Damian Holmes

Over the past two years with the Global Financial Crisis hit nearly every nation across the globe and as a result landscape architects where laid off in large numbers. This was hardest felt in the USA due to lack of work and collapse of the home building market.

Governments from USA, UK, Canada, Australia, China and many other countries kick-started their economies with Financial Stimulus packages which has given some firms more work but has created just enough work to sustain the staff they had kept on.

At World Landscape Architect, however I have noticed in recent weeks that results for tenders and competitions seems to appear on the web more and more frequently.

Will there be a shortage of landscape architect with economies picking up and more work coming into companies? Well if we go back to late 1990’s to mid 2000’s there were many reports of shortages of experience staff at landscape architecture firms in UK, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, North East Africa and some parts of Asia which was driving up salaries and as a recent article by Mark Smulian at Planning Resource raised the issue that CABE has fears that a shortage will occur again….

Like planning, landscape architecture has never really recovered from the 1990s recession. People left the profession or chose not to enter it, leaving a gap in experience. CABE fears a repeat in this recession and say a minimum of 550 new entrants a year are needed on landscape courses.
[SOURCE: Planning Resource]

Will there be a shortage remains to be seen but the outlook looks good for landscape architects currently unemployed with more work and projects appearing daily and the growth in sustainable design and trend of developments and cities incorporating ratings systems such as LEED ND and Sustainable Sites. Also there is a large amount of work that will be generated with the explosion on new cities in Asia and North Africa and the renewal of many towns and cities throughout the UK and USA. Therefore, if your unemployed there is hope yet and if your employed help push your local Universities and Professional Institutions to keep promoting the profession even more so during the current times of stagnant or slight growth to encourage more students to go into the profession and encourage those thinking of leaving to rethink their long term careers.

By Damian Holmes

SIDENOTE: The article by Mark Smulian at Planning Resource titled ‘Greening our cities‘ is a great article that looks at the role of landscape architects, our strengths and weaknesses.

CROSS POSTED AT WORLD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

I recently went back to Australia for one month due to the five year rule in China. Whilst in Australia I found it interesting how when you return to your own country that you can see opportunities for ideas and development that otherwise would have alluded you if you where living there. This can also be said for when I returned to China this week. I think its as an outsider you seem to be able to see the gaps in the market quickly. However, I am often cautious especially with the China market – sometimes markets aren’t ready or the idea has been an gone before.

So what to do with these ideas? Often its not a matter of ideas, how good they are or the time for planning; its a matter of finances and connections to bring the ideas to fruition. I will be working on a couple of ideas I had to planning stage and then attempt to get some form of funding to execute at least one idea.

So what should you do when you have ideas? Below is a brief outline of how I approach it.

1. Write the idea down in dot point form

2. Add detail to idea with what? why? how? target market? finances needed? ranking of plausibility (will the idea actually work?)

3. Leave the ideas for two-three  days

4. Come back re-read the ideas and then pick one to three that you think you could make work

5. Talk to some people that are open minded or fellow entrepreneurs about the ideas – this will help you realise whether or not the ideas are feasible (remember open minded – most likely not your family)

6. Work on each idea when you have time (swap some relaxation time eg. Channel or Web/Social Media surfing to work on your projects)

7. Set some time lines for the ideas such as initial idea, research, development, funding, execution/implementation, growth, and exit strategy (unless you want this to replace your current job/income)

8. Work on developing the idea until you feel you can go to others for funding

9. then EXECUTE, EXECUTE, EXECUTE!

This is just a brief outline of how I see my current ideas growing but it will take some time and don’t get disheartened if your idea appears on the market whilst your developing it, ideas are plentiful its the execution that matters.

New York Times recently published When Parks Must Rely on Private Money by DIANE CARDWELL concerning the struggles of cities to fund the construction and maintenance of parks throughout the USA. Many parks are funded through selling of land or revenues generated by carparks or taxes from new nearby developments and others are funded by residents and companies donating funds in return for naming rights or plaques. Cardwell cites examples of parks that have been constructed with the use some private funding including Millennium Park in Chicago and the Highline and with the tradeoff causing issues in some cities.

The article stimulated a few ideas I have had during my career. I find that funding of new or redevelopment of parks is a often a fine line between private and public funding, which often blurs the line between public and private space. Private funding often causing issues with residents because of naming or commercial activities in the new park that create a private area.

An ever-growing trend for cities around the world is to justify the cost of construction and maintenance of parks through inclusion of private funding or commercial activities such as paid parking garages, retail shops, restaurants, or areas that are commercialised for entertainment(concerts, festivals, etc). How to strike a balance between private and public funding is very complicated process for each city and requires research and consultation.

