The award-winning placemaking expert Dr Saira Ali FLI will champion landscape’s role in delivering sustainable growth, climate resilience and healthier communities as President of the Landscape Institute.
The Landscape Institute writes:
As an award-winning Landscape Architect with more than 20 years’ experience leading major regeneration and placemaking programmes, Saira will use her Presidency to champion the essential role that landscape professionals play in creating places that are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive and inspire the next generation of landscape professionals.
Currently Head of Bradford Council’s Landscape Design & Conservation Team, Saira has led award-winning regeneration programmes that combine landscape, heritage and climate-resilient design to transform places and improve lives. Her work has embedded rain gardens, urban greening and blue-green infrastructure into major regeneration projects, demonstrating how landscape-led design can attract investment, support local economies, strengthen climate resilience and improve health and wellbeing.
A passionate advocate for inclusive placemaking and building the next generation of landscape professionals, Saira is a regular national speaker on climate resilience, design quality and the social value of landscape. She also mentors emerging practitioners and champions greater diversity and inclusion across the sector.
Saira succeeds Carolin Göhler FLI, whose Presidency has seen a significant programme of renewal and revitalisation across the Institute. As the new President, Saira will seek to build on this and look to work with members, government, industry and partners across the built and natural environment sectors to raise the profile of landscape professionals and demonstrate the vital contribution they make to addressing some of the UK’s biggest challenges. Her priorities will include championing members and professional excellence, promoting a landscape-led approach to planning and development and ensuring that the profession’s expertise helps to shape national conversations around housing, infrastructure, climate resilience, biodiversity recovery and healthier communities.
Dr Saira Ali FLI, commenting on her new role as LI President, said: ‘It is an enormous honour to become President of the Landscape Institute at such an important moment for our profession. Landscape has never mattered more. As we respond to the climate and nature crises, deliver new homes, invest in infrastructure and support sustainable economic growth, landscape professionals bring the expertise needed to create places that are healthier, more resilient and better for people and nature.’
‘As President, my ambition is not simply to lead the Landscape Institute, but to help us tell our story with greater confidence. I want to celebrate the outstanding work of our members, inspire the next generation of landscape professionals, strengthen our voice in shaping policy and decision-making, and build partnerships that demonstrate the essential role our profession plays in creating a healthier, fairer and more resilient world.’
‘As we look ahead to LI100, we have an extraordinary opportunity, not only to celebrate a century of achievement, but to shape the next century with confidence and purpose.’
‘My hope is that future generations will look back on this moment as a time when our profession stepped forward; when we demonstrated that landscape is not an afterthought, but an essential part of the solution to the challenges we face.’
‘I also hope that more people, from every background and every community, will see themselves reflected in our profession and recognise that they belong here. Talent exists everywhere, and our profession is stronger when it embraces different perspectives, experiences and voices.’
