Jan Magnus Fladmark

Infobox Monarch | name =Jan Magnus Fladmark
Name =Jan Magnus Fladmark


date of birth =birth date|1937|2|12|mf=y|

Background

Magnus Fladmark began his public service career as a ‘Yes Minister’ apprentice in The Scottish Office (1967—70), where he helped to lay the foundations for today’s National Planning Policy Guidelines. He was made a lifetime Honorary Fellow by Edinburgh University for subsequent work there (1970—76) on their ODA sponsored programme in planning studies for developing countries, based in part on the philosophy set out by Schumacher in Small is Beautiful.

His main contribution to national policy making came as Head of Research and Development at the Countryside Commission for Scotland (1976—92). He is especially proud of his part in establishing a countryside ranger service, national scenic areas, a system of regional and country parks, the Central Scotland Woodlands Initiative, the Edinburgh and Glasgow green belt companies, a network of cycling trails and projects to save the old canal system. He was also responsible for the 212 mile Southern Upland Way, Britain’s first coast-to-coast walking trail.

He was the founding chairman of the Countryside Around Towns Forum and a co-author of The Mountain Areas of Scotland: Conservation and Management (1990), which proposed the introduction of national parks. His tireless campaigning for stronger protection of nationally important landscapes earned him Honorary Membership of Scottish Parks, but fighting for more rigorous treatment of Scottish heritage assets has also had negative repercussions. Following election as Scottish Chairman of the Royal Town Planning Institute, he founded the Sir Patrick Geddes Planning Award. To help achieve this, he ran the 1983 Edinburgh Marathon to raise the necessary start-up money.

He contributed to Buildings of the Scottish Countryside (1985), a book based on research at the Countryside Commission, where he was also responsible for work that led to the five volumes Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland (1988). He was co-author of Tomorrow’s Architectural Heritage: Landscape and Buildings in the Countryside (1991). With a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales, the book provided the basis for subsequent design guidance by both central and local government.

Magnus continued his contributions with six books, based on a series of major international conferences, after being made professor at Robert Gordon University in 1993 to introduce a new MSc in Heritage Management focusing on the reciprocity of culture and enterprise. The thinking behind this was elucidated in his inaugural lecture, published under the title, The Wealth of a Nation: Heritage as a Cultural and Competitive Asset (1994). He later helped to adapt the degree menu for teaching at a graduate school in Moscow associated with the Russian Academy of National Economy.

Professor Fladmark’s role in Scottish heritage affairs was recognised in 1996, when made an Honorary Fellow by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland for contributions to national policy. A year later, the composer John Purser honoured him by dedicating a slow jig to his name in the CD, The Kilmartin Sessions: The Sounds of Ancient Scotland. As a devotee of Mahatma Gandhi, he is proud of having been invited to deliver a Freedom Lecture at the Nehru Centre as part of the 1997 celebrations of Indian independence. Widely sought for advice and lecturing both at home and abroad, he helped to establish The Heyerdahl Institute in Norway as their first CEO, and he serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the International Journal of Heritage Studies.

Magnus was born and raised under the Trolltind Mountains in Romsdal Norway, where his family has farmed for centuries. He trained in horticulture at Gjermundnes Agricultural College, studied at Ulvestads Commercial College, worked for Sunnmørsposten as a photo journalist, and held a national service commission in the army before coming to Scotland in 1959. He studied architecture and town planning at Edinburgh College of Art, where he earned two scholarship prizes and later served on the Board of Governors. His studies were in part financed by working as a bus conductor and a waiter. When working for Moira & Moira as a young architect, he was responsible for designing the original Ptarmigan Observation Restaurant on the Cairngorm Mountain, as pictured below at the time of completion.

Awards

Honorary Fellow, Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, 1996Honorary Member, Scottish Parks, 1992
Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award, 1986Fellow, Royal Town Planning Institute, 1984Fellowship, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1973Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh, 1971Research Fellow, Andrew Grant Bequest, Edinburgh College of Art, 1966-67Travel Scholarship, Andrew Grant Bequest, Edinburgh College of Art, 1964

Service

Trustee, Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust, since 1991Secretary, Scottish Forum on the Environment, 1989—92Founding Chairman, Countryside Around Towns Forum, 1989—91Convenor, Sir Patrick Geddes Saltire Planning Awards, 1989—95Secretary, Advisory Panel on Scottish National Parks, 1988—99Chairman, Scottish Inter-Agency Liaison Group, 1987—90Council Member, Saltire Society, 1984—88Scottish Advisory Committee, RIBA Festival of Architecture, 1983-84Governor, Edinburgh College of Art, 1982—88Chairman, Royal Town Planning Institute (Scotland), 1981—82Founding Hon President, Edinburgh University Parachute Club, 1975