Graduate Landscape Architect Portfolio

LAUREN DUTTON

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO

As a third year Landscape Architecture student at the University of Gloucestershire, I am always working towards bettering my skills, knowledge and connections so that I can become the best version of myself and to ensure that every project proposal I design, benefits the environment and local community.

Coming from the Black Country (Stourbridge), where I live on the rural urban fringe, it has unconsciously given me a strong interest in blending ‘the green’ into our cities. This interest has increased over the last few months as I have been writing and finishing my dissertation on the sustainable retrofit of urban green infrastructure. Exploring how you would implement this through both policy and design approaches has boosted my passion for my chosen career.

I will be furthering this passion through a Masters Course at the University of Gloucestershire, where I will learn planning, design and management in more depth.

Alongside this, I have interests in becoming a Chartered member of the Landscape Institute and future aspiration of becoming a Project Landscape Architect, engaging with clients and wider industry teams.

Observation sketches of people in Landscape and Nature growing over a building

Place making talk at Design West - March 2022

Furnitecture Concept and Form Development

“Landscape architecture to me is my way of aesthetically rating the locations I have experienced, the more plants the better. Being in nature, whether walking my dog back home or experiencing it through a window in a city, makes me feel content. To put this back into the world via design is one of the main reasons why I wanted to become a Landscape Architect.”

SKILLS

• Hand Rendering

• Knowledge in BIM and the wider construction industry

• Project Management

• Team Working, leadership and Collaboration

• AutoCAD, Keyscape, Enscape

• Twin Motion, Sketch Up

• Abode creative cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)

• Researching

• Surveying

• Conceptual diagramming

• Written Communication and Public speaking

• Clientele Engagement

• Pro-activeness

• Coppicing, Pollarding,

• Model making

LINKEDIN Lauren Dutton

*Please contact via Email or LinkedIn for CV

FOREST SCHOOL DESIGN CONSULTATION

Cover page for the 18 page ideas plan report highlighting that it is sugestion only.

A forest school is a highly important aspect of teaching and childhood development. Through networking, I was asked to help prepare a design plan and preliminary response to Netherbrook Primary’s Forest School. I viewed and held a consultation meeting in early January of 2023, where I surveyed the site and talked through my design ideas with the teacher appointed with taking charge of the regeneration. I then produced an 18 page report in which I presented my research and suggestions, whilst including plant brouchers for extra

consideration. I included the design ideas from the meeting and expanded on them by giving reasoning, analysis, soft and hard material pallets, suggested suppliers of both, and suggested placements. As a young adult who hasn’t had a lot of experience with children and design around schools, this bridged the gap and exposed me to concepts that I can apply to other designs, such as the concept of private play and introducing visually closed spaces allowing for children to be alone in.

For Chaumont, the brief was to create a garden that focuses on Resilience in regards to the current climate crisis.

The team and I considered many concepts for our entry. We decided on ‘Harnessing Nature’ as we believe that we as humans must draw influence from and use nature’s systems in order to increase our ability to properly combat climate change and global warming.

In our design we chose to have a one way route through the garden, in which you enter to a white room, that represents humans dictating space. You would then move through to the main part of the garden where nature influences the space. In the center of this section of the garden is a refuge area, where visitors could sit within nature and reflect.

CHAUMONT GARDEN DESIGN ENTRY

Planting mix - workings out

Stipa gigantea ‘Gold Fontaene’, Stipa tenuissima

Ferns: Athyrium niponicum var. pictum ‘Ursula’s Red’, Dryopteris buschiana

6 Carex siderosticta ‘Shiro’,

1 Stipa gigantea ‘Gold Fontaene’ Ferns:

5 Athyrium niponicum var. pictum ‘Ursula’s Red’, 3 Dryopteris buschiana

Herbs:

6 Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Whitewater Silver’ Sedums:

6 Hylotelephium ‘Blue Elf’

4 Hylotelephium ‘Lime Twister’

Planting Height- workings out

Mix of planting to be determined on site, grading from high to low. Avergae density for herbacious = 10 sqm and for shrubs 5sqm. For more information refer to specification. Shrubs: Actaea simplex ‘Pritchard’s Giant’, Allium giganteum, Buddleja davidii,

