Monaco November 07

Between Fance and Itally

Monte Carlo in Monaco is a strange little place, between mountain and sea, it is easily seen in a weekend. It is beautiful and nice to visit but has little identity or culture of its own. Its a mix match of spec materials, random sculptures, flash cars and hotels amongst the older forgotten buildings, hilly terrain and lush vegetation. Nothing seems quite at home, not even the people as they are mostly there to remain rich and dodge tax! This plant, along with the curry plant appears all over the Principality, If you know what it is please tell me! and I discovered 'mind your own business' Soleirolia soleirolli (Helexine soleirolii)

Climate Change- the challenge for Landscape architecture

The Landscape Institute held a Climate Change Conference in Regents Park 01-02 November 2007. I attended and focusses on current issues for my 1st Focus week. 29th Oct- 3rd Nov.

Regents Park in Autum colours

We are the make or break generation of designers, we can turn the world around for the future of the human race. This will take much testing, experimenting and innovation.......

There were some fabulous talkers, some not so fab talkers and here's my favorite points:

Tim Lang

main message Be Veggie! 2/3 of our seared food is fed to animals.

Well actually 'What is land for?

Housing? Transport? Recreation? Food Production? Biofuels?

The World Wild Life Fund states that 3 planets would be needed to sustain our current lifestyles,
however in food terms we are looking at 6 planets to sustain our greedy guts!

Britain is 63% self sufficient this is 15% less than three years ago therefore Britain is living off other peoples land.

Tim Lang also talked of the 'nutritional transition' which is facinating and is basically showing how less people are dying of infectious disease's & there are more deaths caused by none communicable illness. Which indicates an increased life style quality globally.

to read more about nutritional transition CLICK

He questioned if progress really meant spending less on food, cheap imports, having shops such as Primark! Where somebody else Is paying the price for our cheap goods through being forced into poor quality of life.

David Burnie on Edible new Middlesborough

A step towards self sufficiency of the urban. Food Soveriegnity.

Community allotments have been integrated into the public realm of the ASBO capital of the UK! Middlesborough has been voted by channel 4 to be the worst place in the UK to live- an amazing show of community involvement proved them wrong. Over 1000 participants worked on allotments which fed 3,500 people in a town Food Feast! This is to happen every year and the estimated upkeep cost is £70 per year
EAT That!

CLICK for more on Edible Middlesborough

Kim Wilkie Don't panic!

Possibly the most inspiring talker of the conference, here's some of his points:

Accross London 32 square kilometers of our green space being eaten up by 'modern' paving over front gardens, that's 22 times the size of Hyde Park & the City's Urban Drainage system is dramatically & negatively affected.


Farmers markets-- rejuvenation--bring good food for a good price into our conciousness

There is a new common agriculture policy since the 2nd world war when farmers were encouraged to produce as much as they could using pesticides and herbcides. Now we seek organically produced quality stamped food however many still opt for he cheaper option.

Map Ramble with Tim Waterman

Regents Park to Kings Cross