York-based landscape design and environmental planning practice The Landscape Agency has won the inaugural Landscape Award at the RIBA White Rose Awards 2008 for the practice’s restoration of the Grade I listed woodland garden of follies and vistas at Hackfall near Ripon, one of Yorkshire’s most important historic designed landscapes.
The Landscape Award is a new award category announced by the Landscape Institute earlier this year and forms part of the 22nd RIBA Yorkshire White Rose Awards. The award, presented in partnership between the Yorkshire branches of the Landscape Institute and RIBA, recognises excellence in the public realm and reflects the importance of public spaces in the architectural realm.
Patrick James, Managing Director; Jo Brehaut, Landscape Architect and Linda Lockett, Conservation Architect, collected the award at the RIBA Awards Dinner held at Leeds Victoria Hall on 24 October.
The completion in spring this year of works to restore the landscape at Hackfall to its original splendour is the culmination of almost six years’ work for the Landscape Agency and its team of landscape architects, landscape historians, hydrologists and ecologists, on behalf of its clients, the Hackfall Trust and Woodland Trust. The project was funded by a £1million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Patrick James was delighted to receive the Award on behalf of the practice and commented: “We are proud winners of this inaugural award. It is recognition of the hard work the team has put in over the past six years to reveal this extraordinary landscape to a wider public. Hackfall is well worth a visit.”
The RIBA judging panel’s comments about Hackfall were as follows:
“
Hackfall is one of Yorkshire’s most important historic designed landscapes. Conceived in the 18th Century by John Aislabie, for the next 200 years visitors including Turner and Wordsworth flocked to the area, yet it was almost lost forever due to a lack of maintenance from the 1930s onwards. Fortunately a small group of local historians had a vision to restore the gardens and appointed a team of professionals who clearly shared their passion for this landscape.
Having secured a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and in partnership with the Woodland Trust, the vision has now become a reality. Follies and grottoes have been saved, important vistas reopened and ponds and waterfalls restored whilst public access has once again been enabled.
The judges were impressed with the manner in which the landscape architects have interpreted the historic structure of the landscape and boldly felled trees where necessary to allow light back into the woodland. The bureaucratic challenges of restoring Hackfall in a landscape covered by every conceivable statutory designation should not be underestimated and the consenting procedures have been tackled admirably. The success of the project is in no small part due to the collaborative approach adopted between professionals and local volunteers and highlights the real benefits of community involvement.
Whilst the work done so far is just the beginning of a long journey for Hackfall, the established management plan will safeguard the future of Hackfall – a real benefit for the people of Yorkshire.”
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