I have met both of the landscape architects in Malawi. They seem to have a lot of the same troubles that landscape architects have in the United States. 1. Clients don't want to pay for a landscape architect 2. Everybody thinks they are limited to gardens 3. When there are jobs for landscape architects, they are done by someone else, planners, architects, engineers, gardeners, etc. So at least we had something in common...
Apparently the previous government was more sympathetic to some of the environmental and cultural benefits that landscape architects can bring to a design, but those people are no longer in power.
We talked briefly about how LEED is beginning to change the culture of building by encouraging group planning that involves all of the design partners at once, as opposed to a more traditional top down approach to construction. Unfortunately the USGBC has yet to make many inroads to Lilongwe. This means that there are few and carrots and seemingly fewer sticks to help encourage people to look beyond the walls of their building to see the larger impact these new constructions could have on both the community and the environment.
For example, there are about four shopping centers in Lilongwe. There are four to five more shopping centers being built. All of these shopping centers are of the general form of parking in the center with a ring of shops around the parking. In the United States we've already had to deal with ramifications of this style of design. Individual car use is encouraged, the trees are planted in concrete boxes which are too small for the tree to grow so the pavement becomes extremely hot, the water runs off of the hot pavement when rains and brings trash and chemicals from cars directly into the river without treatment.
The simple solution to this type of design is to allow more room for trees to grow and get large as well treat the water onsite through rain gardens and permeable pavement. The costs are not all that different from current building practices, but the location and design of these various elements need to be combined into a functioning system. So there are some costs for paying a landscape architect to create the design. Under the current system there seem to be few incentives for property developers to want to pay for cleaner water or reduced temperatures.
We ended our meeting by agreeing to keep in touch and to think about potential projects that we could initiate to help illustrate the benefits of paying more attention to the design around the building.
Apparently the previous government was more sympathetic to some of the environmental and cultural benefits that landscape architects can bring to a design, but those people are no longer in power.
We talked briefly about how LEED is beginning to change the culture of building by encouraging group planning that involves all of the design partners at once, as opposed to a more traditional top down approach to construction. Unfortunately the USGBC has yet to make many inroads to Lilongwe. This means that there are few and carrots and seemingly fewer sticks to help encourage people to look beyond the walls of their building to see the larger impact these new constructions could have on both the community and the environment.
For example, there are about four shopping centers in Lilongwe. There are four to five more shopping centers being built. All of these shopping centers are of the general form of parking in the center with a ring of shops around the parking. In the United States we've already had to deal with ramifications of this style of design. Individual car use is encouraged, the trees are planted in concrete boxes which are too small for the tree to grow so the pavement becomes extremely hot, the water runs off of the hot pavement when rains and brings trash and chemicals from cars directly into the river without treatment.
The simple solution to this type of design is to allow more room for trees to grow and get large as well treat the water onsite through rain gardens and permeable pavement. The costs are not all that different from current building practices, but the location and design of these various elements need to be combined into a functioning system. So there are some costs for paying a landscape architect to create the design. Under the current system there seem to be few incentives for property developers to want to pay for cleaner water or reduced temperatures.
We ended our meeting by agreeing to keep in touch and to think about potential projects that we could initiate to help illustrate the benefits of paying more attention to the design around the building.
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| This is a big ditch which could have been made to divert water around a construction site and into the neighboring river |
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| The main road we travel is on is sunken |
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| The river that runs through Lilongwe is almost hidden at some points |
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| The river can also be heavily occupied |