Many cities find it hard to redevelop parks with the use of public money as it is often controversial as parks are sometimes seen by residents as non-essential. Residents see hospitals, schools, and police as essential services within the community whereas parks are seen as non-essential and that public monies would be better spent on other services. To avoid this cities seek private funding in return for naming rights or a commercial development on or near the  park. Now the question is how far to go with private funding and how much is the park compromised by accepting the funding in return for naming right or commercial development?

This issue of public and private funding will become more and more prevalent around the world as developers of retail and residential developments blur the line between public and private space by creating spaces in developments that are town squares and parks that can be accessed by the public. This blurring will cause some confusion with city residents as to what is public space and what is private. It also raises the question – Are developers going to develop parks and maintain them or will it always remain the domain of the local government?

Private development of public parks as apart of residential developments or commercial developments, which are then handed to government after certain period is already occurring in some parts of the world. Will this become a growing trend across cities for small and large parks? Or will it remain only in residential developments?

CROSS POSTED AT WORLDLANDSCAPEARCHITECT.COM

As apart of my setting goals for 2010 I set 5 words – one of which was Simple.

Simple Ideas. Simple Concepts. Simple Processes and Simplify.

Tonight I decided to Simplify my web reading. In 2009, I read too much business news, business trends, social media trends which often was great for small talk but often lead to information overload that really in the end didn’t help move my ideas move forward. I had created too much noise. Most of what I read is via my Google Reader which I open every morning and spend about an hour scanning the information and another hour at night. I use this as a good way to research and gain ideas for my business and sites.

Over the last couple of years I have added newspapers, magazines, blogs, zines and other RSS feeds. However, I realised that I needed to simplify the amount and type of information I was reading. So, I went through each category – business, landscape, architecture, entrepreneur, news, etc and culled each to 2 to 5 sources from 10-20.

How did I do it? Well, I gauged how much I really gained from each source and how useful it was to me last year. Also if I thought that I could get the same content from another one of my sources I culled it. I also  found during 2009 that I often got duplicate information from multiple sources especially US-based newpapers on China or Asia. I also culled a lot of the USA based magazines as some of what I read was useful, but I decided I need to focus more on Asia were I am based.

To concentrate more on Asia and other topics I searched Alltop.com for RSS feeds and added 2 sources maximum to some categories.

I am also Simplifying my social media habits – less twitter/foursquare and more writing ideas down and then thinking of ways of implementing(doing) them.

I also decided recently that I needed to reduce the number of my sites from 5 to 3 and probably soon to be 2 (not including my blog!) so that I can spend more time on my design studio SUSTAIN.DS and World Landscape Architect.

I hope this gives you something to think about and what you will do in 2010. What are you doing in 2010 to simplify your life?
Leave it in the comments section or email me

My News Years Eve 2005 – Sydney Opera House Steps

This time of year is often when people in the west reflect on the past year and set resolutions. However living in China most people don’t reflect until Chinese New Year which is February 14 – Year of the Tiger. So, as I am living in China, I have two times a year (New Years Eve & Chinese New Year) when I reflect on the past year and what I want to achieve in the next year.

At New Years I often set  goals but this year I am taking a different approach similar to that used by Chris Brogan’s 3 words but I am going to use 5 words. After listing the 5 words (the what I want to achieve) I have then listed the why, how, when for the words. The when doesn’t have to be in 2010. So the list is what, why, how and when. I hope this approach will give me more focus, and less distraction. So how is this different from resolutions? resolutions are goals but often with no process of how they will be achieved.

So how do I reflect at Chinese New Year – its a family time in China and often it is a good time to reflect on family and then review what I have done in that 5-7 weeks (chinese new year changes based on lunar cycle) and what I need to do more or less of to achieve the goals.

2010 will be interesting – developing and growing my design studio – SUSTAIN.DS, changes to my websites, travel (china & abroad) and personal life changes. Overall, I have decided that 2010 is going to be doing less reading, less reflecting and far more doing!!

What are your goals, resolutions for 2010? what didn’t you do last year that you can do in 2010?

Email me damian@damianholmes.com

Chinese New Year 2009 – City of God Temple Shanghai

Susan Szenasy posted on Metropolis an article titled “United We Stand” in which she recalls some government officials giving encouragement at a recent NeoCon East annual trade show that there is “a new day for government design”. Szeasy goes on to talk about the importance to design of the recent $5.5 billion allocation to General Services Administration and the Department of Defense’s $7.4 billion reconfiguration funding.

