Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 185 February 2025 i Landscape Architecture Australia

David Knights David Knights is a director of Civille. He has extensive experience in strategic planning, public open space design and sustainable urban water management. Simon Lloyd Simon Lloyd is an associate lecturer and a PhD candidate at UNSW Sydney. His research focuses on advancing scientific methods for assessing recreational water quality. Anne Poelina Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa woman. She is professor and chair of Indigenous Knowledges at Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Erin O’Donnell Erin O’Donnell is a non-Indigenous water law and policy expert at the University of Melbourne Law School. She is a member of the Birrarung Council. Elizabeth Mossop Elizabeth Mossop is a landscape architect and urbanist. She is founding principal of Spackman Mossop and Michaels and professor of landscape architecture…

Mandurah Waterfront Project Built on the land of the Bindjareb Noongar people City of Mandurah Situated an hour south of Perth by car or train, Mandurah is Western Australia’s largest regional city and has long held a place in the heart for people from WA as a spot for relaxation and recreation. Central to its character are the waterways of the 134-square-kilometre Djilba Gabi (Peel-Harvey estuary) and the lower reaches of the Waangaamaap Bilya/Serpentine River, and the people here love these waterways. Historically an area that supported recreational fishing and crabbing, the story is, of course, much longer. The Bindjareb Noongar people have been living on this boodja (Country) for more than 40,000 years and are still connected to their lands and waters. A local-government-driven masterplan developed in 2019 considered…

Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa woman, a human rights and multispecies advocate and Professor and Chair of Indigenous Knowledges, Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She works with Lachlan Carracher who is a non-Indigenous Australian and the Operations Manager for the institute’s Climate Adaptation Project. Hearing and feeling Martuwarra Fitzroy River Country begins with the importance of understanding the holistic nature of Martuwarra (Fitzroy River). The River is viewed as a single living entity.1 The region and the River are listed as national heritage at both Commonwealth and state levels through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA). The recognition of the River’s intrinsic heritage values must take into account Martuwarra Aboriginal people’s perceptions, and Martuwarra Aboriginal people’s…

In Wetlands in a Dry Land, environmental historian Emily O’Gorman discusses the impact of diverse ecological, cultural and more-than-human forces in shaping the lakes, rivers and wetlands of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin – a vast hydrological system that runs through Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The basin is a noteworthy cultural, environmental and economic entity. It is spiritually significant for fifty Indigenous communities, acts as a prominent irrigation resource for over 8,400 agricultural businesses, provides drinking water for millions of people, and includes Ramsarlisted habitats, such as the Gwydir Wetlands that support over 200 species of aquatic birds, among other flora and fauna.1 O’Gorman’s research explores these themes and their interconnections across seven chapters, titled “Weaving,” “Leaking,” “Infecting,” “Crossing,” “Enclosing,” “Migrating” and “Rippling,” that unpack specific cultural, ecological…

Our first issue for 2025 explores the myriad ways that landscape architects are engaging with water in their practices. From creek revitalisations and riverfront redevelopments to stormwater management and water-sensitive cities, thinking about water and how we can direct, store, harness and work with it is an important aspect of everyday design practice. Water is a force, an agent, a stakeholder and an integral part of a site. It has distinct material characteristics and qualities, all of which influence the ability of plants, animals and microscopic life to inhabit a space. In this edition, David Knights argues for the need to think more holistically when it comes to the design of high-density apartment complexes and how these buildings manage water (page 60). By integrating architecture and landscape from the outset…

Altona Pier Built on the land of the Bunurong people Site Office Landscape Architecture, Jackson Clements Burrows Architects and AW Maritime For many of us, piers are special places. They are a novel place to eat fish and chips, a destination on a long stroll, a good place for pausing, fishing, taking in the long horizon and the big sky. At their best, they are a platform for public life. Such was the case with the original Altona Pier. Built in 1888, the 400-metre pier had been a place the local community had enjoyed, up until 2021, when it suffered severe damage during a storm. Recognising its historical significance and the community’s attachment to it, Parks Victoria initiated a reference design and community engagement process to develop the objectives for…

