Planting the agenda

What principles might landscape architects embrace to reclaim agency when designing with plants? Alistair Kirkpatrick explores three possibilities: collaboration, advocacy and opportunity.

Contemporary landscape architectural practice encompasses more than designing parks and specifying plants. The profession has dramatically diversified from its inception. The skills required for contemporary practice would be unimaginable to our nineteenth century counterparts, but are we losing agency over planting design and specification? Has a de-emphasis on planting knowledge in Australian landscape architecture education resulted in many practitioners lacking the skills and knowledge base to effectively design with plants? Or is our dwindling agency the result of ideologically driven plant specification methods, such as the application of EVCs to urban environs?

It is a common occurrence when designing for the public realm for plant selection to be specified to practitioners as a strictly non-negotiable list. An associate’s recent experience highlights this issue remarkably well. They were engaged to design a public space in a riparian park and were provided a highly restrictive list of plants they were allowed to use. Many of the indigenous plants on this list, however, had evolved to grow in completely different environmental conditions that were not currently found on the design site.

Issues of shading from trees, competition from existing vegetation, much higher levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the soil and the absence of First Nations land management practices in the area had been seemingly ignored by the list’s authors. When the concept design for the space was presented to the project’s various stakeholders, a decision was made to remove plants from the list purely based on personal preferences. At no point was the landscape architect invited to contribute to this conversation around plant selection, yet nevertheless – and despite the significant challenges imposed by the planting list – a sophisticated and nuanced planting design for the project was developed. When, upon completing construction, a final inspection of the site was undertaken, it was revealed that the planting plan created by the landscape architect had been extensively altered, with all trees in the design removed during the construction process. This alteration was not considered an issue by the client or the stakeholders, however – and the project was signed off. Such incidents are not uncommon; however, it is difficult to imagine them occurring if the changes to the designs had resulted in the radical alteration or omission of hardscape elements.

Despite these situations occurring, interesting and innovative approaches to planting design do exist and might be explored as relating to three broad principles: meaningful collaboration, advocacy and opportunity.

Meaningful collaboration

Meaningful collaboration occurs when experts from associated disciplines are invited to be an integral and integrated part of the design process. The design of Sydney’s Barangaroo Reserve offers a great example of a successful union of professions. Managing director of SESL Australia and consulting soil scientist for the project, Simon Leake, constructed a soil from crushed sandstone and recycled materials such as waste glass and garden waste that is arguably the hero of the project and can be understood as a method of planting design. Soil is the basis of all vegetated landscapes, and the informed manipulation of the growing medium has allowed for the successful establishment and flourishing of incredible Hawkesbury Sandstone plant communities from coastal sandstone foreshore forests to heathlands and coastal sandstone gallery forests. This soil is extremely low in phosphorus, a trait that privileges indigenous vegetation and disadvantages weeds, and the site’s constructed topography allows for myriad aspects, enabling a vast range of growing conditions that have led to boronias flourishing within metres of cabbage palms.

Planting the agenda

Image: Brett Boardman

Low-phosphorus soil made from crushed sandstone and recycled materials supports flourishing indigenous vegetation at Barangaroo Reserve.

Low-phosphorus soil made from crushed sandstone and recycled materials supports flourishing indigenous vegetation at Barangaroo Reserve.

Image: Brett Boardman

Paul Thompson’s planting design at Monash University’s Clayton campus is another example of working within the limits of a restrictive brief and creatively responding to challenges and unanticipated changes to site conditions during the construction process. Thompson’s introduction of Australian subtropical plants and trees on multiple projects on the campus – such as the redevelopment of the Clayton Transport Interchange (Bus Bay) (designed by John Wardle Architects with McGregor Coxall as landscape architect and planting design by Thompson) and the Western Precinct landscapes (designed by Rush Wright Associates in collaboration with Paul Thompson) – have resulted in planting designs that are inspiringly diverse and future-prepared. This is despite the Bus Bay landscape being very different in character and philosophy to the designers’ original intent. Last year, a tour of the campus led by Thompson demonstrated the significant value of informed plant choices. Toona ciliata (Australian red cedar) was thriving alongside Polyscias elegans (celery wood), despite these species originating from vastly different climates. Many of the plants that Thompson has used at Monash Clayton are not readily available from wholesale nurseries, and the inclusion of them on a large-scale project makes their presence even more admirable and exciting.

