Cities Alive Landscape and Urban Design Studio

MA.PGDip LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

RIVERS. PLACES. NATURE. DESIGN

Established some 10 years ago the Cities Alive Landscape and Urban Design Studio explores the character and quality of urban and rural spaces. It promotes radical approaches to placemaking and nature-led design. The 2023.24 Studio focuses on the River Aire that runs some 92 miles from its source at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, to the Humber Estuary on the East Coast of England.

Seventeen home and international post grad students joined the studio, run by Alia Fadel and Chris Royffe, and this is a glimpse of some of their work presented to visiting critics including Tom Bliss environmental design specialist and Landscape Architect Amy McAbendroth from Arup, who are instrumental in developing the Cities Alive research programme. Arup also award a prize to the student(s) producing the most innovative proposals.

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Advanced Landscape Architecture

MA.PGDip LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

The focus of our postgraduate course is on developing understanding and practice of Landscape Architecture in the context of environmental challenges and issues prevalent in the 21st century. The ever-growing significance of Landscape Architecture means that our graduates are experiencing unparalleled opportunities to be a part of environmental action across the world.

In the module Advanced Landscape Architecture Studio students choose their own major design project site, urban or rural at a large or small scale. The studio provides a setting and cover skey theory and practice contexts with an emphasis on developing sustainable landscape design proposals.

Our process includes: Research, Context and Precedents; Learning to apply research and analysis techniques and developing design concepts; Design Development and Masterplanning; research and apply contemporary theory to develop a comprehensive design strategy; Design and Technical Resolution; exploring and resolving design detail, construction, planting and landscape management.

Projects this year are:

•Kirkstall Valley Park – reimagined for health & wellbeing

•Wakefield – green connections along the River Calder

•Bradford – a new park within the changing city

•Castleford – embedding nature and green space in the town

•Kirkstall Abbey – a new parkland destination in a sensitive historic setting

•Nottingham – bringing back the water meadows to a city park

•Bath – greening the Western Riverside neighbourhood

•Trubrite Steelworks, Sheffield – reclamation, recreation and habitat creation

•Mixenden – nature recovery and rural landscape connections

•Shipley – reimagining the modernist square and town centre