninger All the same, what I did learn from this From 26 April to 27 April 2012, a stages as well as awareness of emotional seminar entitled “ New energy — new (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der return visit to Sutherland changed my aspects are crucial for constructive plan- Wissenschaften, Berlin, then Dieter energy landscapes — new perspectives view of nature, and of our relations with ning processes. In everyday practise, Gründonner (Büro Gutschker-Dongus, it. Back in Glasgow there was more: an of landscape research?” was held at the however, partly due to constantly chang- Odernheim). The lady on the left is not awareness of urban degradation as well IRS in Erkner near Berlin, Germany. ing policy frameworks, considering and identified. Let me know. Ed. as rural. As students we had glimpsed The event was financially supported by implementing these very aspects is often this in Edinburgh (had had stones thrown LRG, and two LRG members, Bärbel rendered impossible. Rapporteurs Francis and Vera Vicenzotti, attended at us on a field-visit), but Glasgow was Baerbel Francis is employed as Envi- something else. Streets might be smart ronmental & Sustainability Officer by at one end but squalid at the other; flat- Torridge District Council. She is a blocks — tallest in Europe, as some chartered Town Planner and also has a thought fit to boast — rose from menac- BSc (Hons) in Environmental Quality ing wastes of broken glass; derelict ca- & Resource Management. She is nals (their reclamation another pioneer- currently in her second year studying ing Gillespie project) were frightening; for an MSc in Countryside Manage- the townships built to replace the ment. From Germany originally she Gorbals were places you did not go. have lived in the UK for over 20 years now. She came across LRG (via Peter That had no easy answers, but new reve- Howard) when she project managed the lations were coming, for about now I ‘Assessment of the Landscape Sensitiv- discovered McHarg's Design With Na- ity to Onshore Wind Energy & Field- ture. McHarg was himself a child of Scale Photovoltaic Development in Glasgow, bitterly familiar with the de- 9 10 across the Olympic site. The archive SOUNDSCAPES: Soundscape can be defined as the generating cities are mushrooming portant; this awareness will then sup- LR AUTHOR TELLS film extends to the full area of the acoustic property of every landscape around the World. Sound comes from port a protection and management Olympic regeneration and in 1971 Careggi Landscape seminar according to a species' specific percep- traffic on land and in the airspace, ven- policy. The creation of data banks of IT HOW IT IS shows a series of run down landscapes Florence 14th June 2012 tion and is the result of features and tilation systems and industrial proc- threatened soundscapes is one impor- Left, in the absence of Crista Ermiya, developed piecemeal. dynamics which may be physical esses At an important lesser level, but tant action available to us to preserve with the unenviable job of translating BY “Landscape” means an area, as per- (geophonies), biological (biophonies) affecting rural tranquility and the ap- the memory of past complexity; this LR Abstracts into ‘plainspeak’ for my ceived by people, whose character is and human (antrophonies). Soundscape preciation of beauty, soundscape qual- can be used in the future to establish readers I was at first irritated to read Notes the result of the action and interaction is an important component of the ter- ity is an important aspect not only in more favorable acoustic conditions, Ian Thompson’s opening page on natural areas but also in ‘identified-as- especially in urban areas. Airphoto copyright of the Ordnance of natural and/or human factors ….” restrial and aquatic environment espe- Landscape Urbanism (Thompson, LR European Landscape Convention, cially from a human perspective, but it cultural’ landscapes. 37/1). I sought a definition but none Survey. The vertical airphoto is identi- Surveys on a multidisciplinary basis fied as frame OS/71.71.51. Taken in 2000. represents also an indispensable infor- emerged. Flipping to the end I then mative and communicative medium for among inhabitants and visitors are cru- read something entirely to my liking, so 1971. cial to define the perceived values of “Soundscape Ecology” is the study of every vocal animal. When lost or de- much so that I have now read the the landscape, and the measure to 1The industrialised south end of the River the relationships between the graded it reduces the quality of a land- whole paper — interesting. It went Lea, east London: a detailed airphoto inter- environmental sounds and the scape and impacts on human well- which these characterize specific land- something like this: being and more widely — that is on the scapes. ‘Sound-marks’ (including local pretation for the purposes of river manage- interacting organisms. These include “The purpose of this paper was to ment: a pilot study. R.N.Young 1991, for the the characterization of the soundscape biological activities of several organ- dialects) may be defined just as well as National Rivers Authority, Thames Region. isms. Arguably the well-being of the landmarks. Soundscapes are by defini- raise questions rather than to answer of a geographical context, how them. The fact that after a decade of organisms perceive the acoustic people, the local community may be tion dynamic, and more characterized 2John L Gardiner (Editor). River Projects scholarly and professional discussion, configuration of the landscapes and the the most important reason for evaluat- by rhythm (day-night, season) than by and Conservation: A Manual for Holistic a high profile review such as Topos effects of anthropogenic acoustic ing soundscapes. Landscapes, we continuity. Within such surveys we Appraisal John Wiley and Sons 1991. agree that narratives describing typical thinks that it is worth devoting an issue disturbance across scales. Professor would say, should be lived and valued in a multisensory way. landscapes and associated soundscapes to Landscape Urbanism, shows that it Take a backsight …. Almo Farina 2012 is more than a fad. Nor is it just land- are more powerful than maps. Eleanor Young, Editor of scape architecture under a different RIBA Journal in LRE 38 Feb- Soundscape is a focal point for many guise, though it draws upon many ruary 2006. “ Blowdown and Loss of scholars (e.g. acousticians, bio- shared historical precedents, including the Familiar” refers to the Olympic site acousticians, engineers, planners, art- Haussmann’s boulevards, Olmsted’s in this way: ists, psychologists etc.) and we would connected park systems and Ebenezer recommend a permanent universal fo- Howard’s Garden Cities. Waldheim is “The problem of speed is exacerbated rum to disseminate ideas, research pro- surely right when he says that its dis- by modern computer generation that jects, and management. course is now being absorbed into the allows this [visualisation] even on pro- global discussion about the future of jects that will take years to complete. Those involved cities, but, at the same time, the series Walking through the scrubland and Anna Marson Minister for Spatial of questions raised above indicates playing fields of the Lea Valley in East Planning and Territory, Tuscany contradictions, theoretical shortcom- London it is all-too-easy to visualise Region podium photo left; ings and practical lacunae which par- animations of Olympic development Bas Pedroli, University of Wagenin- ticipants in the discourse could use- sweeping across the landscape with gen, Director UNISCAPE podium fully address. Waldheim is also honest gleaming stadia and happy people. But photo right; with presentations by: enough to acknowledge that, even after the mourning for what will soon be lost the coordinator of the seminar Almo has already begun”. Farina (Urbino University); Nadia Pieretti (Urbino University); LANDSCAPE EUROPE Henrik Brumm (Max Planck Institute Something else about the Lea for Ornithology, Seewisen) second is an interdisciplinary network of na- photo; David Monacchi (Pesaro Music Valley: Readers may wish also to The first step in raising soundscape tional research institutes with exper- The views and opinions in this publication are those of Luigi Maf- remind themselves of a small exhibi- awareness is to improve listening skills. Conservatory) third photo; the authors and the senior editor individually and do n o t fei tise in landscape assessment, planning tion put on at the Barbican Art Gallery This can be achieved by a series of (Seconda Università di Napoli), necessarily agree with those of the Group. It is prepared Antonella Radicchi entitled Radical Nature: Art and Archi- activities eg soundwalks, sound recog- (Tempo Reale, and management at the interface of by Rosemary and Bud Young for the Landscape Research nition exercises etc. Sounds are per- Firenze) top photo. tecture for a Changing Planet 1969- Group and distributed policy implementation, education and 2009 in which one of the displays was ceived not only on a perceptive level periodically to members worldwide as companion to its state-of-the-art science in support of ‘Guide to the Wastelands of the Lea but also on an emotional level thus [A more detailed point by point account refereed main journal Landscape Research. To preserve a soundscape and to miti- Valley’. It takes the printed form of a informed sound-making and sound-art of this seminar will be published on the sustainable landscapes Editorial enquiries: gate the anthropogenic noises, it is 16 page greyscale presentation of 12 is relevant to enhancing awareness. Careggi website: third Careggi Seminar Bud Young, important, within mitigation planning sites with back ground landuse/and www.landscape-europe.net is a must to Airphoto Interpretation, strategies, to reduce unnecessary acous- ownership history for each. Rather in- Modern human societies have strongly those who wish to inform themselves 26 Cross Street tic sources. The protection and manage- teresting and the more so considering impacted on soundscape, especially in on all the recent and the massive present changes. Moretonhampstead Devon urbanized areas, reducing the acoustic ment of a native soundscape should thus represent a qualified goal so to anticipated events and significant Look for TQ13 8NL quality and functions of the surround- maintain in situ biodiversity and also to publications. http://www.dk-cm.com/projects/ or emails to young @airphotointerpretation.com ings. Noise pollution in urban areas is a guarantee the ecosystem's functionality. wastelands-of-the-lea-valley/ problem for the health of millions of Educating people in listening is all im- people at every latitude: huge sound 11 12 a decade, the “ urban form promised DISTANT is barely possible to see small settle- or frozen rivers in central Siberia and A new take on this today (it is some The meander belt