Advocacy

Advocacy is critical in landscape architects regaining agency in planting design and specification. As a profession, we need to once again prioritize planting as a core aspect of our design practice. Hassell principal Jon Hazelwood’s work toward implementing project policies that ensure the use of a far greater diversity of species is an excellent example. Hazelwood is distorting the traditional hierarchy that values hardscape over planting, advocating to ensure that vegetation isn’t simply value-engineered out of designs. Hazelwood’s position within the studio allows for the adoption of meaningful and lasting changes in the studio’s approach to plant specification and planting design – an approach that has the potential to influence other major players in Australian landscape architecture practice.

Opportunity

The final category is opportunity. Designed by William Dangar (now Dangar Barin Smith) with architecture by SJB, the garden of the Cleveland Rooftop development in Sydney’s Redfern epitomizes opportunistic planting design. It does this by embracing the hostile and exposed conditions found on the rooftop by using species that grow along Sydney’s iconic clifftops and surf beaches. The outcome demonstrates that a saying popularized by late British garden designer Beth Chatto – “Right plant, right place” – remains poignant and relevant today. The combination of banksias, tea trees and coastal grasses with turf is simple but rarely seen, and it imbues the space with a transformative quality.

The rooftop garden of the Cleveland development embraces the site’s hostile conditions by deploying species drawn from Sydney’s coast.

The rooftop garden of the Cleveland development embraces the site’s hostile conditions by deploying species drawn from Sydney’s coast.

Image: Felix Forest

The landscape architecture team at City of Melbourne has repeatedly demonstrated its skill at opportunistic planting design, both through the clever alignment of its various maintenance regimes and the installation of temporary living landscapes. In 2013, the council’s urban landscape team (led by Ian Shears and Eamonn Fennessy with horticulturalist Sam Davis from Citywide Service Solutions) created a flower meadow at Birrarung Marr that took advantage of the disturbance required for the WSUD that was being installed at the site. The meadow was direct sown, giving it a dynamic and spontaneous quality rarely found in public plantings. Immensely popular with the public, the project led to the planting of bulbs in the woody mulch areas around heritage trees throughout the council’s parks – and resultant seasonal bloomings.1

In 2013, the City of Melbourne capitalized on the disturbance resulting from WSUD works at Birrarung Mar to create a temporary and vibrant flower meadow.

In 2013, the City of Melbourne capitalized on the disturbance resulting from WSUD works at Birrarung Mar to create a temporary and vibrant flower meadow.

Image: City of Melbourne

Exhibition Reserve by City of Melbourne’s City Design team, led by Sally Tyrrell, is another excellent example of an opportunistic approach. This small reserve featured an existing large poplar tree that needed to be retained. The tree’s roots are enmeshed with a defunct concrete water feature on the site that cannot be removed until the tree reaches the end of its natural life. In accordance with CoM’s design, the concrete water feature has remained in situ, drainage holes have been punched through, and good soil has been mounded over the top. Rather than laying the reserve to turf, the team chose tough species with similar maintenance requirements, convincing the project’s maintenance team that the design would not create additional work. Several years on, the design has proved highly successful. The combination of Hylotelephium telephium (orpine) with Poa labillardieri (common tussock grass) and Salvia nemorosa (woodland sage) is magnificent and clever, as all are cut down at the same time. Tyrell has considered the down season as well, with drifts of narcissus lighting up the space in winter. Although the species used here are commonly found in high-maintenance parks, their use in Exhibition Reserve demonstrates that even low-maintenance spaces can be floristically diverse and aesthetically interesting.

In considering how we approach planting design specification in landscape practice, these people, projects and approaches should not be the outliers in our industry – they should be the norm.

1. The planting of bulbs in Fitzroy Gardens and Argyle Square was led by the City of Melbourne City Design team comprising Emily Ogilvie, Sally Tyrrell and Mary Chapman.

Source

Practice

Published online: 20 Apr 2021
Words: Alistair Kirkpatrick
Images: Brett Boardman, City of Melbourne, Felix Forest, Gareth Pollock

Issue

Landscape Architecture Australia, February 2021

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