From the margins to lead consultant: Is this the year of the landscape architect?

The role of the landscape architect has been misunderstood and marginalised on the design team. As both a horticulturalist and a landscape architect, Carolin Göhler, president-elect of the Landscape Institute, knows the problem well. “People don’t know what these professionals do.”

For Göhler, while the disciplines of horticulture and landscape architecture overlap, the distinction is very clear: “A horticulturalist is someone who knows about plants and how to grow them. A chartered landscape architect has studied design and management and can [run the contract] to create park landscapes, urban design, highway design, national parks, even HS2,” says Göhler.

Recognition should spike this year, with regulations on biodiversity net gain and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) becoming mandatory. “For the first time, this puts nature at the heart of development,” says Göhler in an interview for The Developer Podcast. “Hopefully most developers will take this on as a positive.”

With the need to design for climate resilience, will we see landscape architects increasingly appointed as lead designer? The discipline rarely leads large-scale mixed-use masterplans, however impactful projects led by landscape architects, such as the pedestrianisation of the Strand Aldwych by LDA Design, are winning awards and making waves.

Göhler says in areas prone to flooding or drought, having a designer focused on land use makes sense. “With climate change in mind, you keep more water and moisture on site, both for flooding and during the drier parts of the year,” says Göhler.

The increase in social impact measurement, social prescribing and ESG investment has also highlighted the role of green spaces in improving health and wellbeing. Mayfield in Manchester and Brent Cross Town are two major masterplans that delivered parks in phase one.

Göhler will be the 45th president of the chartered body for landscape professionals. While the nearly 100-year-old institute is responsible for regulating and accrediting landscape education, they also have a charitable mission beyond their membership to benefit “people, place and nature for today and future generations.”

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“Prescribing for nature is one of the best prescriptions you can give,” says Göhler. “Although while NHS doctors can prescribe it, I have not yet worked out how the people who manage green spaces can get extra funding to do the work on the ground.

Göhler “takes her hat off” to landscape architects working in local authority departments. “A lot of local authorities have deleted their landscape departments and even parks departments, with everything done by external contractors, and a lot of knowledge has been lost.”

“We need to realise that green spaces are costly to look after, cannot always be done with volunteers and you need to have some income to look after them.”

“You can’t just leave things, you need to manage the land. 99% of the British landscapes are managed by humans, they are not natural landscapes, they’re more what we call semi-natural. Very few landscapes are like the Scottish highlands where the wind prunes the plants. Everything else is managed.”

But she sees innovative work taking place on a shoestring that is making an impact. Göhler elected to give the Landscape Institute’s President’s Award to Bradford Metropolitan District Council for its work to create green spaces in areas of deprivation.

“Dr Saira Ali made use of research undertaken in the area to work out which communities were deprived in terms of green space and had health problems, and linked that together to develop schemes with the community.”

As well as her role as president elect, Göhler works in private practice on parks and landscapes for the National Trust as a Gardens and Parks Consultant, previously for London and the South East Region, and now for Midlands and East of England. Heritage gardens are already seeing the impact of climate change on their parks and gardens. Previous analysis by GIS Consultants 3Keel revealed that nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of the places looked after by the National Trust could be at a medium or high risk of climate hazards by 2060.

“We see many more pests and diseases coming in. One very significant one is related to box plantings, with the box moss caterpillar coming in and frazzling away the small leaves,” says Göhler. “You can use pheromone traps but long-term use might not be feasible. We may have to use box alternative plants.”

“Other issues in the South is that the gardens become very dry. Last year we had very hot summers with five to ten days of really high temperatures, and we just can’t water,” Göhler adds. “It’s not feasible to water unless we have plants of botanical or scientific interest, so we need to look at different plantings that mimic the historic plantings.

“We may just have to admit that we can’t do it anymore and find garden designers to design new schemes which are innovative but still very beautiful and enjoyable.”

Carbon footprint reduction is another area being tackled by the National Trust, who are testing electric machinery to be used on site. “Huge strides have been made. It’s all going in the right direction. We are now seeing the first electric tractors and ride-on lawnmowers,” says Göhler. “One thing people like is that the electric machinery is often quieter to use than their petrol cousins.” 

The National Trust is already leading a movement toward climate-friendly gardening, having procured and raised awareness about peat-free plants and compost for several years.

“With the Royal Horticultural Society and the government saying they want change, change is in the air,” says Göhler.