OPEN STUDIO
IDENTITY CRISIS
OPEN STUDIO
Issue of the Month:
OPEN STUDIO - Identity Crisis
The generally quiet and thoughtful atmosphere of The Terra Firma Consultancy’s open plan studio is frequently punctuated by periods of intense
discussion with flurries of questions, ideas and thoughts flying around. There are some really important issues we grapple with sometimes, and
here in this monthly column, we share our thoughts on a hot issue and encourage wider debate. By ALISON GALBRAITH
W
hile researching my
undergraduate dissertation
I interviewed the late
Bodfan Grufydd, a
pioneering landscape architect who had
been instrumental in setting up the irst
full-time landscape architecture course
in England in 1961, at Cheltenham (now
the University of Gloucestershire), where
I was then studying. Mr Grufydd was a
formidable man who, despite being in his
late 80s when I met him, had a vigorous
and intimidating presence. His irst words
to me, spoken as he ushered me into his
dark and cluttered study, were to bullishly
demand what we were being taught ‘these
days’ about landscape architecture and
what it is. Unsettled by his somewhat
aggressive and bad-tempered manner,
I stammered, rambling an, I imagine,
incoherent response which was received
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Landscape Insight | December 2017
with disappointment. This seemed to
conirm his fears about the current and
future status of our profession. It was
one of those ‘elevator pitch’ moments
which I should have used to clearly and
succinctly state my understanding of my
chosen profession, which evidently I failed
to do on that occasion. Thankfully, I’ve
got better at articulating the essence of
landscape architecture since that time.
According to an article in Landscape
Issues (the University of Gloucestershire’s
journal www.landscapeissues.com) Bodfan
Grufydd’s view of landscape was,
‘organic, building on landform and
climate, with a sound knowledge of plants
and creating places of aesthetic quality…
[a] dynamic symbiosis of art and ecology’.
I’m not sure that Bodfan Grufydd
would have made the most encouraging
role model to represent the profession
and inspire young people to join but he
certainly had clarity about what landscape
architecture is all about.
This clarity of vision about landscape
architecture is not always expressed by
those in our profession and is certainly
not shared by most outside it. Landscape
architecture is a diicult concept to
articulate in a short snappy phrase
although it turns out that we are not the
only profession to sufer such ambiguity.
Last summer, I was fortunate
enough to be invited to the Institute of
Civil Engineers South East England
Engineering Excellence Awards 2017
as a guest of the engineering team at
Peter Brett Associates, with whom we
collaborated on a stream restoration
scheme which was shortlisted for an
award. The awards ceremony was
hosted by science and technology