Mix of planting to be determined on site, grading from high to

Shrubs: Actaea simplex ‘Pritchard’s Giant’, Allium giganteum, Buddleja davidii,

10 Brunnera macrophylia ‘Silver Heart’ Digitalis purpurea ‘Dalmation White’, Fuchsia magellanica ‘Riccartonii’, Heuchera ‘Wild Berry’,

10 Phlox ‘Clouds of Perfume’, Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Variegatum’ Grasses Carex pendula, Carex siderosticta ‘Shiro’, Stipa gigantea ‘Gold Fontaene’, Stipa tenuissima

Ferns: Athyrium niponicum var. pictum ‘Ursula’s

Red’, Dryopteris buschiana

Herbs Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Whitewater Silver’

Sedums

10 Hylotelephium ‘Blue Elf’,

Hylotelephium ‘Firecracker’,

Hylotelephium ‘Lime Twister’,

to Wordsley, Wall Heath and Stourbridge

LDA BURSARY ENTRY

Site Photos - August 2022

Existing Fronatge 1960’s build, can be seen as outdated

Existing Main Entrance to Building

Main RoadA4101 High Street Main road to Dudley, with links to Wordsley, Wall Heath and Stourbridge

Ramped for inclusive access

Usually covered in tar mac and moss and used by maintenance teams only, the most forgotten space in all urban environments is the roof. Whether pitched or flat, a roof is seen to only have one purpose – For Shelter.

Accessed through maintennance steps and through building.

Existing Site Conditions

Site Conditions

My interpretation of the brief, Forgotten Spaces, is a roof. Back where I am from, in a town called Kingswinford, there is a 1960’s built Co-Operative Supermarket. My design proposal is to create an interactive urban farm, where the public and the company can grow fresh produce and work together hopefully bringing the community closer.

Main Roof Area Accessed through maintennance steps and through building.

Sustainable Urban Roof Farm Site: Kingswinford Co-Operative Roof

Incorporating green/brownfield roofs, on the terraces that aren’t accessible, gave me opportunities to increase biodiversity and insect populations within the urban environment. It also allowed me to research into loadings and how a system like this could work.

Existing Fronatge 1960’s build, can be seen as outdated

Proposed Site Development

The beauty of a flat roof is that it adds another level to a building, a level that can be used for access to nature and biophilia in an urban setting.

Existing Main Entrance to Building

Ramped for inclusive access

Usually covered in tar mac and moss and used by maintenance teams only, the most forgotten space in all urban environments is the roof. Whether pitched or flat, a roof is seen to only have one purpose – For Shelter.

Rainwater Harvesting Used to store rainwater for use in summer months and drough conditions. Collected from green roof above.

Sustainable Urban Roof Farm

Food Production Area

For use by the public and the Co-operative. Wooden seating set within production area for inclusitivity

Glass Window North Facing, used to connect inside to outside Ammenity/ biodiverse Lawn Area For recreational and carbon sequestration use. For people who want a picnic area.

Green/ Brownfield Roof Area

Inaccessible by general public, accessible for maintennance. Used to increase biodiveristy net gain and insect population

Sustainable Urban

Site: Kingswinford

Co-Operative

Lauren Dutton

Supporting Visualisation highlighting keys aspects of the proposal

Allow for extra sun exposure and used to ameliorate the area. Topped with metal rail.

Storage Shed

Locked, place to house gardening tools. Used by anyone who has no tools of their own

Beige Gravel Paving

Permeable, locally sourced, lined with a weed barrier

Public Seating Area

Raised Planting Beds for ease of use, to increase inclusitivity

Green/ Brownfield Roof Area

Inaccessible by general public, accessible for maintennance. Used to increase biodiveristy net gain and insect population

Allow for the public to sit within nature and prepare any food produced.

