Practice

Bottom-up placemaking
From Taipei to Tokyo, communities and non-profit organizations are working to mitigate the impacts of rapid urbanization from the bottom up.
Practice
Cultivating landscape literacy: a workshop with Charles Massy
Agricultural scientist, farmer and writer Charles Massy advocates for a stronger relationship between humanity and the non-human world in agricultural practice. A workshop with Massy and members of the landscape profession offered opportunities to explore the relationship of Massy’s ideas to broader landscape practice.
Practice
Early engagement with Asia
The Australian landscape architectural profession has been engaged with Asia from the 1970s. Embassy projects were a particular focus in the beginning, when desires for harmonious political and cultural relationships were expressed in new and interesting physical forms.
Practice
Reflections on an Australian education
Landscape architecture academics Jillian Walliss and Heike Rahmann from the University of Melbourne and RMIT University respectively caught up with a group of international landscape architecture students to learn about their experiences in Australia and why they chose to study here.
Practice
The ring trees of Victoria’s Watti Watti people are an extraordinary part of our heritage
The marker trees of the Watti Watti people in north-west Victoria have substantial spiritual and cultural significance yet are currently afforded little in the way of formalised heritage protection.
Practice
Prospect of refuge: Phoebe Goodwin on architecture and humanitarianism
Phoebe Goodwin provides insights on her humanitarian work with UNHCR in refugee camps in Bangladesh, Greece, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere.
Practice
To design safer parks for women, city planners must listen to their stories
Planners, architects, the police and politicians need to put aside the traditional expert perspective to learn from – and design for – women’s experiences.
Practice
A contemporary Asian practice
The potential of emerging Asian cities has often been defined by European and North American designers, denying the growth of local expertise. It’s time to celebrate the exciting work of homegrown designers, thinkers and critics in Asia.
Practice
Internationalism in landscape education
With the growth of landscape architecture in the region, Australian landscape architecture programs have become increasingly popular with Asian students, particularly from China. Helen Armstrong reflects on how this growing demand has changed and challenged landscape architecture education.
Practice
Why we are measuring the health of Australian vegetation poorly
Many of Australia’s ecosystems are in a much worse condition than we think. This is because officials are measuring the health of ecosystems such as forests and woodlands by their size, instead of how damaged they are by disturbances.
Practice
Rob Adams: A lesson in city design
As he turns his focus to succession planning, Rob Adams, director of City Design and Projects at the City of Melbourne, sat down with Lucy Salt to reflect on more than three decades of city building.
Practice
Material thinking
Parkkim, a landscape architecture practice based in the South Korean capital, Seoul, boasts a portfolio of highly refined projects that are underpinned by a passion for research and innovation.
Practice
Designing with ecological succession
Ecological succession – where colonizer plant species grow quickly to provide organic matter, shelter and nutrients to their longer-lived neighbours – is rarely employed in planting schemes, but it holds great potential to produce more interesting, dynamic and resilient landscapes.
Practice
Lessons from dry lands
The desert landscapes of Arizona contain many valuable examples of engaging, species-diverse planting schemes that thrive in extremely dry conditions. With water demand a critical issue throughout Australia, are there cues to be taken from the south-western United States?
Practice
California dreaming: The gardens of Bernard Trainor
Only a handful of Australian designers have pursued careers abroad and achieved international recognition. One of them is landscape designer Bernard Trainor, whose California-based practice has built an impressive portfolio of projects on the west coast of the USA.
Practice
China as a laboratory for change
Design and research collaborative Rural Urban Framework is responding to the Chinese government’s urbanization agenda by working with rural Chinese communities to contribute positively to social, economic and spatial transformations.
Practice
Mungo Man’s return reminds us that we need to listen to Indigenous knowledge
Could the recent return of Mungo Man to traditional owners serve as a turning point in the way non-Indigenous Australia views land and culture as separate entities?
Practice
Post-environmental landscapes: Balancing beauty with ecology
In the Far North Coast of New South Wales, contested ideas of pre- and post-European settlement landscapes, managed by hierarchies of scenic beauty and ecological value, have created tensions in the community.
Practice
Let’s talk about complexity
We need to renew the language of ecological design to better confront the complexity and uncertainty of today’s challenges.
