“Landscape architecture is the study and practice of designing environments (outdoors & indoors) of varying scale that encompasses elements of art, environment, architecture, engineering, and sociology”.
When planning permission is granted, the planning authority can require additional information before the work goes ahead, or, more usually, the building is occupied. To discharge a landscape condition generally requires details of the hard materials and planting to be used around a building. These details include the make and size of hard materials, the patterns in which they are to be laid and installation details.
Planting details include the type of plant, its supplied size, distance between plants etc. Producing a detailed landscape plan to be submitted with the planning application can save time on a project and avoid additional charges for discharge of conditions.
LVIAs (Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments) can be used for various purposes. They can identify the site with the least impact were it to be developed. They can identify the best area of site to develop to minimise impact. They are often requested by a local authority to determine the impact of proposed development. Although paid for by the developer, LVIAs are impartial and are carried out following the Guide to Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments (GLVIA 4) guidelines.
Whilst there is some subjectivity involved, if two chartered landscape architects were to carry out an LVIA on the same site, their findings would be largely the same.
The cost of a landscape plan varies depending on the size of the plot, but also the complexity of the design. If there are a lot of different materials, for example, they will need a variety of different specifications which will need to be included on the plan. The same applies to planting. The more plants on the plan and the more intricate the planting design, the higher the cost will be, as each plant will have to be specified for height, distance between plants and whether they are to be supplied as container grown or bare root plants. The same principle applies to Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments (LVIAs) – the more complex the findings of the desk study and on-site assessment, the higher the cost. The easiest way to find out for sure, is to contact us and ask for a quotation.
There are a few things you can do yourself to check this, such as asking for delivery notes from the contractor and checking them against the drawings, schedules and specification. However, there are some things which are best left to a professional landscape architect.
