HASTINGS BEACH

HASTINGSBEACH

HASTINGSBEACHFor masterplanner Raymond Unwin, landscape was not just a background

to lives lived, it was a weapon of social change, says David Davidson, architectural adviser at Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust. Unwin’s vision was the communal landscape, one that promoted social interaction at every turn. In creating the Hampstead Garden Suburb, he realised the democratic landscapes the Garden City movement espoused. Davidson was the first

Davidson was the first speaker in the Landscape Institute’s autumn lecture series Urban Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. He is also the first of our essayists in this special edition of Landscape, which takes as its start-ing point the ideals of the Garden City and pits them against the great 21st century challenge: realising the green city.

Programmed by Susannah Charlton of the Twentieth Century Society, the lecture series accompanies the Garden Museum’s From Garden City to Green City exhibition. The five speakers agreed to pen a series of essays for us, so, following a foreword from Christopher Woodward, director of the Gar-den Museum, we dedicate 15 pages to what we can learn from more than a century of urban landscapes.

Projects adviser at the Prince’s Regeneration Trust Roland Jeffery tackles housing landscapes, and the new towns in particular. Their landscapes, he says, have still to find a comfortable role that is somewhere in between the private garden and the public highway.

HASTINGSBEACH

For masterplanner Raymond Unwin, landscape was not just a background to lives lived, it was a weapon of social change, says Da-vid Davidson, ar-chitectural adviser at Hampstead Gar-den Suburb Trust. Unwin’s vision was the commu-nal landscape, one that pro-moted social interaction at every turn. In creating the Hamp-stead Garden Suburb, he realised the democratic landscapes the Garden City movement es-poused. David-son was the first speaker in the Landscape Insti-tute’s autumn lec-ture series Urban

Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. He is also the first of our essayists in this special edition of Land-scape,

which takes as its starting point the

ideals of the Gar-den City and pits them against the great 21st century

challenge: realis-ing the green city. Programmed by Susannah Charlton of the Twentieth

Century Society, the lecture

series ac-

com-panies

the Garden Museum’s From

Garden City to Green City exhi-bition. The five speakers agreed to pen a series of es-says for us, so, fol-lowing a foreword from Christopher Woodward, direc-tor of the Garden Museum, we dedi-cate 15 pages to what we can learn from more than a century of urban landscapes. Pro-jects adviser at the Prince’s Re-generation Trust Roland Jeffery tackles housing landscapes, and the new towns in

particular. Their landscapes, he says, have still to find a comfortable role that is some-where in between the private garden and the public highway. Ken Worpole, writer

For masterplanner Ray-mond Unwin, landscape was not just a background to lives lived, it was a weapon of social change, says David Davidson, architectural adviser at Hampstead Garden Sub-urb Trust. Unwin’s vision was the communal land-scape, one that promoted social interaction at every turn. In creating the Hamp-stead Garden Suburb, he realised the democratic landscapes the Garden City movement espoused. Davidson was the first speaker in the Landscape Institute’s autumn lecture series Urban Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. He is also the first of our essayists in this special edition of Landscape, which takes as its start-ing point the ideals of the Garden City and pits them against the great 21st century challenge: realising the green city. Programmed by Susan-nah Charlton of the Twen-tieth Century Society, the lecture series accompanies the Garden Museum’s From Garden City to Green City exhibition. The five speakers agreed to pen a series of essays for us, so, following a foreword from Christopher Woodward, di-rector of the Garden Muse-um, we dedicate 15 pages to what we can learn from more than a century of urban landscapes. Projects adviser at the Prince’s Regeneration Trust Roland Jeffery tackles housing landscapes, and the new towns in particular. Their landscapes, he says, have still to find a comfortable role that is somewhere in between the private garden and the public highway. Ken Worpole, writer and

senior professor at the Cities Institute, suggests that the British still have a problem in thinking about designed landscapes as places of pleasure. He asks whether now is the time for us to rediscover the purpose of our leisure landscapes. “If you leave people to live in a lousy, un-healthy, un-green and depressing environment that indicates that society at large, their local authority and the government don’t care about them, then why should we be surprised when they act without care them-selves?” This is Sarah Gaventa writing in the wake of August’s riots as she asks how communi-ties can possibly be expected to inter-act when they have nowhere decent to commune. And finally, Landscape’s hon-orary editor Tim Waterman explores our relationship with food and the urban landscape. Are taste and ap-petite our biggest barriers to re-alising sustain-able design? But just how relevant are the ideas of the Garden City to those nations currently in thrall to urban revolutions of their own? We asked

HASTINGSBEACH