However the point I found most interesting in Szenasy’s article was the GSA signing of a new accord with AIA, ASLA, IIDA; in which they have pledged to collaborate to achieve design excellence. I find this encouraging that professional associations have come together.

Currently, there is change occurring not just in the short-term with the Global Financial Crisis, but it seems more and more that sustainability, the environment, and climate change is becoming more important to the world. I feel that we need to move forward with new ideas and be armed with new tools especially in the area of urban design where cities are shrinking in the USA, new eco-towns are being built in the UK and new mega-cities are being designed and constructed in China, India, and Africa. Now is the best time to seek out other disciplines for collaboration not just for the networking and possible work opportunities but for the greater good of the profession. As Landscape Architects I know we often seek collaboration with other disciplines whether they are internal or external of our companies, however I think that as we head towards a new decade we should make more of a commitment to further collaborate with other professions to improve your knowledge and their knowledge so that together we can create a better future.

By Damian Holmes

Read the full article that inspired this post at the [SOURCE: Metropolis - United We Stand]

Recently, I went to my local Xinjiang Noodle shop for lunch. I ordered my usual and sat down inside on a stool. As I sat there looking around at the full tables, I wondered why is it so many people come here. Now to explain the scene, Xinjiang Noodle shops often have three or four large pots of water boiling away and someone inside the door making noodles and passing them to outside to be cooked.

So why do people come here? This shop is not elaborate and some would say not that hygienic – so why is it that its full at lunch and dinner? Is the location? Is it the price? Is the food?

Honestly, I think it is a combination of factors – price, food, authenticity and drama.

The Price
The shop is a ‘cheap eat’, however there are several restaurants in the area that are just as cheap. That being said if they charged more than 15RMB(about $2.00USD) they would loose customers quickly.

The Food
Xinjiang food is different from most Chinese food and noodles are speciality so people come for the noodles.

The Authenticity
The shop is authentic with pictures of animals and fields in Xinjiang on the wall, but the people is what makes it truly authentic.

The Drama
People watch the guy make the noodles for each order from the dough they made in the morning. You see and hear long thin noodles being banged and twisted on a table or watch him carve wide noodles from dough with a blade flying into a pot of water as he yells at the waiters inside who are joking with each other.

The noodle shop has no pretences, no veneer, nothing hiding the process from the customer, we can see, smell, and hear our noodles being made.

So what can we learn from the Xinjiang Noodle Maker? Authenticity and drama are key to attracting customers time and time again. Too often in business we hide the process or core ideals from the customer because we are fearful that they might not like what they see. However, we could generate more business if the customer could smell, hear, and see how authenticity of your brand.

How does this apply to you business? Think of all the examples of businesses that create authenticity and drama. I can think of a few other examples:

• chocolate/icecream/waffle shops who show people making the process of  creating their product
• whisky distilleries and vineyards  who give guided tours from above the working floor on gangways
• museums and art galleries showing experts restoring pieces
• nurseries showing plants in hot houses or trees at different stages of production
• film studios opening lots with people on set
• milk tea shops in Malaysia
• Richard Branson’s many PR stunts – although showy they are authentically Virgin
• car companies giving guided tours of  factory floor

there are many more examples. So the question is how can you create drama and authenticity for your customers? Does your production process enable you to showcase your product? Can you create drama that represents your companies brand in an authentic way? Can you create a unique experience for customers? Can you get someone passionate from manufacturing or engineering to attend a trade show rather than just sales people?

Of course, you have to careful when applying this idea across a whole brand as it can loose its authenticity. There are some examples where this has occurred with a brand making an authentic and dramatic experience into a formula which is then scaled across a brand that has then lost its appeal with the customers as it became too ubiquitous.

Got any comments or ideas? Email me – damian@damainholmes.com

Seems shanghai tweeple are starting to use foursquare more after a prompt on twitter by @chijs last sunday and when Scott Ballantyne(shanghai twitterville member) mentioned that it may be used for his coffee – Flying Turtle Coffee.

So what is FourSquare? Its a social networking + game play in your city(or cities) website. Not actually an Amazing Race speed but its more hey I’ve been here with points and a leaderboard.

So how do you play? You register on the website http://www.foursquare.com via your laptop or desktop or phone and then when your wandering around Shanghai going to your favourite places you log in via your laptop/phone to foursquare.com or your iPhone or Android app. You then ‘check in’ to the location and get points for checking in. Some places like Malones, Citizen Cafe, Bar Rouge, KABB, etc, have already been added. If the place has not been added yet you get extra points for adding it to the city list. Although this may become a problem as places change so often in Shanghai I wonder if there will be any moderation?

