‘Today, landscape has more to teach architecture than architecture does landscape.’ This recent remark by Kenneth Frampton, architectural critic and historian, registers the concerns felt today by many professionals in the built environment. How can we design sustainably in a climate and biodiversity crisis? How can we endorse and improve the design of public space? And how can we connect people with their environment – a relationship which the modern world so often severs?

Landscape architecture might be able to answer these questions, given that it is a discipline that has long addressed itself to concerns which are increasingly being brought to the attention of architecture: climate resilience, the responsibility to protect natural habitats and ecological systems, the effects of landscape design on human health and wellbeing, and the short- and long-term environmental impacts of building. A rich and varied field of design, landscape architecture has an essential part to play in the future of our built environment and, by extension, the future of our planet.

Foster + Partners’ professional landscape team are an essential part of the practice, working alongside architects, urban designers, and environmental engineers throughout the development of the design, implementation, and on-site supervision of construction and planting. The skillsets within this team vary greatly – from rigorous site analysis to ecological expertise, environmental psychology to maintenance planning. Equipped with this wide array, the landscape architects can propose design solutions to make projects more climate-conscious, contextually-aware, adaptable to change, welcoming for many varieties of life and valued by those who use them – in a word: more sustainable. Such outcomes are made possible through the practice’s interdisciplinary ways of working. As Ahmed Abdelsalam, Landscape Architect at Foster + Partners observes:

Site analysis: Understanding the landscape

The legacy of such an extensive and varied project history is a determination to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, and a commitment to the reality of the site and the specific requirements of a brief: ‘We want to get to the heart of every project,’ Nick Haddock, Head of Landscape Architecture at Foster + Partners, reflects.

Getting to the ‘heart’ of a project requires, first and foremost, a comprehensive understanding of the site. Site analysis covers an array of landscape features: hydrology, topography and terrain, soil condition, sunlight and wind direction, meteorology, geology, existing vegetation, archaeology, and accessibility (to name a few). Some of this analysis can be done remotely and can be gathered and expressed via maps, drawings, images, graphs, lists, and reports. Alongside this, Aitor Arconada Ledesma, Landscape Architect in the practice, insists on the importance of site visits:

Because we are an international practice, we might have projects in the United States and Asia and Australia simultaneously; each location has its own climate, its own ‘canvas’ which we need to understand. The site visit is an essential way to gain this understanding and go beyond superficial data on a place. We spend time walking through the site, taking photographs, making notes, and perhaps collecting soil or mineral samples to bring back to the team.

As information about the site is gathered, Aitor reminds us that spending sustained time with the project is vital:

Site analysis was key to the updated landscape strategy of Bishops Square, which was completed in 2023. Having developed the area twenty years earlier, Foster + Partners already had a comprehensive understanding of the research and plans. Roman archaeological remains on the site had already been catalogued. This provided a rigorous analytical basis from which to develop an updated plan. Aitor adds:

The Landscape Architecture team commissioned tree surveys to analyse the health and the spread of the root systems of the planted, matured, trees and worked closely with the London Fire Brigade to safeguard evacuation routes. As Aitor says, the pressures on a site can also be legislative: ‘The London planning system works in such a way that you have to document everything you learn and justify how that links to your proposal.’ Site analysis is not just a way of working but an essential requirement of designing and building today.

Foster + Partners decided to retain the existing 2004 paving given its high quality as well as the benefits of extending the lifespan of existing materials. The updates to Bishops Square involved a series of strategic moves: the addition of water features, the extension of green space, the protection of trees, the display of significant Roman artefacts, and a change in the layout of benches and planting so that people felt less overlooked by the buildings and therefore more relaxed. These interventions transformed how the space serves the needs of both visitors and those working in the buildings around the square. The client has since reported a 35 per cent increase in footfall (compared with pre-covid levels).

Ecological approaches to landscape

These ‘key moves’ are closely aligned with a deep understanding of the site. As Landscape Architect Chanakya Rajani suggests, these moves need to account for the environmental context as well as the project: ‘Any interventions on the landscape need to work in the direction of nature and not against it… otherwise it will fail.’

But how to figure out ‘the direction of nature’? The site visit is a familiar practice for both the architect and the landscape architect, and is one way to find out how the natural world and the site interact. However, perhaps one of the most noticeable divergences of landscape from architecture is its referral to a unique scale: that of the ecosystem. Working in-house as part of the Landscape Architecture team, ecologist Alex Gault comments:

The analytical questions that an ecologist might ask are not immediately architectural or urban but are of course implicated by the practices of both: How does a water source in the north affect a river or lake in the south, and how does this affect aquatic life? Are there any protected species and what do these species need to survive? What types of species would be expected to live on or travel through this site, and can architectural interventions aid or hinder their survival?

Similar to Aitor’s analysis of Bishops Square, Alex also studies the ecological history of a site to understand how its biodiversity and habitat have changed over time. Artworks, historical maps and surveys, as well as satellite images taken years – sometimes decades – apart can all be used to (re)construct a timeline. ‘By understanding how a region has changed, we can understand what can be recovered and how to move forward.’ The goal is not necessarily to exactly reconstruct a historical habitat, but rather to protect and improve existing ecologies within the parameters of what might be possible, equipped with an understanding of what once was.

Full article: The Lessons of Landscape