Practice
Redeveloping Mac Point: A case study
The plan to build an AFL stadium at nipaluna/Hobart’s Mac Point exemplifies a pattern of political decisions overriding due process in large-scale Australian urban renewal projects. How should we change our governance to improve our cities’ outcomes?
PracticePostcard from Dubai: Torrential rainfall and visits to recent projects
Sacha Coles encounters heavy rains and extreme flooding during his trip to Dubai this April. He also reports back on his visits to a number of recent landscape architecture projects across the city.
PracticeVirtual botanicals
Artist Garth Henderson’s digitally sculpted botanical studies alert us to the ways that digital design can both deepen our appreciation for the natural world and divorce us from our physical and cultural contexts.
PracticeBuilding a professional culture: A decade of AILA festivals
Since its inaugural program in 2014, the AILA Festival of Landscape Architecture has brought together members of the profession and related disciplines to share knowledge, challenge disciplinary conventions, forge new relationships and extend community.
PracticeBIM in practice
BIM offers exciting possibilities for landscape architecture – and understanding how to use it effectively is important.
PracticeCommunicating interconnection: Works of Nature at ACMI
An exhibition of the works of London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast demonstrates how digital technology can be used to create experiences that highlight how humans, other species and the environments we live in are all inextricably entangled.
PracticeInnovating in education
The Roundtable on Innovation and Education brought together representatives from AILA-accredited university programs to discuss the present and future of landscape architecture education amid emerging tools, processes, contexts and trends.
PracticeGenerating narratives
At interdisciplinary architectural visualization studio Lucernal, video game development is driving innovative approaches to both generative design and business development.
PracticeLandscape as Change Makers: A practitioner’s perspective
The Landscape Architects as Change Makers project brought together the cultures and professional design practices of Japan and Australia through two exhibitions and a program of events. Kirsten Bauer reflects on her experiences as an exhibitor and participant in the project.
PracticeWomen in innovation leadership
Four women in built environment design leadership talk innovation, incremental change, and communication that helps bring people along for the journey.
PracticeSeeds of change
New tools are popping up that explore the potential of planting design in the digital space. What does this mean for practice, and how do we stay grounded?
PracticeA global perspective on innovation
Darren Hickmott, global landscape digital leader at Arup, reflects on his career pushing innovation in the landscape architcture profession and what the industry needs to do to move forward.
PracticeDuplicating our worlds
With their responsive flow of information, digital twin models have the potential to increase efficiences, improve decision-making and optimize performance – but only if used critically.
PracticeVale Bruce Mackenzie (1932–2024)
Andrew Saniga celebrates the legacy of Bruce Mackenzie and reflects on the profound impact Mackenzie had on the development of landscape architecture in Australia.
PracticeRemembering Bruce Mackenzie
A collection of short reflections on landscape architect Bruce Mackenzie’s extensive influence on the Australian built environment profession contributed by members of the design community.
PracticeReframing innovation
Guest editors of the “Reframing innovation” issue Jela Ivankovic-Waters and Darren Hickmott on innovation in the landscape architecture industry.
PracticeViewpoint: Leading a stronger and more sustainable regional future
A message from AILA President Ben Willsmore
PracticeWhat is pattern book development and how can it help ease the housing crisis?
Senior lecturer in architecture at the University of Adelaide, David Kroll, and architecture lecturer at the Atlantic Technological University, Susan Galavan, explore whether “pattern book” development is a viable solution for increasing housing supply.
PracticeRegional visions: Putting together the small pieces of a large puzzle
With Australia’s “second-tier” cities undergoing rapid growth, an emphasis on small-scale projects is vital to improving quality of life and defining city-wide identity.
PracticeCollecting the community together: Melbourne Pollinator Corridor
This wildlife corridor spanning an area just south of the Melbourne CBD demonstrates the role that open-ended design processes and the fostering of caring relationships with public landscapes can play in the empowerment of ecologies and communities.
PracticeFostering a meadow mentality
Eight years on from the project’s beginnings, highly adaptable and resilient Woody Meadows are flourishing in urban green spaces with new research attracting fresh partners across Greater Melbourne.
PracticeUnderstanding cultural load in design practice
Wiradjuri designer Samantha Rich explains the concept of cultural load from a First Nations perspective and explains why it’s important designers consider it in their projects.
PracticeTopographical processes: Michele and Miquel
Architecture and landscape practice Michele and Miquel discuss specificity of site, their fascination with ecological processes and flows, and agricultural practices as inspiration.
PracticeGround-up transformation: Decolonizing the garden
At a residential property in Melbourne’s outer north-east, a design approach grounded in close observation, manual tending and incremental moves embraces the agency of the landscape and its transformative opportunities.
PracticeSmall infrastructures: Enabling good habits
Considered interventions in places where long networks and local interfaces overlap can greatly improve our cities. Three small projects from New South Wales illustrate how.
PracticeSuburban refuge: Designing for biodiversity in our cities
How does increasing density affect our suburban ecologies – and what small interventions can make a meaningful difference?
PracticePlayful expectations
Natalia Krysiak unpacks how Australian cities are approaching designing for the well-being of younger generations.
PracticeNetwork connections
Fungi play a crucial role in the healthy functioning of our ecosystems, from the underground up. Ecologist Alison Pouliot explores how fungi conservation overlaps with landscape restoration.
PracticeConsidering small practice
Joel Barker (See Design Studio), Greg Grabasch (Brave and Curious), Jane Irwin (JILA), Dan Plummer (Plummer and Smith), Kaylie Salvatori (COLA Studio) and Marti Fooks (Fooks) discuss the ins and outs of small practice with Rosie Halsmith.
PracticeElevating the minor player
Rich in social, aesthetic and environmental worth, small plants yield large rewards – and foster wonder in those who cultivate them.
PracticeHas landscape architecture lost its way (in the USA)?
Margaret Grose considers the American Society of Landscape Architects’ recent decision to declare landscape architecture a STEM discipline.
PracticeCircling back to circularity
Experiments with bio-based construction materials and innovative phytoremediation techniques could inform new ways of designing with purpose to create a more resilient future.
PracticeConceptualizing Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal projects
Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal projects have contributed a suite of valuable new civic spaces to the public realm. But what do they contribute to landscape architecture in a broader sense?
PracticeWorker solidarity in the built environment
Collective action by Australian construction workers in the 1970s led to the “green ban” movement, reinforcing in the design profession a sense of responsibility for the impacts of its work.
PracticePractising ngara in urban Country
Maddison Miller and Matt Novacevski take us on a walk through Melbourne’s Docklands, on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, to explore what might happen if we engage with Country as a living entity, even in the built-up heart of the city.
PracticeVale Jim Sinatra
Migrating to Australia from the United States in the early 1980s, Jim Sinatra embedded himself in the profession through a prominent teaching position at RMIT and the establishment of his practice, Sinatra Murphy. He was a “pioneer of ideas and creativity” with a deep passion for the Australian landscape.
PracticeTree designers and bird clients
Using more-than-human design as a theoretical framework and artificial habitats for arboreal wildlife as a case study, Deep Design Lab explores approaches for better inclusion of nonhuman contributions.
PracticeProtecting Australia’s biodiversity
Addressing species decline is urgent – and if we are serious about planning for a more robust and biodiverse future, we need to rethink how we consider, design and plan for future conservation areas.
PracticeBold and innovative planning is delivering Australia’s newest city. But it will be hot – and can we ditch the colonial name?
Tooran Alizadeh, Glen Searle and Rebecca Clements of the University of Sydney weigh in on the strengths and flaws of the planning process for Australia’s newest city.
PracticeSo predictable? AI and landscape architecture
Artificial intelligence is being harnessed in both the design and management of landscapes, with new generative models creating both fresh opportunities and novel challenges.
PracticeCo-authoring in the digital age
Digital technologies are challenging traditional notions of the designer as author, as data is shared and design outcomes are produced in new and evolving ways.
Practice