As the UK gears up to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England alone, a critical new evidence-based report from the Landscape Institute, the chartered body for the landscape profession, sets out how taking a landscape-led approach is the only way to lead and deliver healthy, thriving, nature-positive places for people in the future.
The LI’s landmark briefing — Maximising value from built development: A landscape-led approach is essential for people, place and nature — will be officially launched at the UK Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) on 21 May.
It calls on built environment professionals to rethink how we design, build and maintain communities.
Image: Claire Hunt CMLI, UBU Design
The briefing is a strong call to industry — from strategic landowners to local planning authorities, developers to infrastructure funders — with a clear message: placing landscape at the heart of the planning and build process will unlock long-term value.
“Buildings are just one component of new places” says Carolin Göhler FLI, President of the Landscape Institute. “It is the landscape that determines the long-term desirability, distinctiveness and enduring value of a place.”
Landscape architects, supported by the LI’s Royal Charter, are uniquely trained to work at every scale — from masterplanning to site delivery to management — to ensure that the natural and built environments work in harmony together. The report explains that a landscape-led development approach factors in with landscape expertise right from the beginning, making it a core part of the design process.
As society is faced with overlapping challenges of housing need, biodiversity loss, and climate change, the solution is clear: landscape should be the foundation of resilient, liveable and valuable places.