A sustainable, roof farm aimed at increasing educational, recreational, and biophilic facilities for the local community and local business

Sustainable Urban Roof Farm Site: Kingswinford Co-Operative Roof

Lauren Dutton

RHS - LONG BORDER ENTRY

Planting PlanShowing the Layout, Quanities and Plant Density

BLUR

- Planting Masterplan

NOTES:

• Height data shown on visualisation

• Site dimensions = 6.8m x 1.8m (without border)

• Plants allowed to merge with neighbouring plants and planting sections • Overall planting density is 4.6

Planting SpecificationDetailing quanity, Plant Name and Pot Size

In groups of three, we entered RHS’s Long Border competion at Tatton Park in Chester, UK. The brief was to create a border around the word ‘Sensory’.

My group decided on the concept of ‘Blur’ and how people with limited eyesight see the world. In our group, my team member and me are Long and Short sighted and so see the world naturally blurred. This concept stemed from this and from the idea of bringing awareness to how different people percieve the world.

To translate our concept into planting, we chose species that look fluffy and blurred. We also decided to allow the planting to merge into each other and densly plant the border.

IllustrationShowing how the planting will look once installed

REPRESENTING CONCEPTS

Through Collaging, concepts can be translated easily for clients and users of the site. Creating project schemes through ripped magazine collages is one of my favourite ways at representing and translating a design.

Photoshop collages allow you to find and manipulate your own and internet photos to create more cohesive visualisations. Being creative, expressive and abstract allowed me to develop a style to these collages. Communicating ideas through these put together collages, allowed me to truly understand my site and design at a component level.

REPRESENTING CONCEPTS

SITE ANALYSIS

Case Study Analysis

Site analysis is a skill that has evolved the most throughout my time at University. From printing off the site and overlaying thoughts and analysis on top on tracing paper to creating 2D and 3D renders of initial site experiences.

St James’ Square in Cheltenham is essentially a walk through space, where the river is cut off from users and the local community. The design which followed this analysis, opened this divide and connected the site to the river through sloped accesses and interactive schemes.

This hedge garden’s design hasn’t changed through its iterations but they way it has been represented has evolved. It took the evolution of my own skills to translate this design from a quick sketch that was bucket filled to a textured and stylised, hand rendered image to finally, a sketch up based, axonometric.

My choice to add the trees to the central z-shaped hedge to enclose the space more, allowed me to understand shadows better.

Recycled Concrete Basin with Phragmites australis 1000mm - 1500mm

TRANSLATING DESIGN

Quercus Robur 5000mm - 10,000mm (At full maturity)

Using this simple design has helped me to improve and evolve my computer and drawn skills. It has also been a catalyst in making me consider shadows and how light or the dark affect a space’s atmosphere.

Betula pendula 5000mm - 6000mm (At full maturity)

Buxus

1000mm

(At full maturity)

Pleached

5000mm - 6000mm (At full maturity)

Hardwood Timber steps with steel grated risers

TECHNICAL DRAWING

General arrangement Plan

Barnwood Park and Arboretum Technical Drawings:

Soft Construction details

For this design, I added a floating board walk with accessible ramps and steps, so that everyone who visits can experience. I integrated the contours into the design and utilised them to create views within the site.

From the cut and fill ponds, I added mounds to the surrounding embankments to create phytoremediation swales to filter runoff. This then allowed me to add into feature bridges to connect the site to the surrounding residential area.

Hard Construction details

University of Gloucestershire Park Campus Technical Drawings:

TECHNICAL DRAWING

Matrix Planting Plan

Earthworks Plan

Listed in alphabetical order

Grouped into deciduous and everygreen

Tree stock specification listed by height in meters, root condition, staked or guyed

Shrub and Fern stock specification listed by heigh in meters, root conditon

Nurserys used: Wyvale and Coblands

Habitat Survey

For the design, we had to add two retention ponds and two mounds to allow for run off. This required a cut and fill procedure and a rework of contours. We also had to fill out a habitat survey and sort out a matrix planting plan for a woodland buffer.

The planting matrix included native woodland and shrub planting to increase biodiveristy and sustainability. This will also suit the context of Park Campus and Cheltenham.

NORTH PLACE

North Place car park in Cheltenham has been described as a Tabular Rasa, a space that is a clean slate, ready for development.

