Trees, People & the Built Environment

Following Earth Day, back in April this year, I headed to day one of the Trees, People and the Built Environment conference at Edgbaston Stadium. This conference brought together professionals from many disciplines within the built environment including arboriculturalists, landscape architects, planners, urban designers, highway and drainage engineers and many more.  Discussions considered how we, as designers, are best placed to ensure that trees can thrive within our urban environments.  The take home message throughout the conference was collaboration is vital if we are to succeed.

Day one of the conference began with an introductory panel session, hosted by Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs), before moving into the first session of the day, hosted by Jane Findlay, former president of the Landscape Institute.  There were further presentations throughout the day from representatives of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, Arboricultural Association, Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation, Birmingham City Council, Sustrans, the Royal Town Planning Institute, CIRIA and others.

Central themes throughout included:

• the need for a fundamental rethink of how we design our urban spaces, to help regenerate the UKs depleted nature resource; 

• embracing nature based solutions and multidisciplinary approaches to designing spaces that are functional as well as flourishing; 

• reconnecting people with nature so that they care for it better; 

• embedding blue infrastructure into the green; and 

• looking to a greater diversity of species to tackle climate change and biodiversity net gain more effectively.

There were several key ambitions arising from the seminar of interest to us;

• Is there an opportunity to build an evidence base, to gather and collate data, mapping urban greening at all scales with the help of community engagement? 

• Could we improve highway specific guidance for green infrastructure implementation? 

• Can we produce a national underground design to help us manage and design tree planting and services in tandem to achieve the greatest levels of urban greening?

Going into the conference, we were already aware of the benefits that trees can have on communities.  However, we need to continue to collaborate with other disciplines and engage with the public, to ensure that the landscapes that we design are as efficient, functional and as beautiful as they can be.