Robyn Butcher

Robyn is Director at terra firma and has been with the company for 25 years joining as a university graduate. She is leading work on the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College’s Pelham Street Campus extension which includes a design of a new open space in Central Brighton. Other current projects include: The Compass Academy, Southwark, a new build secondary; Winchester’s new Sport and Leisure Centre to the south of the city centre; a second extension for BHASVIC, a sixth form college in Hove; and the Samuel Cody School, a new SEMH school in Farnborough. She led the now-completed work on the BA-i360 vertical pier public realm on Brighton seafront with BHCC and Marks Barfield which recently won a Local Government News Street Design Award for lighting. Robyn has jointly worked on a Strategic Development Framework for Houghton Regis in Central Bedfordshire with planning consultants and urban designers Place-Make to look at infrastructure opportunities for an imminent increase in residential housing from 7000 to 14,000 properties. Other projects include housing schemes in Brighton and Chichester, as well as working on various leisure and infrastructure schemes in Gibraltar and acting as Expert Witness on behalf of Chichester District Council for various appeals.

She has been Project Landscape Architect for over 300 terra firma projects, including the National Air Traffic Control Centre, Prestwick which she regularly visits to review ongoing management; three schemes for the University of Portsmouth including the award winning Dennis Sciama Building with adjacent public space – Lion Square; the Cumberland Area Project, for Portsmouth City Council (which won a Local Government News Street Design Award); a new public park at Thamesmead, Gallions Park; new sports facilities at St Swithun’s School, Winchester; The Green School for Boys, Isleworth; Hoe Valley School and Leisure, Woking; the Falklands Memorial Chapel, Pangbourne; plus numerous schools, healthcare, residential, commercial and leisure projects.

Robyn regularly appears as an expert witness at planning appeals, including Cornwall’s largest ever Planning Inquiry, representing the Council against the development of a huge ‘Energy from Waste’ facility. She has written design guidelines for new dwellings in the Chichester Harbour AONB, now adopted as Supplementary Design Guidance by the Local Authorities and has produced EIAs for various controversial exploratory minerals schemes. She sits on the South Downs National Park Authority’s, Test Valley Borough Council’s and the Hampshire Garden Trust’s Design Review Panels and has assisted the Landscape Institute in the rewriting of the profession’s competency framework for members. She has recently been asked to be an external examiner for Leeds Beckett University’s MA and Grad Dip. Courses.

Qualifications:
Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (1998)

Graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture, Leeds (1995)

BA (Hons) in Landscape Architecture (1993)
Leeds Metropolitan University