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”.
The Universities visited were:
- School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi
- Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) Ahmedabad
- Nanavati College for Architecture for Women, Pune
- RV College of Architecture, Bangalore