Ricky Ray Ricardo: Prior to studying landscape
architecture you worked as a garden contractor in
Auckland. Did that experience make you a better
designer?
Andy Hamilton: Yes. It absolutely has made me a
better designer. My involvement in the landscape
industry actually goes back even further: throughout
my high school years I worked in plant nurseries and
then after school I would help my grandmother’s
friends maintain their gardens, which gave me a bit of
knowledge of a slightly more old-school approach to
gardening. Then in the year between school and
university I built gardens. It gave me a sense of the
craft involved and the actual making of these things.
It’s all very well having ideas about how a garden
might look and the sort of materials you’d use, but
until you’ve really grappled with them and got your
hands dirty, it’s all a bit hypothetical.
During my university years I took a lot of confi-
dence from the fact that I knew how to build gardens.
It also gave me an appreciation for the complexity of
soil conditioning and garden preparation. Landscape
architecture is quite a broad degree; you touch on so
many different topics, but often at quite a superficial
level. Getting intimate with the making of gardens
and soil and all the variances and nuances of that was
quite helpful.Did you learn most about planting design through
your practice before and after your formal
education?
I would say that at university there was almost
nothing [taught about planting design]. There was apaper on plant systems, and we were required to make
a plant file that featured fifty different plants and
had to do a write-up on it. And that was it. I was
absolutely flabbergasted by it ... I think it’s a huge
missed opportunity in the education of landscape
architects. I’ve observed this both in New Zealand and
in the UK, where we seem to relegate plants to being
just decoration, the curtains and drapes, rather than
the main event.After your studies you practised in the UK for
eleven years, where you worked with the office of
Tom Stuart-Smith, a respected garden designer in
London. How was that experience?
It was amazing; I think of it as an apprenticeship. I
was at university for four years, and you don’t come
out with a particular ability to take on a design
commission and run with it. You can be a bit baffled
by all the possibilities for design; it’s quite daunting
going from university into the commercial world. So
working with Tom – at that stage of his company it
was just Tom, me and one other – I had a lot of time
with him, both in the office and on site. He’s known
as one of the great plantsmen of Britain and Europe;
he’s also a very accomplished designer in terms of
spatial design and detailing. He instilled in me a
rigour about design. I had no idea who he was at first,
which was brilliant, actually, because in the UK there
is a bit of a class system and the likes of Aussies and
Kiwis bowl up and we are actually rather ignorant of
this. And I think [this ignorance] works to our advan-
tage in some ways because you speak up and you
don’t [feel restricted by being in] a particular place
[within that class system]. And Tom probably quite
enjoyed the fact that I was somewhat outspoken and
[would] try to take on more responsibilities. He was
terribly generous and trusting of me, to give me such
great opportunities throughout the eleven years that I
worked with him.
One of the great things about working for his
practice was the scale of the commissions: people
would be spending from half a million to sometimesANDY HAMILTON
PLANTING THE
MAIN EVENT
Landscape Architecture Australia
speaks with New Zealand-based
designer Andy Hamilton about
international practice, attitudes
to plants and the influence of site.INTERVIEW RICKY RAY RICARDOINTERVIEW
56 MAY 2017 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA