This Week in Landscape | 15 January 2012

The weeks round-up of landscape news and views

Dhaka (Image: Flickr User Marufish)

Making the city liveable | Shafiqul Alam | The Financial Express
A look at Dhaka and how to address the problems of over-urbanisation, living conditions, energy, settlement and natural cities. MORE>>

Streams of the subconscious | Tamzin Baker | FT
A campaign is underway to save Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe’s Water Gardens is underway as they fall into disrepair. One of the important postwar landscapes in UK needs saving.  MORE>>

Chinese officials commit to sustainable urban development | JACLYN SKURIE | medill on the hill
Chinese development officials Wednesday joined with an environmental think tank backed by the U.S. and other governments to commit their groups to developing environmentally sustainable cities. MORE>>

Britain should have a gardening archive | Ambra Edwards | Telegraph
Gardens are, by their nature, ephemeral. Although those with a strong architectural structure will survive to some extent, the great majority of gardens simply vanish when their creators die or move on. MORE>>

(Landscape) Architect and urban planner Lynn Osgood advocates for Austin’s parks | Katherine Craft | Culturemap
Culturemap talked to Osgood about parks, New Urbanist principles and why city planning is like making sausage.

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IMAGE Credit: Flickr Marufish

Work commences on carbon-zero community park and school: Grontmij

Crouch Hill - Gronmij

Grontmij announced that work has commenced on the Crouch Hill Park and Ashmount Primary School development, in the London Borough of Islington.

The Crouch Hill development is a highly sensitive scheme and comprises Metropolitan Open Land, a Site of Metropolitan Significance for Nature Conservation and a local park. The site is adjacent to the Parkland Walk, a disused railway and a popular North London walking route between Finsbury Park and Highgate.

A new central green space will give the public access to out-of-hours community activities in the school including, a shared games court. New paths will link local housing and the Parkland Walk to attract visitors and improve safety. The whole site will become more permeable and accessible, with easy-access routes for wheelchairs, young children and parents with pushchairs. Paths through existing trees are designed as raised boardwalks, to ‘tread lightly’ through the site and a sensitive lighting strategy will improve community safety in key areas, while respecting bat foraging corridors.

Continue reading Work commences on carbon-zero community park and school: Grontmij

Sydney’s newest master planned suburb

The Ponds is the newest 320 hectare development in Sydney master planned by CLOUSTON.  Touted as ‘A showcase for sustainable living’ with Community Facilities, Water Sustainable Urban Design, Open Spaces, Built form guidelines for housing that has features that is flexible and can accommodate young families, older residents and/or those with mobility impairment.

The landscape is an important part of development – Justine Kinch from Clouston Associates said: “The design intent was to maintain consistency across the entire parklands project with unique elements strategically placed to create a sense of place and assist with orientation.

Read more at Architecture & Design and Landcom

Transit driven urban development

Streetsblog asks the question Can Transit Expansion Produce Sprawl Like Highways Do? looks at the proposed Silver line in Washington DC and speaks to some experts about the possible sprawl, development of semi-urban enclaves around transit and the difference with park-n-ride.

Read more at Can Transit Expansion Produce Sprawl Like Highways Do? – Streetsblog

Pushing for changes to Mixed Use Development funding

The National Association of Home Builders in the USA has been enlisted by the Congress of New Urbanists to push Freddie and Fannie to change their lending standards to allow more funding for mixed-use development and raise the cap on commercial from 20% to 45%.

Read more at [Streetsblog]

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