LAA 145 preview

Landscape Architecture Australia 145.

Landscape Architecture Australia 145.

Image: McGregor Coxall

Australian landscape architecture is an active participant in the international groundswell that is positioning the profession for the future. This movement is much more than disciplinary posturing. It is the natural coalescence of the skills and expertise of landscape architects and the very big issues that will shape the twenty-first century.

This global Zeitgeist was captured by Naomi Stead in her review of Forecast, the Institute’s inaugural Festival of Landscape Architecture. Published on The Conversation, “Future forecasting: landscape architects might save the world” is as much polemic as review and opens with the salvo, “I predict we’re going to hear a lot more from landscape architects in the coming years.” Held in Brisbane in October 2014, Forecast brought the profession together with a clear agenda. The programming spoke to the festival’s aim to help “build a momentum that will underpin the future of the profession.” And this it did. This issue features insightful reviews by Charles Anderson and Sue Barnsley. Congratulations to conference creative directors Sharon Mackay and Di Snape and adviser Catherin Bull.

The second half of 2014 was particularly exciting. In September, the Auckland Waterfront project by Taylor Cullity Lethlean and Wraight + Associates won the Rosa Barba Landscape Prize at the 8th International Biennial of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona. The prize puts the work of Australian landscape architects on the world stage and sends a clear message about the direction of the profession. In awarding the project, jury president Michael van Gessel spoke candidly about the deliberations and their consequences, concluding that “the jury wanted to convey a message of landscape architecture as a strategic discipline. A discipline that should question the demands and questions put to them. A profession that needs to be strong and robust but at the same time humble and sensitive.” It is this combination of leadership, engagement and openness that will help landscape architecture “save the world.”

Projects and articles in this issue:

  • Landscape Student Prize. The winners of the inaugural Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize.
  • Converting Roads to Parks. Creating new open space where none exists requires lateral thinking. (Article: Lucy Salt)
  • Grasslands. An interview with artist Linda Tegg about her recent installation, Grasslands. (Interview: Sarah Hicks)
  • Landscape as a Democratic Symbol. Exploring Kosciuszko’s Legacy. (Article: Adrian McGregor)
  • Profile: Adam Nitschke. A conversation with Parks Victoria’s Manager of Master Planning. (Interview: Ricky Ricardo)
  • Profile: Kate Orff. A conversation with the founder and design director of New York practice Scape. (Interview: Claire Martin)
  • Freo’s Happy Park. The Fremantle Esplanade Youth Plaza by Convic. (Review: Grant Revell)
  • Beyond the Run of the Mill. Port Adelaide Renewal: Hart’s Mill Surrounds by Aspect Studios. (Review: Jo Russell-Clarke)

Cameron Bruhn, editorial director, Landscape Architecture Australia

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Published online: 2 Feb 2015
Words: Cameron Bruhn
Images: Don Brice, Luke Thompson, McGregor Coxall, Orion Zuyderhoff-Gray, Scape, Tony Brown

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Landscape Architecture Australia, February 2015

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