The Greenline is an exciting landscapearchitecture-led waterfront revitalisation project. Through a combination of political savvy and grit, City of Melbourne (CoM) has championed the vision of a unified north bank and has produced an award-winning masterplan. Despite complicated challenges, including infrastructure and flood constraints, traffic and pedestrian crossing issues, and land ownership and funding limitations, the first phase of the project at Birrarung Marr has commenced. While the project is underway, additional funding and access to the areas along the Greenline route are needed, and CoM’s four-year capital expenditure and the approved CoM Budget 2024–2025 does not allocate funding for the project, even though the project is mentioned repeatedly in the document, and funding for it is encouraged. Given the critical value of this project for Melburnians, Traditional Custodians and…

Philippe Rahm is principal at Parisbased studio Philippe Rahm Architectes. His work extends the field of architecture from the physiological to the meteorological. Rahm’s design projects and research propose resetting the design disciplines to focus on intrinsic atmospheric qualities. Air, light, heat and humidity are fluid building materials, and convection, thermal conduction, evaporation, emissivity and effusivity are design tools for shaping architecture and cities. Wendy Walls – Your work is described as climatic architecture. How do you use climate forces as design material? Philippe Rahm – In architecture or landscape, we can easily work with light [dark and bright], proportion [big and small] and sequences [dynamic or static], et cetera. You can do same with the climate, to say, OK, here it will be cold, but you can move to…

The goal of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects is to lead the way in advocating for the profession of landscape architecture and for the creation of high-quality built and natural environments. To achieve this, we prioritise the areas that will have the biggest positive impact on the profession and focus on tackling the issues that will drive the profession forward and will support our members in meaningful ways. Our key areas of focus include advocacy, education and member engagement. By centring these in our work, we aim to ensure that landscape architecture’s critical role in addressing some of society’s most pressing issues is recognised; that the next generation of landscape architects is supported and current practitioners have access to highquality professional development; and that a vibrant and connected community…

Rivers are well known for being dynamic systems that change over time. River systems naturally shift in their horizontal and vertical configurations, often becoming deeper and wider. This process can accelerate with changes in the river catchment resulting from climate, deforestation or development. Dynamic systems are resistant to design interventions. Atelier Descombes Rampini and Superpositions, the designers of the Renaturation of the River Aire project in Switzerland, demonstrated that they understood this when they allowed the river to gradually evolve its own form, rather than attempting to give the river a new fixed form.1 As humans, as well as designers, we are not accustomed to viewing things with respect to time scales different to our own. This is partly because we have little information available with regards to deep time.…

As I dive, then drift along the steep underwater slopes of Sydney Harbour, where sandstone outcrops form terraces and overhangs below the tideline, I navigate a space rich with cultural connections that persist even in their submerged state. Sydney Harbour lies within the lands and waters of the Eora people, whose connection to Country continues to endure. This continuity predates the harbour’s formation, with Eora people inhabiting spaces that now exist underwater.1 My sustained intimacy with this large, drowned river valley not only informs my growing understanding of its spatial rhythms but also shapes my sensibilities as a landscape architect. Through these immersions, the lines between terrestrial and marine environments blur and my awareness of the ocean as a living archive – one that mirrors urban life and its entanglements…

Rodney Wulff was a true giant among men: he was a landscape architect, a father, an Olympian, an academic, an artist and a pioneer. From humble beginnings in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, it was the competitive and team-based nature of basketball that lead Rodney to move to the United States to play college basketball for University of Oregon, but more importantly to study landscape architecture. After representing Australia in basketball in 1968 in Mexico alongside Australian basketball icons Lindsay Gaze and Ray Tomlinson, Rodney went on to complete a Masters at Harvard University, and then ultimately a PhD at Cornell University in 1977. In 1974, Rodney returned to Australia after 10 years that combined studying and working in professional practice. It was then that the late David Yencken sought…