Sep 8, 2020
We are delighted to welcome Samantha Laws to the GUARDA team. She graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in Landscape Architecture at Writtle College. She has excellent design skills, especially in relation to sustainable development and nature-led, ecological design and she has already started to assist on some residential projects in Mill Hill, London and Lakenheath, Suffolk.
Rebecca is an experienced landscape architect, previously focusing on leisure, therapeutic and a wide variety of residential projects. She initially studied for a fine art degree at Winchester School of Art and she brings to the team design flair and attention to detail. She is passionate about horticulture and has accumulated a wealth of planting knowledge and practical experience while working in the sector.
Rebecca has been developing the landscape design on the Horizon public realm scheme in St Helier, where construction has recently commenced. She is also working with a number of smaller developers in London on a variety of residential schemes and she leads the design on a larger residential schemes near Cambridge for HILL. She was also instrumental in producing the landscape package for the planning application for student accommodation at Avon Way and on the riverside at Colne Quay, both in Colchester.
Rebecca loves getting out into the East Anglian countryside for rambles followed by cooking (eating) and dancing salsa
Catherine is a Chartered Landscape Architect and has previously worked in the public and private sector for over 20 years. She has experience of all forms of landscape architecture, including feasibility, assessment, master planning, design and implementation.
Her passion lies in taking a project from inception through to construction and then completion. She has carried out landscape impact assessments at all scales and has advised on development in sensitive landscapes, including Green Belt. She wrote the Townscape and Visual Amenity chapters for the Leith Docks development, one of the largest planning applications in Scottish history and close to Edinburgh UNESCO World Heritage Site.
She has also led design teams in small to multi-million pound schemes, including the design and NEC contract administration of a pedestrianisation scheme throughout Darlington Town Centre and a competition winning scheme on Redcar Seafront.
Free time is spent on a bike or swimming off the North Norfolk coast and occasionally combining the two (and adding a run) to race in triathlon.
Eric is a Chartered Landscape Architect with a wealth of experience in residential design. He has also worked on projects in leisure, commercial, and retirement and care home sectors.
Projects range from small-scale schemes of 2-3 dwellings up to very large-scale developments encompassing residential, mixed use, and public open space design; incorporating a range of ecological habitats, play space design and SuDS features. Key responsibilities are design and project management, ensuring strong liaison with other disciplines and specialisms and management and mentoring of team members.
Eric has acquired knowledge and experience across the RIBA work stages from strategic input right the way through to implementation and handover. He has a keen eye for detail and mainly focuses on hard and softworks detailed design and technical design and construction. He is currently working on a large-scale Hill residential site near Norwich and two retirement living schemes in Norfolk and Suffolk.
He has a passion for sustainability and a keen interest in running and walking, and is the undisputed king of Fantasy Football (in the office).
Romain is a Chartered Landscape Architect specialising in landscape and garden design. He has worked on high specification domestic and commercial projects; from urban schemes to country estates, public realm to care facilities (including children hospices). With a keen eye and an attention to detail, Romain’s engineering background and site-experience brings valuable technical insight and creativity to the team. He is already putting this knowledge to great use, developing Guarda’s technical design drawing capabilities (including BIM) to provide even more integrated schemes.
Romain is currently novated to the construction team for 2 projects in Jersey, to ensure these prestigious schemes come to fruition. He is also involved in the landscape design of care homes, and new residential developments across the UK and overseas.
Romain has travelled in Europe and the UK and loves exploring East Anglia with his family and his dog, either walking, cycling or riding his motorbike.
Jacqueline leads the Landscape Planning and Development team at GUARDA and is involved in a range of projects specialising in landscape planning, landscape character assessment and masterplanning.
As an experienced Landscape Architect / Planner, Jacqueline has significant experience in preparing landscape and visual appraisals, LVIAs and ES chapters, in accordance with GLVIA3, for a broad range of developments across the UK. These are often developed in conjunction with a landscape strategy plan or a masterplan (depending on the type of application) as part of a landscape-led, iterative design process. Sustainable design principles, including SuDS and green infrastructure, are at the core of these plans and form the basis for the location of strategic planting for landscape and visual mitigation; the siting, nature and scale of development; and habitat enhancement opportunities.
With a background in Landscape Character Assessment, she also has an in-depth understanding of the landscape and planning issues associated with development, especially in sensitive areas, such as and AONBs and Green Belt and has also been involved in a number of Appeals. She recently won the landscape argument at public inquiry for a large-scale residential scheme at Stanstead and she relishes the challenge of inquiry work.
Jacqueline is passionate about the landscape and is a keen walker and climber which has taken her to many different areas of East Anglia, the UK and abroad where her appreciation and understanding of the landscape is always being enhanced.
GUARDA is growing!
We’re busier than ever and, with new clients coming onboard every month we’ve recruited regularly, even during the COVID19 pandemic.
If you fancy a role with a wide portfolio of projects, working with a talented and fun team, GUARDA could be the place for you.
Send admin@guardalandscape.com an email to introduce yourself, with a cv if possible, and if we’re not recruiting right-away we’ll keep your details on file for the future.
Tim has many years of experience managing teams; encouraging staff and removing obstacles to enable everyone to work to their fullest potential.
He started his career in aircraft engineering, but has spent the bulk of his career in customer and production focused roles – using his love of problem solving to build resilient and innovative solutions for both clients and colleagues alike. Having recently completed a Lean Management qualification Tim’s time is spent ensuring the administrative, finance and marketing functions of Guarda run smoothly, allowing the rest of the team to focus on their creativity.
When he isn’t working Tim loves being outdoors. He’ll normally be founding surfing the Norfolk coast, riding one of his bikes or possibly waist deep in the beautiful river Wensum attempting to catch trout.
James is a creative and enthusiastic landscape architect with a passion for the natural world and bringing new ideas into the industry. James’ ethos and overall design philosophy aims to create a stronger connection between people and biodiversity as well as providing high quality design. His dissertation focused on softening the active edge between the urban and rural landscape as well as promoting a greater species richness primarily in bird populations. This was achieved through the designing, restoring and embellishing of existing and new habitats within the context of an existing brownfield site that would also educate the community about the importance of the design.
He finds great inspiration in theories such as biophilia, messy ecosystems and ecosystem services. These heavily contribute to his design decisions. James’ overall goal within the industry is to create sustainable environments that will impact both current and future generations as well as promoting more recognition for the industry and how important it is to the world.
In his spare time James enjoys birdwatching and exploring the landscape of his home county, Norfolk as well as leaving time to socialise with friends.