Auckland Conversations - Professor Kathryn Moore

Landscape as the driver of development strategy and the vision for new infrastructure

Professor Kathryn Moore - 2014 President of the International Federation of Landscape Architecture

Kathryn's design work has included collaboration with other landscape architects on major projects in Birmingham, UK such as the re¬ visioning of Salford Quays, widespread derelict land reclamation, urban regeneration, public realm creation and landscape management.

Kathryn's experience in bringing communities together to find a better way of delivering the proposed High speed Rail project between London and Birmingham has attracted considerable support from local and regional stakeholders, including the Chambers of Commerce and local councils. It has significant implications for infrastructure projects in New Zealand.

HS2 is the UK's largest infrastructure project for generations. Kathryn's proposal is that it should be turned from a linear engineering project into an iconic landscape infrastructure that will be a catalyst for wider social and economic transformation. She argues that HS2LV represents a unique opportunity to create an enduring legacy by placing the landscape at the core of the project.

Another project - Thurrock Garden City uses a similar holistic and integrated approach to build confidence, aspirations and inspire a new way of working to achieve radical change in a borough that has until recently been regarded as an impoverished dumping ground for London.