Our brief detailed a list of components to feature in our design: 24,000 sqm of live work space, an amphitheatre, 800 car parking spaces with 100 for electric cars and bicycle storage. My idea was to connect the space through a rain channel, where rainwater and grey water would be run through a cycle that allowed for everyone to experience rain without getting wet. This was influenced by the Barbican Conservatory’s Rain Room exhibition and used as a catalyst to draw people in.

INTERNATIONAL IMMERSIVE PROJECTS

In October and March 2022 and 2023, the university set up a three day charrette project where all years from construction based courses could attend. We learnt about biophilic design approaches, re-wilding and how to integrate it in a sustainable way.

3rd Year Immersive Project: Rewilding

For This project, the site was the HoneyBourne Line in Cheltenham and we spilt into three group to tackle either low, moderate or intense rewilding approaches. I was in the ‘Moderate’ group where we had to balance ‘wilding’ with societal use.

Year 3 Design Iterations

2nd Year Immersive Project: Biophilia

The site was Boots Corner in Cheltenham and it is set within the central area of the high street. Hundreds of people flow through it everyday but only a few stop to eat, chill and use it as a meeting space.

Yar 2 Design Iterations

The final design and images from the day

Year 1 Essay Title:

What are the Design Influences of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut?

Year 2 Essay Title:

What Coastal Soft Engineering Strategies could be implemented in the UK that would promote Eco and Socio-economic Sustainability?

An image to show how the gardens of the Temple of Hatshepsut could have looked.

This drawing is my interpretation of what the temple’s gardens could have looked like in regards to the research I collated and the positioning of the drawing. There would be a lot of ‘sanctuary space’ for prayer and shade for respite.

An image to show how soft engineering strategies could look like.

This quick Photoshop collage is my interpretation of what coastlines could look like in regards to the research I collated and analysis of case studies. The sand dunes evolving into their carrying capacity.

FIRA LANDSCAPE INTERNSHIP

St Barnabas Concept and Visualisations

In the summer of 2022, I undertook a two week summer work experience placement with Fira Landscape. Within the first week, I was tasked to look at the site of St Barnabas’ church in Erdington, Birmingham. The site had started to decline as the graves were tightly packed and as they were built from the early 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, they had started to subside. The client wanted to backfill them and create an accessible site where people can come and use it area. They also wanted the site to still be for memory and link to the past to honour the graves below.

My design is to the left and on the next page, the concept is how DNA connects us. I chose to translate this into the design by the intertwining, central pathway and by regenerating the graves stones as paving stones.

Another task that I helped with was the updating of RDD for a planting project. This is where I learned more about the plants and they’re preferred conditions. I had to research into the preferred soil, sun, shade conditions and the flowering season of 14 trees and 35 shrubs.

Planting RDD

St Barnabas Final Design - fully annotated

Scale: 1:500 @ A1

FIRA LANDSCAPE INTERNSHIP

Enscape 360 viewpoints on previous page

BA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DISSERTATION

Extracted from the Introduction to my Dissertation

Topic and Aims:

The topic explored is Urban Greening and Green Infrastructure (GI) and how Landscape Architects can sustainably retrofit space to include more of these in cities. The dissertation also covers the ecosystem services that benefit the area surrounding the infrastructure investigating the term ‘Urban Greening,’ the benefits and sustainable retrofit. To facilitate this, research was required to explore and analyse the definitions, history, relevant policies, implementation approaches and modern understandings; plus identify recently retrofitted schemes, through a case study, which expresses the research found.

Purpose:

With the Climate Crisis worsening, provisions for sustainability and the introduction of new policy/approaches, that understand the value of Urban Green Space (UGS), are increasing. The Government, construction industry especially Landscape Architects, and other bodies all recognise the impact people are having on the planet and understand that the urban environment, constructed mostly in the 1960’s, cannot further support the population. These professionals also understand that GI is essential to the success of cities. With this knowledge the dissertation’s purpose is to investigate Urban Greening; exploring and analysing sustainable retrofit approaches that Landscape Architects can use in towns and cities.

Bound version of my Dissertation:

Extracted from my post on LinkedIn.

“As preparation for further studies and employment (and for my own interest), I decided to bind my dissertation. It now opens like a book with only the front cover being on a separate page.”