Sarah is a practising landscape architect and a Director of Melbourne-based practice Bush Projects Landscape Architecture. Bush Projects is a cross-disciplinary landscape architecture studio that operates at a range of scales and whose work includes the design of civic and educational environments and landscape restoration projects. The practice is founded on an approach of responsive design that prioritizes the environmental, social, cultural and recreational values of landscape. Sarah’s design philosophy is guided by the specific ecologies and overlapping contextual narratives of a site and has been influenced by her background in fine art and public art.
Gardens in Australia: Their Design and Care by Edna Walling
There were a few key texts that were on the shelves of my grandmother’s library that have shaped a growing interest in the possibilities of landscape. My journey began with reading Edna Wallings books there as a teenager. This lead to conversations and stories about her impressive achievements, not only in the design of, but also the construction of significant local historic gardens.
Gardens in Australia: Their Design and Care by Edna Walling.
Image: Kate Meakin
A library selection
Along with the texts of Wallings, other significant publications that have shaped my design approach include the intriguing colour plates of Italian Renaissance Gardens also hidden in my grandmother’s library. These images further expanded the possibilities of landscape, from the wild abandonment of grand architectural landscapes to the eccentric ambition of giant stone grottos shaped like monster’s heads and entered via a cavernous, toothy mouth.
Later, The Same Landscapes by Teresa Gali-Izard (a gift from my sister) continued this expansion into landscape ideas in other directions. The book covers the vast potentials of landscape dynamics and processes, from agricultural innovations to the delight of a dinner party that forms a meadow, holding the memory of guests as flower species.
The specifics of a landscape and the endemic plant species and creatures whose lives are enmeshed within that system is an ongoing interest for me that is furthered mainly through observations in the field, with treasured reference texts at hand and supported by invaluable excursions with knowledgeable company. Bushwalks with my dad as a child were always accompanied by Leon Costerman’s Trees and Shrubs of Eastern Australia. Knowing a species by name brings it into view – you can recognize its presence in the landscape wherever you go.
The Insects of Australia field guide was gifted to my children. It harnesses a fascination I’m hoping to cultivate as a lifelong habit for shared conversations and experiences, connecting us across generations.
A library selection
Image: Kate Meakin
My grandmother’s gumboots
My original pin-up was my grandmother Mary – as tough as boots and a queen of capability and resilience. She was a farming, gardening, pants-wearing lady and her energetic presence has stayed with me as a constant reminder of the competence of women at all stages of life.
Gumboots belonging to Sarah Hicks’s grandmother.
Image: Kate Meakin
Ceramic bones
To spend years investigating the potential shapes of things within a hunk of clay was an exploratory journey that took shape over time and has lead to an approach to landscape that remains surprisingly relevant. This body of work investigated cycles of growth and decay through the forming and decomposition of bones – an interest that eventually evolved into my practice working with the living materials of landscape and exploring site as material.
Ceramic bones
Image: Kate Meakin
This text is an excerpt from the catalogue for Subject/Object, an exhibition curated by AILA Cultivate that explored the intersection of everyday living and design practice. The exhibition took place from 17 March to 20 March at 514 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne as part of the 2022 Melbourne Design Week program.
