10. A celebration of Brian Clouston's career in Landscape Architecture

10. Brian’s future vision
Landscape Architect Tom Robinson interviews Brian Clouston on his next ‘big idea’. Having read Richard St Barbe Baker’s Men of the Trees as a student, Brian explains his long held interest in North Africa, once the bread basket of the Roman Empire, and the history of ideas for greening the Sahara. He introduces his Big Idea for large scale environmental and economic change for North Africa, to be developed as a submission for the Earthshot prize.
Following the discovery of large aquifers under the desert regions, the idea is based on four main components for an agricultural revolution: generation of solar power, pumping fresh water from the aquifers, construction of desalination plants and recharge of those aquifers, to create a sustainable system. Outputs would include food production, locking in carbon in forestry, power generation, potable water, jobs and economic growth, improved urban conditions, and reduction in waste water and water pollution – in effect a subcontinental water management scheme which would also support the Great Green Wall Initiative in the Sahel area.
Brian and Tom go on to discuss potential world scale improvements, and ideas for an Earthshot submission in 2024.
Many delegates took part in the subsequent discussion covering a range of issues including the wide range of relevant technologies already available, politics and strife, international support, agency and cooperation, and the need for ‘local’, ie pan-African, support.
Linda Clouston - preceding a brief observation from Ross Anderson - concludes the session with a moving and personal tribute to her husband.

The previous recording is Legacy – Practices and practice discussion    • 9. A celebration of Brian Clouston's ...  

For more information about FOLAR: https://www.folar.uk/
Landscape Institute collection at MERL: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/collection...

About this series of talks
Landscape architect Brian Clouston OBE, past president of the Landscape Institute, established a landscape practice in the 1960s that became multi-disciplinary and operated internationally. By the 1990s it was one of the leading practices in the UK and employed more people than any other in Europe. FOLAR wanted to learn more about Brian Clouston, what he did, how he attracted so many young talented staff and what type of projects they worked on. FOLAR also wanted to know what they went on to do on leaving BCP. So we invited lots of former staff to tell their stories at an event in September 2023, with Brian Clouston as the star. Brian continues to think about the role and contribution that landscape architects can make to society and to world affairs and in an interview, and he chose this opportunity to discuss his current big vision for Africa.
We recorded this event and two interviews with Brian Clouston, as a contribution to the oral history of the profession of landscape architecture.

Section One: Introduction; Early days and the formation of the practice; Reclamation; Garden Festivals; Work in the Middle East, Work in Asia and Australia; Urban renewal and Rural infrastructure; Business Parks

Section Two: Legacy Practices and practice, discussion

Section Three: Brian Clouston’s future vision

These sessions were chaired by Annie Coombs FLI who was Managing Director of BCP Asia and Tim Gale PPLI who was a Director of BCP.