Christopher Bradley-Hole
Christopher Bradley-Hole is a greatly influential landscape
designer, originally from Brighton, UK. During his childhood, his fascination
for architecture and gardens encouraged him to study Architecture at Brighton
University. Visits to many gardens from the 'Yellow Book', which includes
listings of secret gardens in England and Wales, fostered his interest in gardening and
plants. After years of working within the architecture profession,
Bradley-Hole became tired of the continuous corporate projects and led him to
re-focus on the design of landscapes. Within the landscape field, he has
completed public projects for the BBC, Arsenal Football Club and Pallant House
Gallery, alongside major private gardens and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. He
has also given international lectures and taught landscape design and
construction classes to students at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
His philosophy as a designer is primarily regarding people. He says “I’ve always had the philosophy that there should be room for people in design. I think design must have a socialist philosophy; it must be concerned with people, like people interacting and enjoying themselves, whether its two people or two thousand. It must be about improving people’s lives, trying to do something which is going to make the world a bit better”. He also acknowledges the importance of putting time and effort into his work, rather than simply repeating the same designs that he claims makes “the world a depressing place because you’re just reducing everything to a sort of banal level”. I completely agree with his philosophy of designing for people, I believe people engaging with and enjoying places are a vital element of landscape architecture (as discussed in my Placemaking post). However, I also think landscape designs should be for the environment, especially with the current climate and biodiversity emergency, and I believe it is that fine line of developing engaging spaces for people, whilst enhancing and remediating our landscapes, that makes the landscape architecture profession so prevalent in this current era. I also wholeheartedly admire his attitude regarding the importance of putting time and effort in, something I hope to retain throughout my career.
References
Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape. (n.d.) Team. Available
at: https://www.bhsla.co.uk/Team (Accessed: 12 February 2021)
Moore, J. (2014) Christopher Bradley-Hole. Available at: http://www.modernlandscapedesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/C_Bradley-Hole_by_JMoore.pdf (Accessed: 12 February 2021)
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