Robyn Butcher

Robyn is Director at terra firma and has been with the company for 31 years since joining as a university graduate.

She has been Project Landscape Architect for over 400 terra firma projects across all sectors, including award-winning projects on Brighton’s seafront for the i360 public realm; at the University of Portsmouth, for the Dennis Sciama Building with adjacent public space – Lion Square; the Cumberland Area Project, a retrofit homezone for Portsmouth City Council (which won a Local Government News Street Design Award) and Acklam Road, a housing project for London Borough for Kensington and Chelsea.

Robyn has recently led on the bicentennial refurbishment of UCL’s Main Quad in central London, as well as extensive social housing projects in Hounslow, Guildford and Kensington She is also been heavily involved in the company’s educational projects, with work on the new DFE CF25 framework with multiple contractors and leading on Greater Brighton Metropolitan College’s Pelham Street Campus extension which included a design of a new open space in Central Brighton. Amongst recent projects are Artemis Academy, an new build SEN school in Oxfordshire, work on feasibility studies for a private school in Surrey, two SEN schools in Reading and a new sports facility for Seaford College.

She has worked in numerous projects in the South Downs National Park, both advising the Authority themselves on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) such as Rampion 2 and Aquind, but also for developers assisting with the design and coordination of Landscape-Led Design applications.

Until recently she regularly visited the National Air Traffic Control Centre, Prestwick to review ongoing estate management, and 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.

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 and acts as Expert Witness on behalf of Horsham District Council, Arun District Council, Waverley Borough Council, Eastleigh Borough Council and Chichester District Council for various appeals.

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. Until recently she was an external examiner for Leeds Beckett University’s MALA course and she is a guest lecturer for University of Portsmouth for the Geography degree weather and climate module.

Qualifications:
Fellow of the Landscape Institute (2022)

Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (1998)

Graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture, Leeds (1995)

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