John Wardle Architects has launched a fundraising campaign to help Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria collect and conserve the state’s endangered flora in bushfire affected areas.
The practice partnered with RBGV to create the Biodiversity Recovery Project following the devastating bushfires of 2019-20, donating $30,000 to the project, with an additional $25,000 donated by friends of the practice.
The project will enable RBGV to regenerate critical habitats for wildlife and secure rare plant species for the Victorian Conservation Seedbank.
Botanists from Victorian Conservation Seedbank will head to affected areas to harvest seeds and cuttings of some of Victoria’s most threatened plant species, particularly from the East Gippsland region.
Chief Seedbank scientist Neville Walsh.
Image: courtesy John Wardle Architects
The project went on hold due to COVID-19 lockdowns, and is due to restart as restrictions in the state are lifted.
The fundraising campaign is the second stage of the project and will provide for three additional trips into the regions to safeguard 45 critically endangered plants.
The campaign includes the Bushfire Recover Auction, which includes a weekend away at the Shearer’s Quarters on Bruny Island in Tasmania and an exclusive lunch hosted by John Wardle and RBGV director Tim Entwisle.
The auction also includes a range of rare design items such as the Breakfast in Bed Tray, designed by Wardle as a staff Christmas present, the Upside Down at the Bottom of the World ceramic bowl and a series of vases created by Wardle in collaboration with Simon Lloyd. There are also concept designs for an holiday house on offer, described as a “design evolution of the Shearers Quarters on Bruny island.”
Signed copies of Volume and This Building Likes Me – two monographs on the work of John Wardle Architects – are also being auctioned as well as a silk flag designed by artist Rosslynd Piggott, which was created in 2017 and has flown above JWA’s studio.
The online auction begins on 17 November and will conclude on 30 November.
John Wardle Architects is also designing a new Nature and Science Precinct for Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
