Landscape Architecture Australia

Landscape Architecture Australia is an authoritative and contemporary record of landscape architecture, urban design and land-use planning in Australia, presenting independent reviews of public, commercial and residential work, plus commissioned comment on contemporary issues. The official magazine partner of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.

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Landscape Architecture Australia

RECONSIDERING MATERIAL PRACTICE

ELEVATING THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN AUSTRALIA • A message from AILA president Ben Willsmore

Adventure play and recreation products • A collection of safe, creative and inclusive play equipment

Matters of play • The design for a new playground in Glenthorne National Park-Ityamaiitpinna Yarta elevates the inventive reuse of materials, creating a rich learning environment for visitors of all ages.

Designing pest-resistant landscapes • Increasing the biodiversity of a site can increase its resistance to pests. To achieve this, we need to choose our plant species carefully.

Round and round again: The Oval at Subi East • In Perth’s inner-west, a new park repurposes materials from the site’s demolished stadium to create a dynamic space that honours the old while making room for the new.

Waste not, want not • In Australia, “reduce, reuse, recycle” principles are rarely applied to planting-design projects – but given accelerated climate change and resource scarcity, the three R’s have never been more crucial.

Material trajectory: Meg Calkins • Jess Stewart talks to US-based academic and researcher Meg Calkins about addressing the climate crisis through design, and the choices practitioners should be making when they specify materials in built environment projects.

Reducing, reusing and recycling in practice • Five practitioners from across built environment practice talk to Ella Gauci-Seddon about how they are pursuing “reduce, reuse, recycle” strategies in their work and what changes need to happen to make this agenda mainstream.

Earthly matters: Sarah Lynn Rees • Jock Gilbert speaks to Palawa woman and architectural practitioner Sarah Lynn Rees about the relationship between Indigenous ways of knowing, the principles of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” and the materials of the built environment.

Concrete thinking: Richmond High School • Moving beyond a business-as-usual approach, SBLA Studio positioned sustainability, relationship-building and trust at the heart of the landscape design for a public school in Melbourne’s inner-east.

Considered restraint: Yaluk Langa • The design for a gathering space along the Birrarung is an exercise in treading lightly, amplifying rather than overriding the site’s existing qualities.

Recycling revolution • As Australia lags behind in the shift to circularity, these three design initiatives are exploring the potential of materials we commonly deem to be “waste.”

Remains of the day: DFLA’s Bridgefoot Street Park • Liam Mouritz speaks to Irish landscape architect Dermot Foley about his approach to reusing secondary materials in the design for a public park in central Dublin.

Protect Your Property: Nature’s Fire Defence Shield FIRE-SMART AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS • Some native plants are better at helping slow the spread of fire, with moisture-retaining foliage that actively dampens embers. You can help make them more resilient by removing dry material and keeping plants irrigated.

2024 Landscape Student Prize • The Landscape Student Prize is awarded annually to landscape architecture students who demonstrate excellence in the visual and written communication of a landscape architecture proposal. Here we present the 2024 winners.

Vale Stuart Pittendrigh (1937–2024) • Stuart Pittendrigh was a...