I've just read the brief properly for the first time. By this I mean I diagrammed it and wrote a list of questions as I went along. I can't truly read something and take it all in without a pen in my hand.
So, here are the key questions that emerge;
What kind of landscape would Brown have created today?
What 'valuable lessons' does Brown have to offer contemporary practitioners?
How could a broad range of audiences be engaged with his landscapes?
How to combine the practical with the imaginative?
How could this be a model for work to other sites?
How do I deal with the complexities of the site's design history, such as the probable involvement of Humphrey Repton and the industrious Mr Webster?
The first of these questions is explicitly posed in the brief but I'm not going to let it guide my thought process because I find it impossible to imagine that he would do anything other than he did for the approx. 170 landscapes he designed in his lifetime. Better to think about the second question because it leads us to interrogate Brown's approach and the reasons for his great success.
The last question is the one I think I will find most tricky - there appears to be a good deal of doubt over what was planted and built when and by whom, at Moccas. Is the best approach to this to treat each historical element with respect but not attempt to rationalise it as a coherent whole?
I am visiting the site next week and have worked out how to get there (four hours drive from Manchester) and made a checklist of things to find out whilst there - the most important being 'what can you see from where?
The brief has evoked an exciting and mysterious place and after reading all about it, I can't wait to go and see for myself, and to meet Saul Herbert whom I plan to bother with many questions.
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