So whats the point you ask? Well its like when we all started using twitter and were following people and trying to get followers – which turned out to be mostly spammers – Its addictive, checking in or adding places for points to try and get up the leaderboard. Although adding places can be a little tedious but once its added its will be easier every time you checkin.

You can also add friends from twitter, gmail, and other social networking sites – so that when you check in to a place you can add a shout-out so that if someone is near by they can join you or you can let your friends know if somewhere is good or bad. Also when you check-in to a place more than twice you become Mayor and gain badges for different things.

From a marketing point of view it has a multiple possibilities with promotion or specials for websites, products, hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes.

I think that it will be as addictive as twitter and have the same sort of uptake as twitter with some people trying it and getting addicted and others using it once or twice but finding it not exciting and others who’ll try it – forget it and then go back when its in newspapers and tv.

Who will the celebrities be in Shanghai on foursquare?
Who will be on top of the leaderboard on New Years Eve?

I am Damian.H on FourSquare – add me as a friend

CROSS POSTED AT SHANGHAI TWITTERVILLE

Yesterday, Dreamhost went down and my main landscape architecture site worldlandscapearchitect.com (gets 15000/month visitors) is still down and its on a Virtual Private Server which I pay good money for every month. I have been with Dreamhost since 2006 and have used them hosting and domain registration for 90% of my domain names, but recently they have been having real issues and my site has been down several times for over 2-3 hours and usually it has come back with intervention from me. I have sent support tickets in and last week I got a general we are sorry we have been moving the racks on the network around for the last week email from the manager. However, yesterday afternoon the whole dreamhost network went down – not just shared hosting but the whole network. My shared hosted sites are back but worldlandscapearchitect.com is still down. I am left with a quandry do I move or stay loyal, I make little if any money off the site however, I think that over Xmas I will move all my sites to two different companies – one in Hong Kong for my china sites and a VPS host in USA for the main sites.

Have you experienced this situation with a company before? Did you think that companies respond to this appropriately or is it part of some ingrain problems with management so it will continue?

If your company is moving location or changing the way it deals with customers have you informed them ahead of time?Do they know how to contact you during a crisis? Do you have a Plan C for your Plan B?

Does your company have a disaster/contingency plan if your suppliers leave you in crisis? Does your company have a way to deal with your customers during a crisis?

Often customers will stay loyal if its a one off crisis and you communicate with your customers and after the crisis apologise and give some form of reason of why it happened and how you will deal with it so it doesn’t happen again.

However, this time loyalty ain’t enough for me to continue using this host. So, in that vain you may notice over Christmas that my sites will go into maintenance mode for 2-5 days.

Feel free to make comments or answer the questions above with positive or negative experiences you have had.

Last Thursday, I attended the GIGA Print presentation given by Mario Van der Meulen of SGTH Designs. It was an interesting presentation about the Print industry and how as graphic and print designers can be more effective in design. Some of the talk was doom and gloom about the environment but it focused more on being a designer and your attitude to and the process you use. The talk also provided examples and solutions.

I liked the presentation and I got similar ideas from this talk as the Su Yunsheng presentation. The basic idea – that its about process not the application. Mario was talking about how through following a more responsive and interactive process of design you can be more effective and thus more environmentally friendly.

By starting with the client at point A and then asking questions and then coming up with a design rather than standard practice of client asks for X you give them X with no questions asked. X may not have been what they really wanted and maybe you could have given them something different and saved money & stopped negative impact on the environment. I have experienced the client asks for X constantly in China and in the west. Clients often don’t know exactly what they want or the range of options that are available, how could they its not their business. This is the reason they hire you you are to give them concepts and ideas as you are an expert in whatever field you specialise in.

Mario gave an example of a client who wanted 100,000 mail-order catalogues because they worked on the premise of 3% return. The address list they were using was to general. Mario suggested the client may wish to get a focused address list based on a survey of households. At the end of the day based on the survey and address list they got back they only needed 30,000 catalogues thus saving 70,000 from landfill. Mario is a great presenter and gave some good insights into his industry and examples that were practical and easy to understand for non-print designers.

I think we all need to more proactive in asking clients questions about exactly is it they want to achieve then coming up with a solution. If they ask you to do something that you aren’t an expert in then ask someone who is and collaborate. Collaboration is also key to finding solutions. Collaborating with printers, designers, manufacturers etc is the only way we all learn and make design more effective.

So the takeaway? – As a designer or expert you can be more effective if you think more about the process of the idea and not just pure application of an idea.

GIGA is a great organisation that has dual-language(English/Chinese) website and a great green database of products

There lectures have finished for the year and will be back after CNY in February look at their website and also sign up for the newsletter to know more.