In autumn 2011 and spring 2012 the Garden Museum ran a series of lectures in support of the exhibition From Garden City to Green City. 

Many of the lectures were held in conjunction with the Landscape Institute.  Here are some of the details:

Urban Wildscapes Symposium: Past Utopias And Savage Futures - The Role Of Wildness In Urban Landscapes

Timed to coincide with the publication of Urban Wildscapes, published by Routledge and edited by Anna Jorgensen and Richard Keenan, this symposium at the Garden Museum continues to develop the themes found the book. In particular, the symposium aims to examine diverse past attempts at ordering the city, ranging from the ruined utopias in twentieth century modernist housing schemes to the projects of the Urban Pioneers in Berlin; and the contemporary landscape architectural projects that seek to encourage wildness and disorder in urban landscapes; as well as aiming to explore the range of attitudes towards urban ruins and wilderness that provide the social context for urban re-wilding.

Speakers include Anna Jorgensen, Steve Dobson, Alice Mah, Sam Vardy, Dougal Sheridan and Catherine Heatherington

Tickets £50, Museum Friends and LI Members £40, Full-time students £20

Lunch, refreshments and invitation to Urban Wildscapes book launch included

 

Brita von Schoenaich and muf architecture Discuss Majestic Trees versus the City

Thursday 22nd March  6pm doors open, event begins at 6.30pm

Two challenging and remarkable design practices present their most radical ideas for the place of trees in the modern city.  Muf architects will talk about their designs for the Barking Arboretum while Brita von Schoenaich discusses her plans for a forest in the sky (designed with Christopher Bradley-Hole).  The speakers will talk as much about what trees mean to us as a culture; what place do trees hold in our imagination; and how can we have a modern city with magnificent, mature trees instead of weedy, stick-thin lollipop trees so adored of architects (and architectural model builders).

Speakers:

Liza Fior, muf architecture/art LLP

Alison Crawshaw, muf architecture/art LLP

Brita von Schoenaich, Schoenaich Landscape Architects

 

Planning Works

Thursday 29th March  6pm doors open, event begins at 6.30pm

In the final week of our exhibition From Garden City to Green Cities architects, landscape architects and an historian celebrate five visionary projects which have achieved a balance between architecture and landscape, indoors and outdoors, and the green and the grey. What lessons can we learn from their creation – and, just as importantly, their on-going maintenance – at a time when the value of the planning is being questioned? Tonight’s event will feature a series of short talks on the topic of importance of planning and maintenance to the built green space. This event is being held in partnership with the Landscape Institute and the 20th Century Society.

This is our confirmed list of speakers and topics:

Christopher Woodward on Georgian Bath

Andrew Harland of LDA Design on Letchworth

James Lord, restorer of the New Town at Stevenage

Janet Jack, landscape architect of the Alexandra Road estate in Camden

Jonathan Kendall of Fletcher Priest, masterplanner of the Olympic 2012 Athletes Village

The evening will be chaired by Alastair McCapra, Chief Executive of the Landscape Institute.

 

The Landscape of Consumption:  Food in the Metropolis

Tim Waterman, Senior Lecturer, Writtle School of Design

 

Housing Landscapes:  Public Realm, Private Territory and the Spaces in Between

Roland Jeffery, Projects Advisor, The Prince's Regeneration Trust

 

Landscapes for Leisure:  Pleasure Grounds, Public Health and Recreation

Ken Worpole, Writer and Senior Professor, The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University

 

The Public Landscape:  From Townscape to the Privatised Plaza

Sarah Gaventa, Hon FLI, Urban Design, Public Space & Cultural Regeneration Consultant

 

Realising the Green City:  a panel discussion

Kim Wilkie, Hon FLI, Landscape Architect, Kim Wilkie Associates

Chris Young, Editor, The Garden, and formerly Garden Design Journal

Annie Coombs, FLI, Landscape Architect