Practice
The birth of the ‘Plan-chitect’: A new type of hybrid built environment professional
In the age of disruption, traditional structures are being challenged, giving birth to a new type of hybrid built environment professional.
Practice
2017 AILA salary survey: Why are women still under-represented in the upper levels of the profession?
With the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects’ 2017 salary survey revealing entrenched gender inequity, Rush Wright Associates principal Cassandra Chilton makes the case for action.
Practice
Better placed through integrated design
Deputy New South Wales Government Architect Ben Hewett introduces the scope and objectives of Better Placed – the state’s first integrated design policy for the built environment.
Practice
Design before disaster
As we face a future of more frequent and severe weather events due to climate change, we need to start redesigning our towns and regional cities to better cope with shock events.
Practice
Breaking the hierarchy: Simone Bliss and the push for gender equality in landscape architecture
Landscape architecture student Sofia Paredes-Estrada explores how Simone Bliss Landscape Architecture is pioneering a flexible approach that aims to subvert hierarchies within landscape architecture.
Practice
An ecological approach to grazing
Grazier David Marsh has farmed his 814-hectare property on the South West Slopes of New South Wales for decades. He shares his experience of moving from an industrial farming mindset to taking a more ecological approach based on many years of refinement.
Practice
Wind turbines and the regional energy landscape
Windfarms are still a divisive issue for many communities due to their visual impact on pastoral landscapes.
Practice
Regenerative action: Degraded farm to future forest
In the past twelve months an impressive twenty-five thousand indigenous trees and shrubs have been planted on Karl and Rachel’s 100-acre property in south-eastern Victoria.
Practice
Dan Young and Paul Owen: Rethinking the suburban landscape
Dan Young began his landscape architecture practice with the help of friend and collaborator Paul Owen (Owen Architecture), working on a number of residential projects in Brisbane. Landscape Australia caught up with the duo to talk collaboration, private practice and planting design.
Practice
On the edge: Steven Tupu on activism and risk-taking
Hailing from New Zealand, Steven Tupu trained as a landscape architect in Australia before emigrating to New York to found Terrain, a practice that has participated in that city’s enormous transformation over the past two decades.
Practice
New law finally gives voice to the Yarra River’s traditional owners
Until now, the Wurundjeri people have had little recognition of their important role in river management and protection, but the new legislation will give them a voice.
Practice
Barangaroo Reserve: Making the grand vision work
The plantings at Sydney’s Barangaroo Reserve have achieved a phenomenal rate of success, largely thanks to the expertise of two consultants: Simon Leake, respected soil scientist, and Stuart Pittendrigh, one of Sydney’s most experienced horticulturalists.
Practice
Performance-based solutions for bushfire protection
Considering the importance of performance-based solutions for bushfire protection and the current challenges associated with them.
Practice
More than just drains: Recreating living streams through the suburbs
Lot sizes and backyards are shrinking in Australia at the same time as building density is increasing. So we cannot afford to overlook the potential of existing – but neglected – spaces in our suburbs, like drains.
Practice
Emerging digital technologies: What do they mean for settlement patterns and the role of planners?
New technologies have the potential to disrupt current land use patterns and create new opportunities in our cities and regions.
Practice
Fine-tuning the planting design cycle
Green wall and roof garden projects pose many challenges to good planting design outcomes, particularly synergizing design intent and management. How can the processes be improved?
Practice
Michael Bates: The education of a gardener
Michael Bates, arguably the most enterprising landscape contractor in the Sydney region, reflects on his education as a gardener in this excerpt from his recent book, The New Australian Garden.
Practice
Questioning the war on weeds in urban streetscapes
Should weeds be embraced in built-up urban environments to provide resilient plantings that can thrive in the toughest conditions?
Practice
Planting for the unexpected
Mass plantings of reliable plants give the best chance of a predictable outcome with minimal effort, but is this what we want for our neighbourhoods?
Practice
Saving seeds: Conserving our natural heritage
With the global population rapidly rising and our farming and natural environments under intense pressure, saving seeds is more important than ever.
Practice
The rise of cities and city planning
A message from the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) on promoting proficiency and professionalism in planning.
Practice
Why the ecocity needs to be a just city
Why is it easier to imagine an ecocity – full of lush green spaces and bike lanes – than a just city where everyone belongs?
Practice