Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 146 May i Landscape Architecture Australia

The idea of the city as an ecosystem is a popular and rather compelling take on contemporary urbanization. Arthur Tansley coined the term ecosystem in the 1930s, using it to articulate his belief that nature is a self-correcting and organizing network, much like a machine. Current thinking on the concept, reflecting some of the more radical ideas and failed experiments of the 1960s and 1970s, sets aside the comforting stability of Tansley’s construct. New intellectual and applied trajectories are emerging that embrace unevenness and imbalance, social structures in flux and the uncertainty of the future. A number of the pieces in this issue place landscape architecture within these movements, providing tangible and empirical evidence of the way landscape architects are responding to the complexity of urbanization, navigating its rise and…

“... if you can’t figure out what agency you have then by definition you can’t do anything.” Claire Martin: Sociologist Saskia Sassen describes the city as a place where “those who lack power… [are] able to make a history, a politics, even if they do not get empowered.” Can you expand on what you frequently describe as the “crisis of agency”? Do you see this as a peculiarly urban condition? Natalie Jeremijenko: The idea of a crisis of agency is an idea that we can all identify as a total powerlessness, no matter what our expertise, no matter what fancy landscape architecture firm we work in, no matter what big university we’re affiliated with. [It’s] the idea of climate destabilization, the condition of the Anthropocene, where we think about these…

As urban forms go, it’s hard to say which is more lamentable within the twenty-first century city – suburban sprawl, red light districts or dockland redevelopments. By and large each represents its own triumph of commercial interests over social good, however, it is arguably the global phenomena of the “revitalized” dockland that is the most insatiable. From Cork to Cape Town to Sydney, such redevelopments are little more than real estate business models extruded into a sequence of net lettable areas, calculated to deliver the highest possible rate of annual return. The London Docklands Development Corporation set the gold standard back in 1981, when it commenced the transformation of twenty-two square kilometres of dilapidated docks, warehousing and industrial sheds into a brand new business district, entirely without a strategic urban…

“Working for yourself on bigger projects can be daunting. I try to allow myself a bit more time to research and to check things off.” Nathan Collins: You graduated from RMIT University a couple of years ago – how was the final year of your Masters of Landscape Architecture? Natarsha Lamb: It was a challenging year. I did my masters project on the topic of mining reclamation and it was a fantastic opportunity to sink my teeth into something that I was passionate about. I sought to problem-solve from a policy level through to social sciences and ecological rehabilitation, and to talk to many people who worked in the industry (design, mining, environment and engineering). This networking led to a broader understanding and further job opportunities. What was it like…

LEE ANDREWS Lee Andrews is a heritage consultant specializing in designed landscapes. She has undertaken extensive research into and assessment of the cultural significance of numerous sites throughout Victoria. CATHERIN BULL Catherin Bull AM is professor emeritus of landscape architecture at the University of Melbourne and an adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology. NATHAN COLLINS Nathan Collins works as an urban designer for Mesh Planning, is a director of the small start-up Nabru Design, and is the AILA Fresh leader for Victoria. JOCK GILBERT Jock Gilbert is a lecturer in the landscape architecture program at RMIT University and coordinates the university’s Lower Pool Design Research Studio stream. SARAH HICKS Sarah Hicks is a co-director of the landscape and public art studio Bush, and teaches design at RMIT University. ANDREW…

A combination of circumstance and great timing can illuminate previously unforeseen opportunities. For Tract Consultants directors Deiter Lim and Steve Calhoun, the light-bulb moment came over lunch with Professor Alan Pert, director of both Melbourne School of Design and Northern Office for Research and Design (NORD). NORD’s WASPS South Block project in Glasgow had recently received The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland’s prestigious Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award. It received this in part for the way it employed an unusual financial model to generate urban renewal: two floors of commercial space helped subsidize rents for artist studio spaces. “There was a trade off; it was an enormous building to convert on a shoe-string budget,” says Pert. The smaller design budget was worth it. Where a developer-lead apartment…

Known for its awe-inspiring scenery, the world-renowned Annapurna Circuit circles Nepal’s Annapurna peaks. It moves through the districts of Lamjung, Manang, Mustang and Myagdi, each with a unique landscape character that builds a resounding narrative over the length of the trail. Beginning in the lower-lying Lamjung region, full of lush subtropical valleys, the circuit carves its way through an agricultural landscape of terraced rice paddies. The thunder of waterfalls echoes through the valleys and the humidity had me dripping with sweat and welcoming the cold showers offered at local teahouses. The air thins as you climb to the elevated Manang region and so does the vegetation. Pine becomes the dominant species and Hinduism gives way to Tibetan Buddhism. The trail then passes over the mighty Thorong La, which, at 5,416…

In the mid 1980s in the streets of Melbourne, two boys are riding their bikes. As they cross the road to the milk bar, a car speeds over a hill and knocks one of the boys unconscious. The driver dashes off, leaving the mangled bike and the unconscious child on the ground. By pure chance, a nurse walking down the street stops to provide first aid until an ambulance arrives. A few hours later, the boy awakes in hospital with nothing more than a few scratches and no memory of what has happened. He is lucky not to have been added to the road toll or suffered any permanent damage. Landscape architects are often incorrectly seen as designing only parks and gardens. Yet it is evident through the profession’s various…

REVIEW KATRINA SIMON Marieluise Jonas, Heike Rahmann, Jovis, 2014. 192 pages The cover of Tokyo Void features a photograph of the city’s heavily constructed waterfront with large, shaggy grassland in the foreground. This expanse of rough, untended grass, with a dirt track worn through its centre, makes up nearly half of the image. The main title, hovering in the clear blue sky, is in white (TOKYO) and black (VOID), while the subtitle floats in white over the grassland. This composition raises some of the complexities explored in this intriguing book about cities and their apparently vacant spaces. While vacant and empty when seen from a conventional perspective on land-use and productivity, on closer examination these spaces are full of qualities and ecological processes, and are latent with potential for social…