KLA was founded in 1991 by Lynn Kinnear and has become a practice recognised throughout Europe as one of a small number of UK practices pushing a new agenda in UK Landscape Design.

The practice has a track record of innovative projects that combine a conceptual approach to the Art of Landscape Architecture with an enthusiasm for new ideas and an open approach to working with others. We continue to win many awards for our work that often recognise our unique approach to collaborative working and the positive contribution this gives to regeneration.

KLA has established experience of working in the public and private sectors, both as lead consultants co-ordinating large groups of consultants or as sub-consultants working with Architecture led teams. Our projects often have complex client and stakeholder groups and rely on a variety of different funding streams. This experience has allowed us to successfully guide, facilitate and implement the curation of urban space.

Approach

We are Landscape Architects and the roots of the practice are founded in close collaboration with the arts, which has led to us fulfilling an Urban Curatorial role. This process is flexible and collaborative, allowing us to bring in artists and other facilitators to work with space and community as the project unfolds. These collaborations feed into a design process stimulating it with real public opinion, artistic input and one to one tests of ideas and space; the results are innovative urban interventions that truly address the complex contextual challenges of a place.

Our work also draws on some common themes: Building capacity for change in communities through innovative public engagement and inclusion in the design process; The shift from the car to bike and the role of the bicycle in the city as a stimulator for social and physical change; An approach to play that explores urban playfulness in its widest sense - for all ages and in all urban locations; A preoccupation with history, memory and past identity of places; Forest or “Witness” trees in the City which root individuals in community, place, and mark the passing of time; the role and need for water in urban landscapes.

Long term research and commitment to developing these ‘common themes’ within the practice support our goal to create meaningful and appropriate intervention that are valued by clients and communities. These themes are also often common to the creation of more sustainable, distinctive, characterful and liveable urban environments. As we have worked and developed these themes across projects of differing scale we have come to understand them in depth. The practice is currently collating our research into a series of reports, to inspire, inform and to promote their value within the Urban Realm. 

In 2015, the practice has celebrated winning the Stirling Prize for Burntwood School and winning the Landscape Institute’s President’s medal and Urban Design and Masterplanning Award for Brentford High Street. Lynn Kinnear will also give the keynote speech to the IFLA conference in 2016.