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2004 ASLA Professional Awards

Communications Award of Merit

New Conversations with An Old Landscape: Landscape Architecture in Contemporary Australia
Catherin Bull, ASLA, Parkville, Victoria, Austrailia

A beautifully presented assemblage of works showing the great diversity of works of landscape architecture. High quality photography and clear text reveal the beauty and diversity of the natural and man-made landscape of Australia…presented to a wide audience… Easy to read in-depth or casually browse.
2004 Professional Awards Jury Comments

This work addresses the need for the landscape architecture profession to communicate its activities to a broad audience, including architects; engineers and planners; decision makers and clients, including various levels of government and development companies; and non-technical readers with an interest in the quality of our landscapes. As the first book dedicated to the work of landscape architects in Australia, it also provides a conceptual framework or theoretical “starting point” for the profession; a basic introductory text for incoming students; and an introduction to the issues and pre-occupations that shape the profession.

CHAPTER 1 - PROPOSING A NEW LANDSCAPE View along the avenue of the Sculpture Garden, towards the Australian National Gallery building, Canberra. Landscape designed by Harry Howard and Barbara Buchanan; constructed in 1982.

CHAPTER 2 - LIVING WITH THE BUSH
The manufactured and natural were combined to convey a sense of the geology and natural process of the place, and draw attention to the manifestations of human achievement beyond. These landscape designs realised the dramatic potential of the harbourside sites and presented an alternative view of what the harbourside and local parks could be. Long Nose Point, designed by Bruce Mackenzie and Associates, 1974.

CHAPTER 3 - BEYOND THE BLACK STUMP
Canvas sails, a grove of eucalypts, a desert gravel floor and reflecting pool are combined to evoke the qualities of the broader central desert landscape. Desert Hotel, part of the Ayers Rock Resort and village, designed by Environment Landscapes, late 1980s.

CHAPTER 4 - SURVIVING ON THE DRIEST CONTINENT
At Pyrmont Point the industrial past is the central theme of the design experience. Natural history is also evoked through the plant material and the user is almost defiantly invited to experience the uncomfortable exposure of this manufactured headland.

CHAPTER 5 - LANDSCAPE AS JOURNEY
Suggest image: Barron Falls walkway (p103)
The designers sited angular metal skywalks to span the gorges and take the traveller from the rail station on an exciting journey through the forest canopy to the local township. Barron Falls walkway, Barron Falls National Park, far north Queensland. Designed by Siteplan, constructed in 2000.

CHAPTER 6 - THE CITY - SETTING FOR AN OUTDOOR LIFE
The robust detailing of the re-furbished Lygon Street in Melbourne's inner north signals a shared street, complements the ornate Victorian shopfronts, and supports its role as a focus for eating and entertainment as well as shopping. Designed by Paul Laycock and constructed in the early 1980s for the Melbourne City Council.

The Garden's Point campus of the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, designed as a contemporary civic space. Students talk and study in the shady bosque of The Yard, with its framework of canopy trees, pavements and grasses. Designed by Tract Consultants, 1998.

CHAPTER 7 - SUSTAINING HABITAT?
A view west to the Parramatta River and reconstituted wetlands from a marker mound in the Millennium Parklands (now Sydney Olympic Park), with sporting facilities for the Sydney Olympics site in the background. The product of many programs and a design by a consortium including Bruce Mackenzie, Peter Walker and Partners, and Hassell Consultants, the 450 hectare parklands are progressively being developed on a degraded post-industrial site.

CHAPTER 8 - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IN THE AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE Children explore the miniature suburban pool (with its Canary Island Palm and house), part of the Garden of Australian Dreams at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. The red of the Uluru Lind can be seen crossing the pavement and folding down the building face. A competition winning design by Room 4.1.3 (Richard Weller and Vlad Sitta), completed in 2001 (page 146).

The manufactured and natural were combined to convey a sense of the geology and natural process of the place, and draw attention to the manifestations of human achievement beyond. These landscape designs realised the dramatic potential of the harbourside sites and presented an alternative view of what the harbourside and local parks could be. Long Nose Point, designed by Bruce Mackenzie and Associates, 1974.

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