here is a mile wide; by landscape urbanism has not yet ments. Patterns begin to substitute for their whitened shores looked as much years since my flight to China) As I the alluvial scrolls huge, the flood arrived” (Waldheim, 2010, p. 24). At LANDSC APES: places; conjoined straight lines may like the stained microscope slide of browse in Google Earth. I ‘fly’ be- deposits of incredible sedimentary the time of writing, Landscape Urban- indicate roads or railroads locating a Kesseler’s disease as a part of Planet tween London and Beijing. Half an interest; the marshes incomparable. ism is on the verge of transforming PATTERNS BECOME town but all detail is lost. I travelled Earth. These landscapes drifted in and hour before I need to work? — then The lakes — well — so many sum- itself into Ecological Urbanism, in- PLACES some years ago to China and as an out of my view-consciousness as cov- ‘Where to today?’ Go where your eye mer obstacles their origins to be re- deed a conference on that theme was Those who have peered out of their jet airphoto interpreter found myself short ered by haze and cloud or distorted by leads you. So I rotate the World. searched. My God! held at Harvard in 2009, out of which liner as they crossed Siberia will have of answers. the heat of the jet’s turbine gases; they Today Siberia! a publication has already emerged felt appalled at the enormity of the foreshortened and were then no more. In Jane Austen’s novel ‘Pride and (Mostafavi & Doherty, 2010). terrain. From that height (33 000ft) it Some of the terrain patterns are weird Are these frozen lakes with white Here are landscapes unimaginable! Prejudice’ and of course in the film, Whether the environmental design and unearthly. The pattern of ice lakes shores — or is that salt? Is it hot down They are way more startling than the the youngest daughter sits entranced, professions are ready for a new -ism there? I see a darkness and say it is Canadian muskeg and great wilderness deep into her leather bound 19th cen- before the old one has been ade- North to left forest, but is it the dark edge of a lands embedded blandly and casually tury atlas. The fascination continues. quately digested is moot. Neverthe- clouded landscape. Not enough cor- in my school geography. BY less, there are ideas within the Land- roborating evidence. I believe that I scape Urbanism discourse which have am seeing mountains because ‘I see Landscape Research? Mmmm. The Notes great merit, among which I would snow’. I look for a snow line to con- Landscape Research Group? Are we 1 At his point a Russian woman peer- include the breaking down of profes- firm one way or the other. I look for in ‘landscape studies’ missing some- ing out as if to spot something told me sional distinctions, the integration of the hospitable valley — a pattern of thing. Have we consigned real land- that her daughter lives somewhere ecological thinking, the foregrounding fields — but nothing. For half the scapes to geography? Are we perhaps down there - in Novosibirsk! of infra-structure, the interest in the positive use of waste materials and the emphasis upon functionality rather than mere appearance.” There follow observations which I relished:

“There is also a quantity of dubious philosophy, unhelpful imagery and obscurantist language that Landscape Urbanism ought to dump. The attack on the rural-urban binary is mis- guided, and in any case doomed to failure beyond the academy because of the persistence of ordinary ways of talking. Larding the case for Land- scape Urbanism with Deleuzian and Derridean references was a mistake, since it was done principally to im- press an academic elite, and it has even left large sections of its intended audience bemused. Couched in such language, Landscape Urbanism (or its successors) has little prospect of con- veying its better ideas to a larger pub- lic, including politicians, activists, width of a mountain chain there is — and I must murmur this very gently Copyright of imagery to Google or professionals and citizens. However, desolation. In this remoteness and to but with irony — ‘missing the wider their suppliers is acknowledged. I if Ecological Urbanism can develop a this poorly briefed observer built land picture’. Examine the landscapes here. have been unable to find how to seek critique of Landscape Urbanism, re- suggests raw industry, mining, for- Get into them. Imagine that you make permission or to solving some of its inherent contradic- estry, nuclear plants, there is nothing films; or that you are a prospector, an offer payment but tions, and can pay more attention to of humanity. I need to see something I explorer, a ‘resource mapper’ (my one invite such response 1 the social and political realities of city recognise but nothing comes . time profession). One just out of as they wish to conditions, giving more voice to citi- *** frame river is wider than the Amazon. make. zens and finding ways to involve them in the creation of new imaginar- ies whicha are surely needed, then it Landscape Research Extra is published by Landscape deserves a cautious welcome.” Research Group Ltd. Landscape Research Group Ltd is a Registered Charity (No. 287610) and Company Limited by Guar- antee (No. 1714386, Cardiff). Its Registered Office is at: 89A The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1QE For disclaimer and addresses for editorial enquiries and administrative Editor correspondence see the box on page 10. www.landscaperesearch.org