Landscape Architecture Australia — February 2018

Building on these cultural and economic

developments, this edition of Landscape

Architecture Australia celebrates the ties

and exchanges of ideas between Australia

and Asia. The topic is explored through the

lenses of education, practice and discourse

and is presented in three parts.

Asia in Australia

With a focus on tertiary education, we

explore how successive shifts in govern-

ment policy have changed the face of

Australian landscape architecture

programs. Helen Armstrong reflects on the

internationalization of education, which

began with the Colombo plan and has grown

substantially in the millennium. Working

with data and government policy, we

document the impact of deregulation on

student numbers and conclude with a

vibrant discussion with Asian students

currently studying in Australia.

Practising in Asia

We beg in w it h Cat her in Bu ll’s discussion of

Australian practices working in Asia during

the 1970s and 80s, which features

exceptional images of the Australian

Embassy in Bangkok, designed by Bruce

Mackenzie and Ancher Mortlock and

Woolley, and which is slated for demolition.

Craig Czarny reflects on his experience

working on projects in Vietnam and we

introduce the work of Hong Kong-based

Rural Urban Framework, whose

engagement with the rapid transformation

of China’s countryside has been

internationally acclaimed. We end with

recognition of the late landscape

architecture academic Marieluise Jonas

and her decade-long body of work in Japan.

An Asian practice

Opening with a discussion of some of

the characteristics, driving forces and

influences of a contemporary Asian

I

n October 1973, Gough Whitlam
controversially became the first
Australian prime minister to visit
China. Greeted by the sounds of Along the
Road to Gundagai, Waltzing Matilda
and Click go the Shears coming from
loudspeakers, Whitlam’s visit signalled the
beginning of a significant realignment of
Australia’s economic and cultural values.
Responding to the weakening of
Commonwealth economic ties, such as
Britain’s entry into the European
Community, Whitlam sought to strengthen
relationships with Australia’s Asian neigh-
bours – communist and non-communist.
Two years later, his government passed the
Racial Discrimination Act, which made
racially based selection criteria illegal,
decisively ending Australia’s controversial
White Australia policy.

Fast-forward and the Australian 2016 Census
revealed that for the first time since
colonization, the majority of overseas-born
Australians came from Asia (predominantly
China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and
Malaysia) rather than Europe. Australia’s
economic prosperity is now intertwined
with Asia, which offers a lucrative market for
our minerals, our agricultural produce and
our education sector (a $20 billion industry),
and also sees Asian investors contributing
significantly to the growth of our cities.
The Whitlam government’s bold and
controversial decisions almost half a century
ago laid the foundations for a postcolonial
Aust ra lia prem ised on a n act ive cu lt ura l a nd
economic exchange and participation with
our Asian neighbours. The continued
strengthening of ties to the Asian region
is in contrast to the current xenophobic
economic and cultural strategies
restructuring our traditional Anglo
partners, such as the United Kingdom’s
Brexit and US President Donald Trump’s
“A m e r i c a F i r s t ” r h e t o r i c.

landscape architecture practice, we feature

the urban work of South Korean design

practice Parkkim. Jeff Hou introduces the

concept of bottom-up placemaking, and we

conclude with reflections from the editors

of major landscape journals in China and

South Korea on the future and challenges

facing landscape architecture in their

particular Asian context.

A s we go to press, ex tensive polit ica l

discussion has emerged on Australia’s

position in the Asian century. In George

Megalogenis’s essay “The changing face

of Australia” (Australian Foreign Affairs

journal, issue 1), he stresses that we are no

longer a neutral Anglo country in the region

and that Australia looks more like Asia than

ever before. Changing demographics are

shaping our destiny; Megalogenis

highlights the fact that Sydney and

Melbourne are Eurasian cities, and with

this shift, “everything is affected.”

Professions are not exempt from this

change. There are enormous benefits in

Australian landscape architecture shifting

to have a more comprehensive engagement

with our Eurasian future. This edition has

documented just some of the advantages

and lessons that come from the region: a

bright new generation of Asian-Australian

professionals, strategies for working with

rural communities in decline, tactics for

reclaiming open space in dense urban

environments and for building

communities, and innovative construction

techniques and novel use of materials.

Many of the ideas raised in this issue will

be explored further in the 2018 Landscape

Australia Conference: Sharing Local

Knowledge for a Global Future. Don’t miss it.

— Jillian Walliss, Heike Rahmann, Guest

Editors, with Ricky Ray Ricardo, Editor

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EDITORIAL

EMBRACING THE

ASIAN CENTURY