Landscape Australia Conference 2018 announced

Expert international design practitioners will examine the role of landscape in the design, planning and management of our cities, regions and gardens at the 2018 Landscape Australia Conference. Held at the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at the University of Technology, Sydney on Saturday 5 May, the conference will allow delegates to engage with exciting design practices from our neighbouring region – India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and China.

The 2016 Australian Census revealed that for the first time since colonisation, migration to Australia from Asia has surpassed that from Europe. Our country’s fortunes have long been tied to the economic markets of our regional neighbours, yet most agree that our understanding of Asian cultures, including design cultures, must improve if we are to seize the enormous opportunities offered by the Asian Century.

With the theme of ‘Sharing local knowledge for a global future’, the one-day conference will explore the opportunities and pitfalls of practising internationally, what Australian and Asian practitioners can learn from their regional counterparts who are facing similar challenges, and the importance of understanding cultural differences.

Keynote speakers

John Lin is an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong and co-founder of research and design collaborative Rural Urban Framework (RUF). Structured as a non-profit organisation providing design services to charities and NGOs working in China, RUF has built more than fifteen projects in diverse villages throughout China and Mongolia.

Shefali Balwani and Robert Verrijt are practising architects and principals of Architecture BRIO in Mumbai. Their work field spans the vast variety of cultures, climates and landscapes across the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia. They consult with communities, NGOs and governments to provide scalable high-quality buildings and infrastructure solutions.

Yossapon Boonsom and Prapan Napawongdee are Thai landscape architects and directors of Shma Company Limited. They seek simplicity in design strategies and approaches, carefully responding to the complexity and diversity of natural and human ecology, including climate, topography, history, culture and social phenomenon.

Chang Huai-yan is the director of Singapore-based landscape design firm Salad Dressing. The company consists of landscape designers, gardeners and architects who challenge boundaries in the design of domesticated landscapes based on the rainforest, biodiversity, the immateriality of nature and its timeless relationship with humans.

Jungyoon Kim is a founding director of PARKKIM, a Seoul-based landscape architectural firm practising beyond the traditional boundary of the profession. In 2011 she was appointed the public architect of Seoul by the Metropolitan Government of Seoul. More recently, she has been appointed Visiting Design Critic at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The keynote speakers will bring a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives to the conversation, spanning landscape architecture, horticulture, garden design, architecture and urbanism to ensure engaging and lively debate. Each session will include a moderated panel discussion geared toward identifying tools and methods for Australian practitioners, researchers and students. The facilitators are Dr Jillian Wallis (University of Melbourne), Elly Russell (Grant Associates) and Andrew Toland (University of Technology, Sydney).

Purchase tickets online: landscape-australia-conference-2018.eventbrite.com.au. More information is available at landscapeaustralia.com/conference.

The Landscape Australia Conference is supported by principal partner Stoddart, and supporting partners Ozbreed and Christie, and is organised by Architecture Media, an associate company of the Australian Institute of Architects. It joins Architecture Media’s publication Landscape Architecture Australia and website LandscapeAustralia.com, to form a suite of authoritative resources for anyone interested in landscape architecture, urbanism, land-use planning and garden design.