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Adrian Matthews |
Current position & company?
Academic qualifications?
No. of years in the GCC? |
Major projects involved with?
Dubai Maritime City
Jumeirah Beach
Jumeirah Village South
Dubai World Central – Logistics City
The Address Hotel – Downtown Dubai
Burj Business Park – Private office terrace
Saadiyat Island Cultural District – Abu Dhabi
Ain Al Fayda - Al Ain
Ateshir – Istanbul
ADNEC – Abu Dhabi
Abuja Film Village in Nigeria
Numerous private and public sector projects during my twelve years of working in the UK including Healthcare, Residential, Commercial, Community and Education based projects.
Dream Project?
I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in some amazing projects throughout my career. A dream project for me would involve designing and creating a space which is used successfully and revered by other design professionals - ultimately for that space or project to be described by people as their favourite.
How do you see the future of the landscape industry in the GCC region?
The benchmark for landscape design in this region is extremely high with many exceptional hotel, resort, residential and commercial projects having been completed over the past few years. Moving forward I see the following challenges facing our profession:
Public Realm Design:
There are many outstanding projects and developments in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which are well designed, well executed and use good or high quality materials but as individual plots they stand alone - in isolation from each other. What is missing is the ‘on the ground’ link at street level in terms of their physical and visual connectivity. It would seem the plot line is the dominant feature and the disparity between adjacent plots can be quite brutal in design terms.
In order for these cities to truly work as a whole and encourage pedestrian movement there needs to be a thoroughly well designed and executed public realm. We are starting to see this with some of the larger scale completed and proposed projects such as Burj Khalifa, DIFC, The Greens, Saadiyat and YAS Islands etc. and from the work of the UPC, but outside their boundary this connectivity is still not or very seldom achieved.
Take a walk along a typical streetscape and you can experience mismatched levels and trip hazards, footpaths which disappear or force pedestrians onto the road, unaligned dropped kerbs (or even none at crossings), inconsistent design treatments, mismatched paving materials and finishes, protruding service and utility covers and a general lack of design consistency between the plots and the public realm. This isn’t just happening at ground level either – lack of street trees, street furniture, consistent lighting and signage and shading devices are all part of the standard kit which are common elements within cities outside the region and help to stitch the environment together.
In a growing city, more often this is the outcome of phased developments, vacant plots etc, but as design professionals we have the ability to make this transition and guide our clients and authorities into thinking outside ‘The Plot’.
This is a major design challenge for landscape architects as more developments get completed, plots finish and the city settles. To really see the value in a well-designed and cohesive public realm – visit and observe the successful year round public use of the Jumeirah Walk in JBR in Dubai.
Design Codes:
I am a great believer in learning from the past and the values in culturally responsive and appropriate design. Travel the world and you will see that there really is a reason why buildings and spaces have evolved, what works and what doesn’t and how people actually use their environment.
Having design codes in place which are realistic and achievable are a tremendous asset to the design process and will see us designing landscapes which are more relevant to the realities of the local climate. A contemporary interpretation of what has worked in the past is the continual cycle of design, each generation of design professionals has sought to improve upon the successful elements of its predecessor using the technology and skill available to them at the time. This is as relevant a comment today as it was a hundred years ago.
Irrigation demand:
Coming from a country where it rains for most of the year and where, when we did get a few days (or weeks), of hot weather a hosepipe ban would be in force, it was then absolutely amazing and mind blowing to come to the Middle East and see people even washing down their drives. Whilst this is an extreme example of waste, it does highlight the past indifference to the use and consumption of water.
The demand for water is huge and real. As landscape architects we now experience every RFP and project briefing demanding that the ‘landscape’ is of low irrigation demand. This coupled with adherence to recent design codes is a real challenge for the profession - which we can meet but only by creating a new and responsive design typology and educating clients about the reality of what they will be seeing in their schemes. Lush tropical planting and swathes of lawn are now the development luxuries and no longer the norm – our designs and renders need to show this.
However I do feel that dealing with a restriction which forces intuitive, responsive and appropriate design can really be viewed as a positive outcome for the longer term benefit of the region.
Commercial pressures:
As landscape designers we have been spoilt in the past – having the opportunity to work on some fantastic and amazing projects, with seemingly endless budgets, little regard for issues of sustainability, maintenance not a consideration and a client with a regard for bigger, better…..and more….more…..more. This has allowed us to flex our design muscles, making sketches and whims a reality – a designer’s playground! The immense time pressures also fuelled our response to the market.
Post 2008 / 2009 we have had to become more savvy, be much more intuitive and really use our design expertise to still deliver the aspirations of the 5* lifestyle in this region. The result is that we should really begin to see an emergence of a much better quality of design which is more in tune with its environment and is more commercially responsible in terms of capital investment and life cycle costs.
Ultimately this will be seen as a positive outcome for landscape design in the region.
Maintaining standards:
The downturn in the market, coupled with increasing commercial pressures has put the squeeze on our industry, though fortunately clients in the region still see the value in what we can deliver, but the reality is that they want more for less.
Having less money to spend, or having to be wiser with it shouldn’t really mean an excuse for poor design. The standard of what we have delivered should stay the same – it may be the content which is now different. Though the other consideration and upside of the current market is that the competition between developments is now much stronger, so there is greater opportunity to get involved in some high quality schemes therefore we must maintain and continue to exceed the standard of design and delivery to our clients, through doing this maintains the credibility of our role in the design team.
Interestingly though, the projects hitting the ground now would have probably been designed, prepared and billed during the last years of the recent boom, so these will really be feeling the VE pinch. What has been designed since 2009 may not be on the ground till next year at the earliest, so it will be interesting to see what, if any changes have taken place during this period.
Motto in life?
I don’t really have one, but one thing I always try to do is ‘treat with respect’, and apply this to the places I’m in, people I meet, mine and others work, my friends, family and of course the environment.
