Category: Course Visits and Trips

Prospect-refuge theory on Wistley Hill

Yesterday the Appraising Landscapes class ventured into the wide open country of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, undertaking a five-mile walk which took us up the back-slope from Seven Springs (source of the Thames) onto Wistley…

Benchmarks, red kites and ranging rods

Yesterday, 31st January 2023, the Appraising Landscapes class undertook some basic surveying practice on the front lawn of FCH campus. On our way there we spotted two interesting phenomena: one possibly disappearing from, the other becoming more common…

LISW STUDENT EVENTS February-March 2023

CONTACT IMOGENREEVES@GLOS.AC.UK LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE SOUTH WEST The eventbrite booking links are below: BD Landscape Studio Tour – 03 Feb, 2pm  – LISW Student Event – Studio Tour with BD Landscape Architects Tickets, Fri 3 Feb 2023 at 14:00 |…

STEPPING OUTSIDE: Appraising Landscape’s dérive in Cheltenham

According to Wikipedia, a dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely…

A clear landscape view of Cheltenham

Our new first year students explored a part of the Cotswolds last week, partly to orientate themselves in the broader Gloucestershire landscape but also to study at close hand some features that make up the scene: local rocks…

Forest of Dean Freeminers

For me, I suppose it’s the geology that makes the Forest of Dean unique. As an earth scientist, my interest is always fired by a knowledge of the strata underground and how that influences the surface relief. The…

Save the planet: fly to Java, “Garden of the East”

For much of the time teaching Appraising Landscapes and Sustainable Technology to the current first year students, I have been banging my drum about the global climate emergency, advocating some of the founding principles of the Extinction Rebellion…

Lightmoor site visit, Forest of Dean, 29th October

We’ve been using Lightmoor as a project site for many years. Not because we can’t think of anywhere else to go but because it perfectly fits the bill in terms of its mining heritage which imbues the whole…

Landscape and Urban Design Field Trip to Cardiff

Landscape and Urban Design Field Trip to Cardiff New students were welcomed to the course with a trip to Cardiff including a lecture by Peter McComiskey, Director of TACP Landscapes (founded in 1906). The lecture was called Past,…

Urban Futures Student Trip: The Changing Face of Birmingham

Does planning the future always involve destroying the past? How do we enact change at a human scale in cities? What are the critical issues facing cities today? What are the potential solutions of these issues? How can…