Landscape Australia

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has revealed the winners of the 2021 National Landscape Architecture Awards with 47 projects recognized across the program’s 17 categories.

'Sensitive, considered and ambitious': 2021 National Landscape Architecture Awards The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects has revealed the winners of the 2021 National Landscape Architecture Awards with 47 projects recognized across 17 categories.

Designed in the late 1990s on the site of a former limestone quarry, Booyeembara Park was only ever partially constructed. Yet the park has grown relationships between council and community.

Gathering community: Booyeembara Park

Do normative practices of managing crime reduce a sense of safety and exclude people from place? Is the way we manage the risk of crime actually reducing a sense of safety? By applying theories of crime prevention through environmental design, are we simply ticking boxes and perpetuating the structures that exclude the voices that most need to be heard? Most importantly, can we challenge the normative structures of managing and designing public places to create equitable cities?

The infinite value of queerness Marti Fooks examines how safety, queerness and public space interact in our cities, the challenges of existing frameworks such as CPTED, and what new approaches are needed to better address groups most at risk.

The experts who will sit on the City of Melbourne’s two new design advisory bodies have been revealed.

City of Melbourne appoints two new design advisory bodies More than 40 experts from across the built environment professions have been appointed to the City of Melbourne's Design Excellence Advisory Committee and Melbourne Design Review Panel.

A tapestry design that depicts the geologically “youngest part of Australia” has won the $10,000 international Tapestry Design Prize for Architects.

Geological provocation wins Tapestry Design Prize for Architects The winner of the $10,000 international Tapestry Design Prize for Architects has been revealed.

"Despite the values and benefits of urban green space, land-use planning legislation often requires local government to prepare policy and plans with a continued focus solely on parks for urban green space provision. As a result, local planning instruments are most often based on the traditional “standards” approach, defining a certain number of hectares of green space per thousand people and/or the number of hectares of green space within a 500-metre catchment of residential properties as the measure of success."

Rethinking our approach to urban green space provision Despite the many benefits of green space, its supply in our Australian cities is being met with a multitude of challenges. Can we develop a more effective approach?

Janet Conrad was “an energetic, capable and committed advocate” for the landscape architecture profession.

Remembering Janet Conrad, landscape architect Janet Conrad was "an energetic, capable and committed advocate" for the landscape architecture profession.

"There’s been a long trajectory of designers getting access to new materials, iron, concrete, glass. As landscape architects, we’ve rarely invented any of those materials, instead our role is to see if and how we can implement them to produce new spatial and social technologies."

Sensing future environments: Sean Lally Architect and landscape architect Sean Lally talks about technology and the human body, thinking on expanded time frames and testing designs through gaming.

"Despite periodic attempts, there had never been formal recognition of the area commensurate with its significance as a landscape deeply imbued with cultural and environmental meaning. Calls for protection of the area around kunanyi began in the 1870s; by the early 1990s, public pressure had mounted for formal, high-level acknowledgement of the mountain’s abundant values."

Framing the genius loci: Mount Wellington Looming large over the city, Mount Wellington/kunanyi has long-occupied a central place in the landscape of Hobart and its unique sense of place.

Designed by DWP (Design Worldwide Partnership) with landscape architecture by Context Landscape Architecture, the new project will deliver a “world-class” reptile and amphibian exhibition and animal care facility.

New reptilian conservation centre at Taronga Zoo A new reptile and amphibian conservation centre will be built at Taronga Zoo in Sydney to replace the existing Reptile World exhibit.

A manual for evaluating the visual impact of pumped hydro energy storage has taken out the top award in the Landscape Planning category of the 2021 AILA TAS Landscape Architecture Awards.

Tasmanian Landscape Architecture Awards revealed

A powerful new book by Alison Page and Paul Memmott illuminates the ways that design, through engagement with First Nations knowledges, can become an expression of respect for Country.

Respecting Country – a 'New Australian Design' approach

"Foregrounding criticality reinforces universities as experimental spaces, with an obligation to challenge the status quo of society and practice."

Pedagogies for future practice Alice Lewis and Kyle Bush reflect on a recent round-table discussion that explored the role of the university and landscape architecture programs across Australia in shaping future generations of design practitioners.

Phillip Island has long captivated visitors to Victoria with its dramatic coastal landscapes and ecologies. Yet, just as coastal environments are ever-changing, new challenges and environmental pressures for the region are emerging.

Choreographing coastal complexities: Phillip Island Phillip Island has long captivated visitors to Victoria with its dramatic landscapes and coastal ecologies. Mark Frisby reflects on the work that has gone into maintaining the island’s unique biota and framing experiences of the island for all.

Acknowledging, respecting and valuing Indigenous agency and knowledge of Country is an active part of decolonizing our approach to design, says Yuin Budawang woman, landscape architect and artist Kaylie Salvatori, and it would yield broadscale, tangible benefits for the community as a whole.

Indigenizing practice: Decolonizing our approach to design Acknowledging, respecting and valuing Indigenous agency and knowledge of Country is an active part of decolonizing our approach to design, says Yuin Budawang woman, landscape architect and artist Kaylie Salvatori.

As built-environment practitioners, we are in a privileged position, with the opportunity to deepen the kind of cultural understanding that strengthens Indigenous engagement.

Indigenizing practice: Documenting Indigenous projects for publication When documenting Indigenous projects, especially for media publication, it is vital that we articulate the processes, relationships and outcomes in a way that centralizes Indigenous voices.

A new meeting, cultural and ceremonial space that celebrates the area’s Traditional Owners has taken out the top award in the Civic Landscape category of the SA Landscape Architecture Awards.

'Respectful, inclusive and innovative': 2021 AILA SA Landscape Architecture Awards A new meeting, cultural and ceremonial space that celebrates the area's Traditional Owners has taken out the top award in the Civic Landscape category of the SA Landscape Architecture Awards.

"Contrasting with the broad-leaved vegetation of the surrounding suburb, DYLA’s design nurtures the garden as an intimate space for domestic inhabitation. Micro-leaved Viola hederacea (native violet) colonizes the space between mottled gneiss pavers with Dichondra argentea (silver falls dichondra) and Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’ (prostrate rosemary) extending a tangle of textures that invite closer visual and tactile inspection."
[Photo: Andy Macpherson]

Texture and temporality: Y3 Garden In the leafy Brisbane suburb of St Lucia, Dan Young Landscape Architect has created an introspective garden of close encounters.

"... research suggests that few universities have developed a critical understanding of the urban Indigenous environments on which they were built ... [however] incorporating such understanding is necessary to actively connect to the deep history of Indigenous occupation of this continent."

Australia’s universities are on unceded land – here’s how they must reconcile with First Nations people Universities are part of the movement towards reconciling with First Nations people, yet the work of recognizing and meaningfully representing Indigenous culture in the campus built environment requires far more attention.

A breath-taking “skywalk” that takes tourists out over the ochre landscape of the Murchison River has won the three awards at the AILA WA Landscape Architecture Awards.

Winners announced: 2021 AILA WA Landscape Architecture Awards

AILA expands partnership with Architecture Media The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has announced an expanded partnership with Architecture Media, publisher of Landscape Architecture Australia magazine.

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has announced the winners of the 2021 VIC Landscape Architecture Awards.

2021 AILA VIC Landscape Architecture Awards announced Awarded projects include a garden on Mornington Peninsula, the revitalization of a pedestrian mall in Melbourne's outer suburbs and a collection of water-related projects that reintegrate human and non-human ecologies.