Thursday, 7 February 2019 at 6:00 pm – Thursday, 7 February 2019 at 7:30 pm

Where have all the big trees gone?

BRITA VON SCHOENAICH PGDip, Dip.Hort. (Kew), CMLI

Principal at Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects

Date: Thursday 7th February 2019

Time: 6pm - 7.30pm

Location: Chatham Building, Lecture Theatre 312

Tickets: FREE - Available on Eventbrite

Master of Landscape Architecture Open Lectures 2018-19

Imagine yourself in London in the 22nd century. Most big street trees will no longer be there. Many are over 100 years old now and by 2100 they will be dead. Future city dwellers may look at images of today and wonder what happened to all the big trees. Whilst a recent survey of London Trees show that 20% more trees were planted than removed, not many of these will be in our streets where we need them most. The life expectancy of new trees in confined soil volumes is limited and Highway “needs” means broad canopy trees are rarely planted along roads.

Brita will consider 300 years of tree planting and what strategies, fighting spirit and at times devious planning could ensure big city trees for the future.

BRITA VON SCHOENAICH PGDip, Dip.Hort. (Kew), CMLI

Following her studies at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Brita completed a post-graduate course to qualify as a Landscape Architect. She has been influential in promoting what used to be referred to as New Perennial Planting and is a partner at Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects. Brita was one of the UK’s first ‘Guerrilla Gardeners’ and her meadow at Hogarth roundabout was an early Chelsea Fringe entry. Projects include the grounds at Stanton Williams’ Stirling Prize-winning Sainsbury laboratory at Cambridge Botanic Gardens and Kings Cross Square. Current commissions are the grounds for a school in sub-tropical China, the landscape around the RHS’ new entrance building at Wisley and a masterplan for Britain’s largest cemetery. She has also been teaching landscape design at Kew Gardens for many years and is a frequent speaker at international conferences.

The MLA Open Lecture series is delivered by invited guest speakers, mainly from outside MMU whose work is closely connected to the overarching focus of the Master of Landscape Architecture Atelier projects for the year. In this case, they are entitled 'Reinventing Rurality' and involve a series of speakers whose research or publications look at the challenges and opportunities faced by rural landscapes and communities today from a range of different perspectives. These lectures are also part of a longer term ambition to develop a research project around the theme of the Hyper-Rural. This will sit mainly within the Architecture Research Centre but also involve researchers from a wide range of disciplines including potentially Geography, Ecology, Fine Arts and Humanities. The project will work with external partners in the UK and internationally to explore potential rural futures and the landscapes which these may give rise to. A current MSARC bid has been submitted and further bids are planned to the AHRC and NWCDTP over the coming year. The lecture series is led by Eddy Fox, Programme Leader for Landscape Architecture within the MSA and supported by Ian Fisher. Jo Phillips is the principal research assistant for the Hyoer Rural research project.

For more information, please contact:

Eddy Fox · e.fox@mmu.ac.uk

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