Department forges relationships in India

Four of our academics have recently returned from India, as part of a trip designed to forge international relationships and spread Sheffield’s global reputation for Landscape Architecture.

Department of Landscape Architecture academics in Inida

The group, led by Head of Department Professor James Hitchmough, visited universities across India, chosen for being leaders in the theory and practice of Indian Landscape Architecture.

Andy Clayden, Dr Nicola Dempsey and Dr Jan Woudstra joined Professor Hitchmough on the trip, which took place from 9 to 16 January.


The format worked very well for breaking down possible barriers, leading to open, frank and revealing discussions.

Professor James Hitchmough

Head of Department of Landscape Architecture


Professor Hitchmough said: “We are keen to diversify the range of countries we collaborate with in research and recruit postgraduate students from, but India is a place that we didn’t really feel we understood well enough to do this.

"We came to the conclusion that the best way to address this gap was to go and forge relationships with the leading thinkers in the discipline and to understand their needs and perspectives.”

“We organised a series of one day seminars in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bangaluru (Bangalore), based around four contemporary issues in Landscape Architecture (the impact of city form on social sustainability; heritage and contemporary design; design processes; and biodiversity in the dense city).

"We each spoke to one of these issues followed by an Indian colleague. This generated some very interesting colliding perspectives, which were then discussed in front of an audience of 100 plus students, academics, and practitioners.”

“The format worked very well for breaking down possible barriers, leading to open, frank and revealing discussions. We will continue to maintain a dialogue and develop proposals for actual collaboration based on mutual benefits over the coming months”.

A global reputation

Sheffield is a research university with a global reputation for excellence. We're a member of the Russell Group: one of the 24 leading UK universities for research and teaching.