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Erosion Control
Urban Designer Calls for Greener Neighbourhoods

Urban Designer Calls for Greener Neighbourhoods

Urban designer calls for a shift to greener, self-sufficient neighbourhoods with multifunctional streets in a post-pandemic world. The recent change in the way people live, travel and work presents a unique opportunity for urban developers and designers to improve issues such as the liveability of our neighbourhoods and access to public spaces. A Perth urban...
A Guide to Flood-resistant Urban Landscapes

A Guide to Flood-resistant Urban Landscapes

Climate change and rising sea levels are impacting the design and shape of our cities. Edward Barsley, author of Retrofitting for Flood Resilience: A Guide to Building & Community Design, outlines six key strategies for creating environments that are adapted to flooding. Yanweizhou Park by Turenscape  In his book, Barsley outlines how urban and natural...
Green Infrastructure to Make Cities More Liveable and Sustainable

Green Infrastructure to Make Cities More Liveable and Sustainable

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) has released a Green Infrastructure Position Statement calling on non-government agencies, industry organisations and governments at all levels to make significant progress towards improving the liveability and sustainability of urban and regional settlements through Green Infrastructure. Green infrastructures are the strategically planned networks of natural and semi-natural areas...
Why are Old Eucalypts Worth Saving?

Why are Old Eucalypts Worth Saving?

In urban landscapes, many consider large and old eucalypts a dangerous nuisance that drop limbs, crack footpaths and occupy space that could be used for housing. But when we remove these trees they are effectively lost forever. It takes at least 100-200 years before a eucalypt reaches ecological maturity. As trees mature, their branches become...
Are Rooftop Amenities the New Standard Inclusion for Residential Development?

Are Rooftop Amenities the New Standard Inclusion for Residential Development?

There’s no question that, as Australia’s population grows, high density living will become the way of the future, and with many young Australians looking to own their first home, it’s becoming the only affordable choice. Owning a two-bedroom apartment with sweeping skyline views is fast becoming the new Great Australian Dream and with affordable quarter-acre...
Cut and fill

Cut and fill

As I mentioned in my last blog, where landscaping is concerned cut and fill sites come with their own set of problems. What usually happens to a cut and fill site? The excavated material is piled irrespective of its natural layers. Top soil and sub soil is either mixed up together or more often the...
Erosion control for vegetated slope retention

Erosion control for vegetated slope retention

In landscaping we are sometime called to deal with a steep slope. Retaining walls are not always a possible or even preferred option. Vegetation will, when chosen carefully, retain the soil in the most effective manner. Selecting plants with various root systems will ensure the soil is retained at different depth. In the case of...