Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 183 August 2024 i Landscape Architecture Australia

Terren Shi Terren (Jiatong) Shi is a recent landscape architecture graduate. She is interested in understanding how design has been shaped by social and political context. Virginia Overell Virginia Overell is a senior landscape architect at Oculus. She has a deep interest in design that performs both ecologically and therapeutically. Ella Gauci-Seddon Ella Gauci-Seddon is a senior landscape architect and gender equity lead at City of Melbourne. She is passionate about promoting equity through place design. Emma Sheppard-Simms Emma Sheppard-Simms is owner of Plantery Landscape Architecture located on Wadawarrung Country (Ballarat). She combines design with teaching, writing and research. Elizabeth Farrelly Elizabeth Farrelly is a writer and columnist, presenter of The Sydneyist radio show, author of Killing Sydney: The Fight for a City’s Soul and founder of the Better Cities…

Nestled among the northern beaches of Sydney, just north of Dee Why, the new Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club is not your typical surf life saving club. So often big boxes built precariously close to where the high tides reach, the design of such clubs is usually more concerned with capturing wide views along the coastline than with how the building sits and has presence within the landscape. But that was never going to work here, in one of Sydney’s NIMBY hotspots. Overlooked by a hillside of multimillion-dollar homes, numerous proposals for the redevelopment of the club had been put forward – and rejected – over the years. That was until a competition-winning scheme by Adriano Pupilli Architects and Tyrrell Studio managed to survive the planning process, thanks to…

From the window of her home office in Sydney’s Blue Mountains on Gundungurra – Dharug Country, proud Yuin Budawang woman Kaylie Salvatori can see the clash of worldviews that has come to define her career. Gazing out at the UNESCO World Heritage site renowned for its spectacular natural beauty, she observes the dominance of European plantings – rhododendrons, maple trees, conifers – that contrast starkly with the area’s indigenous vegetation. The scene, she explains, serves as a daily reminder of the colonisation, not just of land, but of Country, and illustrates why many Aboriginal people might feel alienated from the field of landscape architecture. It’s this very disconnection that Salvatori seeks to reconcile through her work and advocacy. As co-founder of COLA Studio (Country Oriented Landscape Architecture), Salvatori is one…

Rosie Halsmith – Could you tell me a bit about yourself, and how you came to work in landscape architecture? Amy Stewart – I was born and grew up in the Perth Hills, surrounded by a magnificent landscape. I come from a family that’s environmentally conscious – my parents are science teachers. A relationship to landscape was instilled in me from a young age. My first degree was a Bachelor of Science, majoring in conservation biology. I found that knowledge very useful but was also looking for something that applied science with a creative approach. That’s what attracted me to landscape architecture. Through my studies, I was looking to work at a practice that was aligned with my values as a designer – a practice with a sensitive, place-based approach.…

Terren Shi – Tell me about yourself. Ayeh Azarbashi – I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture in Iran, then continued my education in landscape architecture there. I’ve been working for more than a decade in both landscape architecture and architecture. I’m a senior landscape architect at Aspect Studios and an executive member of AILA’s VIC Chapter. Felipe Coral – I was born in Colombia but grew up in Québec. I studied architecture at the University of Toronto, focusing on landscape architecture. I immigrated to Australia in early 2020. After the first COVID-19 lockdown ended, I began working as a landscape architect, first in a small practice and at AILA, now in a larger multidisciplinary practice. Fiona Chen – I was born in Hangzhou and lived there until I…

Liam Mouritz – Bel, what’s the polyphagous shot-hole borer and how is it impacting trees? Bel Foster – The polyphagous shot-hole borer is a beetle that arrived in [Boorloo] Perth around August 2021. It’s native to south-east Asia and has been causing significant issues for landscapes around the world, particularly those in Mediterranean climates – South Africa and California, for example. The beetle itself is tiny, the size of a sesame seed. It tunnels into the tree’s stems and branches, and farms a fungus that causes damage and dieback, posing the risk of tree limbs unexpectedly falling and tree death within two to five years. If the beetle isn’t removed, the infested trees can become a constant source of beetles that then disperse to neighbouring trees. In WA, the borer…

Richard Weller’s core thesis is that design, in particular landscape design, means something. This is not news to designers. For us, in fact, it’s a core truth. For much of the world, though, it is gently mind-shattering to think that made-scapes might be more than shrubs and duckponds. This thesis tacitly structures and drives Weller’s new book, To the Ends of the Earth. The title may sound like a novel, but the subtitle – A Grand Tour for the 21st Century – positions the book rather as a guide, as if some contemporary Inigo Jones or John Ruskin might set off, book in hand, on the glorious global perambulation. The book’s heft, though, as well as its organisation, support Weller’s quip from his public lecture at the Melbourne School of…

