when to distinguish between the “I” and
the “we.”The third annual Landscape Australia
Conference was held at the NGV
International’s Clemenger BBDO
Auditorium, and the venue’s warmth and
darkness lent itself to often intimate and
frank discussion. This conference asked us
to acknowledge, respect, and recognize;
to decolonize and deconstruct; to
understand the instrumentality of what
we do, while drawing on our own spatial
intelligence. A “landscape [practice] is a
long road,” Helen Smith-Yeo of Singapore-
based STX Landscape Architects
emphasized. You need to “find for yourself,
things that please you, that keep you
going ... and to enjoy what you do.
Otherwise we might as well be selling
donuts!” A measure of a successful
conference was the feeling, upon leaving,
that I hadn’t simply been presented to, but
rather called on – and I had indeed found
things to keep me going.The 2019 Landscape Australia Conference
was held on 11 May at the NGV International
in M elbourne.Henry Crothers’ Auckland practice
Landlab exemplified how this might be
done by putting greater emphasis on the
ecological role of placemaking. Crothers
talked through several strategies, from the
playfulness of one of Landlab’s smallest
budget projects that had a far-reaching
impact to environmental partnerships
and their researching, trialling and testing.
He also touched on meaningful forms of
engagement that work to reinforce both
culture and ecology.The final session ended with the promised
lively debate, well facilitated by Cassandra
Chilton, a principal at Melbourne-based
Rush Wright Associates and a founding
member of the feminist art collective
Hotham Street Ladies. Chilton teased
out a thread common to all of the day’s
speakers – the ownership of both their
practice and experience. How each
speaker situated themselves within
practice wasn’t concealed behind a veil
of the third-person narrative of studio
manifestos and publications. We, the
landscape architecture profession, are
a collaborative discipline – but this
conference was a timely reminder of
why it is important to know exactlyAustralian public policy analyst and
academic Roberta Ryan went beyond a
description of the responsibilities and
opportunities of practice, to the risks
of professionalism as an ideological
mechanism. In her talk, Ryan encouraged
us to loosen the boundaries around
our fields of expertise as a way to truly
enact agency, rather than relying on
professionalism’s structural status
whichoften sustains existing power
relations. Drawing on research from the
University of Technology Sydney’s Institute
for Public Policy and Governance, she
emphasized the criticality of collecting
evidence to help enable citizens to
articulate the value of public space and
place. She also spoke of the continued
importance of landscape practitioners
engaging with those whom our work is
intended for.
Anna Chauvel of Place Laboratory spoke
of some of these public engagement
opportunities and methodologies, and
of the development of place plans that
emphasize not just visions but values.
We may have given ground to placemakers,
but Chauvel reminded us that landscape
architects can lead that process.
01
Walter Hood of US practice
Hood Design Studio and
the University of California,
Berkeley, spoke about agency
as the freedom to act.02-04
A provocative panel discussion
traversed topics from the
necessity of community
engagement to landscape
instrumentality.05
Conference delegates
reflecting on the necessity
of decolonizing landscape
practice during BVN principal
Kevin O’Brien’s talk.0405R E V I E W
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