Hassell has awarded University of Technology Sydney graduate, Nathan Galluzzo the 2022 Hassell Travelling Scholarship – Robin Edmond Award. The award offers graduating landscape architecture students who show outstanding potential for future contribution to the profession the opportunity to expand their education through travel to a destination undergoing significant development or renewal.
Galluzzo’s winning proposal, Drawing Landscape Narrative, was a response to a massive fishkill that occurred in 2019 at Tallow Creek, Byron Bay, on a site sacred to the Arakwal people of the Bunjalung nation. The fishkill resulted from the opening of Tallow Creek as a result of pressure from local residents whose backyards were flooding.
Drawing Landscape Narrative, was a response to a massive fishkill that occurred in 2019 at Tallow Creek, Byron Bay, on a site sacred to the Arakwal people of the Bunjalung nation.
Image: courtesy Hassell
Galluzzo’s work harnesses film and collaborative drawing to explore the interface between Indigenous knowledge, local stories and climate impacts at Tallow Creek. The research centres on developing trust and understanding relationality through a process of layering knowledge, experiences and discussions.
Byron Shire Council’s Coast, Biodiversity and Sustainability Coordinator Chloe Dowsett said that Galluzzo had initially approached the council to learn more about Tallow Creek as part of his research, but in the process they had learnt much from him.
“Nathan’s work has exposed a deeper level of understanding of Tallow Creek providing insights into ecosystem dynamics activated by his drawing process and research methods,” Dowsett said.
Galluzzo said: “Over many months, I acted as a visual translator and created a reflective and meditative practice, where aspects of time are transcended through drawings that connect stories with moments in the environment as well as communicate unconscious and intangible values, personal relationships with place, oral narratives, spiritual beliefs and past research.
“The scholarship win is a great opportunity to continue my passion and to extend the masters out and challenge how we could better integrate the teachings from Indigenous culture in policy and other modes that strengthen a considered and holistic view about our landscapes and our connection to landscape.”
Drawing Landscape Narrative by Nathan Galluzzo.
Image: courtesy Hassell
Hassell Principal Sharon Wright said the practice was impressed by the deeply personal connection to the projects, sites and challenges demonstrated by this year’s award entries.
“Nathan’s winning submission was no exception,” Wright said. “We were impressed with his highly original process that was shaped and guided by his exquisite drawing style. The project’s scope and timeframe were ambitious, and its process and outcomes are a powerful example of what can be achieved by slowing a project down, by listening and by being hyper site-specific.”
To read more about Nathan Galluzzo’s winning proposal, go here.