This issue of Landscape Architecture Australia explores what “next gen” might mean in the context of Australian landscape architecture practice. It aims to offer a snapshot of the types of work and modes of practice presently emerging, which include far more practices than we could cover in the pages of a single magazine. We’ve included a collection of mini-profiles on three recently established studios that are taking a values-driven approach to addressing contemporary issues through design. We also feature a roundtable discussion with six landscape architects from across the country, all of whom are testing operational models that enable them to directly engage the issues they care about – including growing inequality in cities, increasingly unpredictable climates, and the incorporation of First Nations knowledge systems into built environment processes. As…

Fooks, lead by director Marti Fooks, is a studio distinctive for its progressive and intersectional approach to design. Having cut her teeth working for Martha Schwartz and Aspect Studios, Marti conceived her own firm as one that held her values and politics at its core. As such, the practice works towards key commitments: inclusivity and connectedness to LGBTIQA+ community; reconciliation; action on the climate disaster; and providing a safe place to work. “They’re a starting point to move conversations around those issues forward,” Marti explains. In particular, she believes that increased diversity in the leadership of the profession is critical to achieving meaningful outcomes. “Being a business lead by a queer non-binary person adds to that diversity,” while also acting as a counterpoint to what she sees as an increasing…

Ella Gauci-Seddon – What, for you, are two key issues for the next decade of landscape architecture practice? Steve Mintern – The growing inequality within our cities and how the privatisation of space is going to play out with an increasingly unpredictable climate. Bonnie Gordon – Resisting the pressures of neoliberal capitalism in our profession and broader society. Also reckoning with the role of our industry in environmental and climate degradation. I see these things as connected. Taneile Nixon – Bringing our clients and government agencies along with us – stressing to them the importance and desperate need for climate resilience. Secondly, the future shortage of landscape architects. We have a really low uptake of students in Queensland. I see a lack of hands in the workforce as a huge…

Matt Caldar – What are your current roles at TCL and how long have you been working there? Lisa Howard – I’m a director at TCL. I started here as a graduate landscape architect in 2004. Unsure of what I wanted to do after graduating – I was very interested in the fashion industry, too – I saw a position come up at TCL and thought I should apply as, at that time, it was one of the only firms I had considered working for. Perry Lethlean – I’m managing director. I started at TCL when our founding directors, Kevin Taylor and Kate Cullity were planning to move to Adelaide and needed a landscape architect to take over the Melbourne studio. They reached out to Jim Sinatra, then head of…

The world is facing an unprecedented climate emergency and loss of biodiversity, with profound consequences for our planet and future generations. Global temperatures are rising at alarming rates, already reaching 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This is already leading to catastrophic outcomes, including more intense heatwaves, an increase in the number of extreme weather events and the loss of habitable areas. In addition, biodiversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate, with species extinction rates estimated to be 1,000 times higher than historical rates, with around one million species at risk of extinction.1 Deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change are driving this crisis. The loss of species not only disrupts ecosystems but also threatens food security, our access to clean air and water, and the overall resilience of…

Among the collection of landscape architecture practices that have emerged in recent years, a number of recently established studios are taking a values-driven approach to addressing contemporary issues through design. We profile three practices breaking new ground.…

Crosbie Lorimer – Jerry, when did you start the process of passing the practice on to Jordan and Adam? Jerry de Gryse – The business sold formally [to them] about 18 months ago, and we started that process five years before that. CL – Clouston went through a similar process of succession recently. A key thing for us was having somebody outside the business who could provide us with advice. What was your approach? JDG – We worked with someone who had a practice specialising in business management and succession planning for small design firms. He’d been through the process several times. Because our advisor had accrued a lot of experience dealing with small architecture and landscape architecture practices, he knew the potential pitfalls, made us aware of them, and…

The Politics of Public Space book series by Naarm/Melbourne-based practice Office presents a chorus of perspectives on the city. Each book features transcripts of public lectures and interviews concerning the public realm that took place between 2018 and 2024. Volume five contains the latest – and final – collection of transcripts, as well as the contents of the previous four volumes, bringing together the thoughts and insights of 39 speakers into the one comprehensive publication. This publication continues Office’s practice of challenging students, designers and members of the public to consider the social and political dimensions of city formation. In recent years, Office has emerged as a distinctive voice in the Australian design landscape, operating as a not-for-profit design and research organisation concerned with the public good. I first came across…