Events Calendar
NZILA CPD EVENT: Streetscape Speaker Series - Paul Shirley Smith
11 Dec, Online
CPD points: 1.0
100 Places - a Journey of Celebration, Reflection and Conversation
Join Paul Shirley Smith in conversation with NZILA President Ralph Johns about an epic cycle journey of more than 1,500 miles across the UK and Ireland, visiting 100 Camlins projects in 35 days.
Across six weeks on the bike, Paul set out to celebrate the people and places that have shaped Camlins over four decades. His route wound through cities, coastlines, river valleys and rural landscapes, reconnecting him with projects old and new. From the playful public spaces of Liverpool to the riverside regeneration of Sunderland and the layered streets of Manchester, each stop offered stories about design, community, whenua, and the long-term impact of landscape architecture.
Along the way, he met locals, old friends, and fellow practitioners for kai and kōrero about how places evolve and endure. Ralph joined Paul for part of the journey, sharing in the climbs, the conversations, and the chance to revisit projects that continue to influence practice today.
This final instalment of the 2025 Streetscape Speaker Series will explore the big themes that emerged on the road: legacy, connection, regeneration, and what it means to design for people and place over time. A lovely chance to hear two practitioners reflect on the value of looking back to inform where we pedal next.
Huge thanks to Streetscape for making this possible.
Thursday 11 December, 12pm
SPEAKER BIO:
Paul Shirley Smith
Landscape Director, Camlins
Paul has nearly 40 years experience as a landscape architect. After completing a BA and Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction at Manchester Polytechnic (now MMU) he started working with Robert Camlin in 1986, became a director at Camlins in 1999 and now leads the practice. He is from a family of artists and grew up in Marlborough, surrounded by The Downs and Savernake Forest, stimulating a strong sense of how landscapes can be richly engaging, hugely diverse and are shaped by our cultural and agricultural activity.
Paul’s professional approach can be described as creative, helpful and tenacious. His portfolio of completed work encompasses a huge range of landscape types, from urban regeneration to private gardens. He enjoys rewarding long term relationships with many clients and designers and is particularly interested in working creatively within a team to help to shape a design from the outset. A depth of experience helps him develop innovative ideas rapidly into proposals that are viable and actually get built.
While not working, Paul pedals over the hills around his Montgomeryshire home and tends the garden, not least to grow, cook and eat the best food. He is obsessed with GF Handel, the pan-European musical genius and impresario who ensured that rapidly evolving Georgian London was the most exciting place in the world. Paul completed Tour Aotearoa, a 2000 mile bikepacking Odyssey the length of New Zealand in 26 days, returning in March 2020, with only hours to spare, before the total covid-19 lockdown. Where next?
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