LDA Design on landscaping our energy centres

Above: aerial view of Sizewell C, on the Suffolk Coast (courtesy Sizewell Supply Chain)

We are delighted that LDA Design's Alister Kratt - director specialising in large, multidisciplinary projects and development in sensitive contexts - will be speaking at our November infrastructure and energy forum in the City of London's offices of international law firm DLA Piper.

Alister leads LDA Design’s energy and infrastructure teams with expertise in nuclear, wave and tidal, EfW and port sectors. He is a landscape architect and master planner with significant experience in project leadership including DCO and EIA. Alister sits on the HS2 Design Review Panel and the Design Commission for Wales (DCfW). He is an experienced expert witness, an author on best practice and a regular speaker on design and landscape matters.

He is an advisor on nationally significant infrastructure and development projects including most recently, Sizewell C nuclear power station, the redevelopment of HS2’s Euston Station, major settlement expansion in Northamptonshire and is advising on the future growth of Oxford.

Alister will be talking about LDA Design's project at Sizewell C, the third generation of nuclear power station on the Suffolk Coast, which has been granted development consent by the Planning Inspectorate. LDA Design has supported EDF for more than a decade on this energy-security project.

Sizewell C will generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes and by replacing fossil fuel power will avoid around nine million tonnes of carbon being emitted every year. At the local scale, it will create thousands of jobs and contribute around £4 billion to the regional economy.

LDA Design has advised on landscape matters on all aspects for the main power station site, at all project stages, with planning and design that will establish an enhanced landscape setting for the new and existing power stations, and curate the estate-wide operational masterplan. The practice has contributed to the design of the turbine halls and ancillary structures, as well as essential infrastructure and new coastal defences.

The power station is located in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Suffolk Heritage Coast. Its location demands a sensitive response, and careful mitigation of its potential adverse landscape and visual effects through close collaboration with the wider project team and local stakeholders.