Pauls journey into golf course architecture began simply with a love of golf. Initially he worked as a greenkeeper to reduce his annual subs at the local club and while his golf improved, he realised at a young enough age that he was never going to make any money playing professionally. And while he loved the outdoor life of greenkeeping he also realised that it might not offer everything he was hoping for in terms of creativity.
He wrote to the then British Institute of Golf Course Architects and spent a day on site with an architect which he really enjoyed. They suggested he pursue a degree in Landscape Architecture which following one failed attempt he got onto the course in Edinburgh. During 5 years of that course and working as an intern for Roy Case for a summer in Florida Paul had only ever seen one job advertised for a golf course architect, so after successfully getting an MA he had almost given up hope of finding a job in the industry.
Paul started working as a Landscape Architect in Oxford when he was invited to a colleagues party where he met none other than Tim Lobb, who at that time was working for EGD. That inspired him to contact Jeremy Slessor whoset up a visit to the EGD office as well as some work experience for Paul.
After about 12 months of work experience at EGD Paul was at a friend’s wedding and one of his best friends from uni’s girlfriend, had spotted an job advert working for David Kidd, she thought the job description fitted his friends description of him. “Following the wedding she was true to her word, sent me the advert, I applied and I was successful, the rest is as they say history.”
Being a “Champion’ also offers me a great excuse to indulge my passion for technology. I love seeing how other industries, particularly those like F1 that on the face of it don’t seem particularly sustainable, embrace the challenges a sustainable approach creates and how their solutions or their approach might be applied to our industry.
Paul Kimber, EIGCA
Paul was the lead architect on the Allan Robertson House development which achieved GEO certification in 2017, making it one of the first projects to be certified. This is an R&A testing facility which includes two full length par 3 holes with bunkers siting on just over two hectares of land.
Through the project there was a number of success stories including:
GEO - A few words on becoming a champion and what it means to you to be championing this kind of direction in the wider industry.
"I am delighted to have been included in the first round of ‘Champions’ it is great that work that often goes unnoticed gets recognition like this. As Architects we are often chatting to the key stakeholders of both existing clubs and developers and this means we have a key role to play in educating them how sustainable design and maintenance can deliver both excellence in design and cost savings on operations means we can make this approach appealing on all levels.
GEO - What are some elements or processes you have included in your recent projects that you feel illustrate the integration of a sustainably led approach?
"We are always looking for ways that we can improve our own approach, in particular recently we will look more and more to use our own ‘performance specifications rather than necessarily following traditional methods so that on site materials can be used much more in the construction process.
Following our presentation with GEO in Iceland we have started to look at how out of play areas could be used and managed to help sequester carbon to try to help make projects move towards net zero carbon emissions or even if the right natural environmental condition prevail trying to make some projects carbon negative.
GEO - What does sustainability thinking in design mean to you?
"I try to think of sustainability at all levels and to cover both environmental and economic sustainability, primarily because if something isn’t financially sustainable then it is highly unlikely to continue so for something to be environmentally sustainable it also has to be economically sustainable. I truly believe that tying these two parts of a business together is the key to projects really working and having longevity.
As architects we aren’t likely to have any influence over how the day to day operations are carried out particularly within the clubhouse, but we can influence how the course is maintained and the inputs that may be required.
We clearly will have a much stronger influence over the design, specification & construction phase. During the design phase thinking creatively about sustainability doesn’t necessarily mean just minimising the total area of managed turf as the modern game demands ‘playability’ for a wide range of abilities we have to strike the right balance.
Other factors such as limiting the number of different heights of cut can have a big influence on the number of machines required to maintain the course, fewer heights of cut means less machinery and the cost and carbon savings of this last the entire lifetime of the course. How the roughs are treated can also have a big influence on sustainability, any native roughs that require little to no maintenance is the ‘eutopia’ we would like to achieve so in some cases it may be better to have wider fairways but rough that can be left unmanaged.
GEO - How well do you think the subject of sustainability and golf design can complement one another?
"I think most of the golf architects that have been either through the education of the EIGCA or taken part in their wider CDP programme over the last 10 years fully understands that sustainability and golf course design have to go ‘hand in glove’.
The vast majority of designers have a good handle on the problems and designs are changing to provide some good solutions.
We do however need to sell our story better as I really believe golf, in general, has done a terrible job in selling itself to the wider world in what it offers on almost all environmental measures including sustainability.
GEO - Any words on GEO, sustainability in the industry, the importance of connections for golf with wider sustainability or landscape industries and how that could help?
"I have really enjoyed the talks I have done with GEO, which have challenged my own thinking and made me do further research. Golf is still a relatively small industry which limits the potential for research but we are hoping to soon be working on a project that may challenge conventional thinking and, we hope, will start to do the research that I think Is required.
Find Paul and his work at:
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