BLOG – A Week In The Life Of A Landscape Architect
This month we caught up with Senior Landscape Architect, Richard about what he gets up to in a typical week at Groundwork Greater Manchester!
What is your role?
My job title is Senior Landscape Architect and the role involves the planning, design and development of outdoor spaces and landscapes in the built and natural environment. The range of projects is very diverse and includes public parks, school grounds, residential estates, nature & conservation areas, hospital gardens, urban green spaces and river corridors.
Key to the Senior Landscape Architect role is co-design involving local communities and stakeholders in the design process to help build stronger and greener communities. Part of my design process is also to create places that promote health & wellbeing, enhance biodiversity, tackle environmental challenges and bring enjoyment to people.
What do you get up to in a typical week?
Good question and my week can be very varied from sitting in front of a computer most of the day to being out and about visiting sites and projects.
One day I might be meeting a client to discuss a new project and their requirements and then another day might involve surveying, measuring and assessing an existing site. A day in the office will often find me using CAD software (computer aided design) to create plans and designs. Sometimes I’ll be producing drawings and visual proposals to show clients or stakeholders what the designs and ideas for a site are. Other times I need to provide detailed drawings to contractors that help show them how to construct the design.
Finance and budgets are always a factor in my work and so part of my week may involve producing a cost estimate for a design or liaising with clients and contractors over project costs.
When you have designed a project and it’s being built one of the most satisfying things is to see its progress and completion. Part of my weekly work then would be to oversee any projects that are under construction to monitor progress, cost, quality and deal with any site issues.
Tell us about an exciting work day you’ve recently had?
I had designed a nature/sensory garden for a school in Trafford that was being built last summer. Tom the head teacher was a keen gardener and so I invited him to help choose the plants and put them in. An early 8am start saw us meet the contractor at the plant nursery, spent a few hours selecting some suitable plants, which Tom described as being like a kid in a sweet shop and then the remainder of the day we enjoyed deciding the best positions for plants, digging them in, mulching and watering.
Always nice to get away from the desk and be hands on with a project.
What inspires you/motivates you to do your work?
Mostly the opportunity to improve or develop a space for the benefit of other people. An example being the transformation of an outdoor space I designed for a mental health ward. The patients had an existing outdoor space which consisted of black rubber surfacing and nothing else, no features, nothing green or living….it was awful. We were able to put in a grass lawn, flowers, seats & sun loungers, gym equipment and raised beds for growing edible plants.
I’ve also been in Groundwork over 20 years which means I can revisit sites and see how they have matured, trees that have reached full size, what has been successful (or not).
There is a football/basketball court in Old Trafford that I designed 15 years ago. Whenever I drive past it I see kids and teenagers still using it and I think I did that and it made a difference.