As a Landscape Architect, Derrick works on a wide range of projects, covering everything from university campuses and hospitals, to housing and business developments.
His aim is to create spaces that improve the environment, are sustainable, and work for the people that use them. He believes good landscape design should make life better!
If you weren’t in this career, what would you be?
I’ve already been through a number of careers. I arrived in Bristol in the late 90’s to study engineering and spent most of the noughties working as an Aerospace Safety and Reliability Engineer at Airbus. Having realised this wasn’t for me, I set up a garden design and landscaping business which I ran for 15 years. I finally landed on landscape architecture & Stride Treglown in 2022. I know I’ve found the right career now.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on to date?
I’m currently working on a project called Epic and that’s exactly what it is. A vast business campus that also includes a large area of existing farmland, we are developing into something that more resembles a nature park. As my colleague said ‘This is a once in a lifetime project’
What’s the greatest invention ever?
The bicycle… simple, elegant and efficient. The perfect form of clean transport.
Best book you’ve read?
I love to read and read for pleasure almost every day so I don’t think I can choose just one. I’ll whittle it down to three:
- ‘Catch 22’ by Joesph Heller
- ‘The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break’ by Steven Sherrill
- ‘The Book of Trespass’ by Nick Hayes
Interesting fact that nobody knows about you?
While spending a year in New Zealand I was the focus of police manhunt for a crime I didn’t commit! In the end I handed myself in because they couldn’t find me. In fact, no crime had ever been committed — a nosy neighbour thought saw me running out of a house with a bag of loot on my back. I was actually running to catch a lift to work with a bag containing my lunch!
Qualifications
- BEng (Hons) in Aerospace Manufacturing Engineering from the University of West England.
- MA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Gloucestershire
Memberships
- Member of the Landscape Institute and currently undertaking his Pathway to Chartership.
