James Hitchmough, a world recognised researcher, practitioner and recently retired Professor of Horticultural Ecology at the University of Sheffield has centred his research around developing novel approaches to public planting design, that allow for the creation of rich experiences for people living in urban areas, and habitat opportunities for native biodiversity, but at the same time, be established and managed at the lowest levels of finance, energy and other diminishing resources possible.
Using a multidisciplinary approach James’s work intends to shift existing paradigms as to what urban planting might be in the C21st in a time of climate change, sustainability and biodiversity. He is driven by the need to create experiences with vegetation that are at some point in time and space; extraordinary, uplifting and meaningful.
As a practitioner James has been involved in many of the major designed landscapes in the UK over the past 20 years including the planting design lead with Nigel Dunnett for the London Olympics. He also works at much larger scales, and in 2019, as part of a team, won the $1.5 million first prize in the International Design Competition to re-imagine Longquan Shan, a 1275km2 mountain range that is being subsumed by the city of Chengdu, as a conceptually new model for a National Park.
Currently he is working with Hassell on imagining the planting for the Laak Boorndap Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation Project. This massive regeneration project connects 14 of the city’s premier arts and cultural institutions with a new public realm driven by rich, exciting planting, to parallel outside, the performance that takes place inside.
