Alistair W Baldwin Associates
What we do
AWB Associates specialises in the creation of public and private gardens and landscapes that are timeless, memorable and meaningful. Our work is underpinned by a respect for our built and landscape heritage, and much of what we do results in the illumination, appreciation and enjoyment of significant buildings and places.
We work closely with like-minded architects, engineers, interior designers, craftsmen and women, ecologist and many other specialists to deliver well-crafted places. Where a project allows, we create planting schemes that bring nature, delight and dramatic seasonality to the site, producing management plans and working with maintenance staff to ensure longevity of our creations.
Our collective experience and skills across a wide range of media and software allows us to interface with other professionals while assembling planning and listed building applications for our clients, and our track record for gaining planning consents in challenging environments is excellent. We offer the full range of design services, from inception and site assessment through masterplanning and visualisations to construction design, planting design and project management. We also manage other consultants on behalf of the client. Our current portfolio of projects includes:
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Boutique country hotels
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New build country houses
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Large country estates
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Leisure parks
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Private gardens
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Public parks
The Team
Alistair W Baldwin BA(Hons) DipLA
Alistair qualified as a landscape architect in 1992, and following a 12 year spell as an academic at Leeds Metropolitan University and a 5 year term as director of a landscape design firm in York he established his own practice outside Ripon, North Yorkshire. His passion for planting design and the genius of the place has lead to commissions around the UK, ranging in size from small courtyard gardens to large country estates.
Having a diplomat as a father meant that Alistair grew up amongst the varied and deeply memorable landscapes and cultures of Spain, Italy, Syria and the Lebanon, and his work today is influenced by a passion for architecture and the natural world. In particular, his works reflects a fascination with the way in which horticulture can affect the mood, scale and spirit of a place through the manipulation of scale colour and texture.
Alistair is supported by a team of qualified landscape architects, who's combined skills span masterplanning, planning applications, planting design, technical construction design, project management and team working. The team works closely with architects, interior designers, lighting designers and specialist advisors to bring our portfolio of design projects to fruition.
Charlotte Pennell BA(Hons) B(Arch) ARB
Charlotte studied architecture at Newcastle University, becoming fully chartered in 2014. She worked for many years in the profession at a wide range of practices including small design and landscape driven studios in Edinburgh, Cheshire and the North East as well as for larger, more commercially driven, multidisciplinary offices. As such she is experienced in working with a wide range of consultants and experts to realise construction schemes and has a comprehensive understanding of the construction process from inception to completion. She worked on a variety of schemes during her time as an architect including listed buildings, art galleries, hotels, and private residences.
A few years ago, after expressing an interest in landscape design whilst working at a high end residential design practice in Cheshire, she was given the opportunity to balance a garden design role alongside her architectural commitments and it was this experience that led her to pursue a career solely focused on landscape design. To this end, at the beginning of 2019 she went to London to work for Tom Stuart Smith before returning to the north at the end of 2020 to work with Alistair and the team.
Charlotte is also a florist who uses locally grown, seasonal flowers to create schemes for wedding and events.
Jia Xie MA CMLI
Jia is a naturally creative person and passionate about good design. Her excellent design and project management skills are accompanied by a very good technical understanding. Having completed her BA (Hons) Urban Design & Architecture in 2001 at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, Jia studied at The University of Sheffield, gaining her MA in Landscape Design. Before she joined AWB Associates in April 2016, Jia worked as a landscape consultant for 12 years both in the UK and China.
During that time she gained excellent experience working on a number of high profile projects which comprised conceptual and design work, development of detail production information, project coordination and supervision up to project completion.
Jia is highly proficient across a range of software packages, and her flair for design is applied to all stages of our projects, from masterplanning country hotels to the design and detailing of bespoke installations.
Edward Golding BA (Hons)
Edward recently graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a degree in Landscape Architecture. He is passionate about using design to help improve people's quality of life.
He excels at creating 3D models, using them to take ideas and concepts into detailed renders, enabling clients and colleagues to better understand design proposals. He also enjoys creating detailed construction packages to ensure the final built form of a design does service to our visions.
Catherine Burrage
Since graduating in garden art and design with a first class honours degree in 2001, Catherine's career has been dedicated to designing and creating beautiful outside spaces; based on the highest professional standards of design and execution. Alongside being in practice, she also worked as a part-time lecturer in the landscape department at Leeds Beckett University for 10 years.
Catherine believes that good design must go beyond problem-solving to create immersive landscape experiences which embrace the language of the natural world and resonate with the culture and visual identity of the place.
With years of hands-on experience, she has developed a niche in devising and implementing planting schemes. She is passionate about ‘painting with plants’ and composing a scheme that not only looks beautiful in every season, but also responds to the site conditions, client brief and local vernacular. It is a continual learning journey of discovery where the plant material is not simply decoration but fundamental and forefront in many of the projects.