Kathleen Kinney: Not many children say, “When I grow up, I want to be a landscape architect!” What attracted you to the profession?

Stacey: I’ve always felt quite close to nature. I studied fine art after high school and fell in love with installation art and then looked into doing spatial design. I found landscape architecture by chance through a flatmate and thought it was the perfect umbrella profession for me to pursue diverse interests under.

Chai: What attracted me to landscape architecture is the broad-reaching effects it can have in a community. Looking at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, the connected green network of park connectors across the nation (transformed from drain canals), the ecological restoration in Bishan Park (my childhood playground!), I could see how suddenly the outdoors was seen as an exciting and important place for learning, protecting and exploring. Whereas when I was growing up, the outdoors was just a mosquito-infested, sweaty place you tried to avoid at all cost!  

Myren: I was studying architecture, and during my second trimester we worked on brief design projects in each of the four disciplines that Victoria offered. Landscape architecture seemed to blend the visual and spatial design thinking that I loved, with a sort of chaos that you only achieve when a design scheme has to give a part of itself to the natural elements. Learning to deal with the unexpected things that design comes up against in the exterior realm was a challenge that really grabbed me, and it continues do so.

KK: Now that you’re in the working world, is there something that you wish had been addressed more thoroughly in your coursework at university?

M: A couple of areas… one is professional practice. I would have liked more experience in the essential day-to-day skills that firms may be looking for in new graduates. The other is Māori and Polynesian design practices. Given the importance of the landscape industry developing a real, bicultural design language for New Zealand I regret not choosing to be more involved in that field as a student. There were certainly options available to me but I was preoccupied with looking at industry leaders overseas rather than learning about the design history and stories of cultures locally.

C: I wish that there were opportunities to collaborate with the other students at Lincoln University for projects, like perhaps working in teams with ecology students, water engineering students, or even agricultural students for projects on waterway restoration along farms or something. Exposure to skills like that would make graduates better equipped at the interdisciplinary nature of landscape architecture.

S: More professional practice, construction detailing, documentation and specifications. We go over the basics but the paper was at the same time as Major Design (our masters project), which meant it took second priority for a lot of students. More exercises or templates earlier in the program would have been helpful to get us more familiar with them.

KK: ‘Landscape Architecture’ takes in a pretty wide spectrum of knowledge – what aspects of the profession do you like the best? 

C: Working on master plans for public infrastructure excites me the most since you’ll start realising how subtle and significant features in the daily landscape of so many people all align to one strong vision; the process of it always feels like an exploration-adventure as you try to understand what the central message is about.

M: I enjoy dissecting how people move through space. I love visualising spaces linking across multiple levels, through and around each other. In the 18 months I’ve been working I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for the organisation of small details in the execution of a design scheme, and lately I’ve become really interested in the subtle art of thoughtful planting design.

S: I like concept design and 3D. I have quite a large imagination and find it so satisfying to be able to create without the limitation of a budget. I also like putting together material and plant palettes. 

KK: What projects are have you worked on since being hired?

S: I’ve been creating a plant database, design process research, rendering plans for some residential projects, building 3D models of site furniture and researching materials.

C: I’ve been involved in a range of projects, from residential gardens to large public spaces to landscape assessments. Although I’ve been mostly involved at the graphics and GIS research level, just working with my colleagues and being exposed to the complexity of each project and the design and construction process has been very educational and enlightening for me. 

M: I’m currently working on a variety of projects across disciplines: working with civil engineering, architecture, parks and recreation and local government bodies. The projects I’m involved in include new playgrounds, schools, sustainable transport infrastructure, parks and more.

KK: Chai and Stacey, you both work in smaller firms with a predominantly reagional focus – what’s that been like?

C: One of the challenges I see is that there isn’t necessarily someone in the organisation that may be an expert in a particular topic, like stormwater engineering for example, whom you could just quickly ask a question to confirm something. But the benefits are that everyone shares what they know and it just makes for such a great learning environment!

S: I like the relaxed vibe at Earthwork and it’s great to have another student from my year working in the office too.

KK: Myren, you’re working for a much larger organisation – what are your thoughts?

M: I’m part of a large, multi-disciplinary office, with numerous different teams that each have particular goals and interests. But working in a small landscape team within that larger organisation, we get to take on large scale projects. Already in my brief professional life I have developed skills that I wouldn’t have anticipated gaining at this stage of my career, through taking on responsibilities and key design team involvement from day one as a graduate.

KK: Myren, what do you see as the most critical issue related to the profession in the Wellington area?

M: Providing pathways into the professional realm for graduates and young practitioners. I have seen significant improvement in the job market for graduates, as the industry continues to rebound from the recession. Wellington is a small city with several well-established firms, so that competition for work naturally leads to the generation of new opportunities, which can only be good for young people looking to get started in landscape architecture.

KK: Chai, you’re based in Christchurch. What do you see as the most critical issue in that region?  

C: How to develop the sense of place and identity. Not only in the city centre but also how the city centre will relate to places like Rolleston and Belfast, which may feel disconnected. Christchurch could feel like a series of scattered locations rather than a single region with a range of features. On a side note, I’ve always wondered if Christchurch would ever fully embrace and cultivate its identity as a swampy wetland area, and celebrate that, just as Rotorua celebrates its geothermal character?

KK: How about in New Zealand as a whole? 

M: We need to develop better relationships and understanding of indigenous communities, particularly around the design language and processes used for creating our local environments. We need to look less to overseas precedents and draw more on our own unique experiences, identities, stories and knowledge.

C: I find it strange that little things that I took for granted in Singapore are not the norm in what I thought (and still think) is the cleaner and greener country. Public transportation is not as well-received here in car-loving New Zealand; city roads are often bare and grey, not lined with trees that enhance the ecological, recreational and aesthetic values of the streets. New Zealand needs to not simply depend on its extensive rural natural beauty to uphold the “green” image.

KK: Globally?  

M: The profession needs to build a greater understanding of what we do, and what we can offer to the world. Landscape architects to me, are problem solvers, opportunity creators, visionaries. However, it’s difficult to really flex those muscles when the general perception is that we are just highly qualified gardeners. More specifically – normalising principles of sustainability in design, so we can push beyond treating sustainable design as a bonus feature and instead have it become a core component of design philosophy. Issues of water scarcity, air quality, caring for productive landscapes, maintaining threatened environments, these all rely on sustainability as an integral design philosophy.

C: We need to embrace a different attitude to how we relate with nature; with globalisation and improving technology, increasingly the desire is for all things to be fast and easy - for us, at the cost of the earth. It’s very much a humanistic focus on how can we make the most from the earth and how the earth belongs to us, instead of seeing how we too belong to the world. I think that’s where understanding the land and letting the land speak for itself is important.

KK: Stacey, what do you think?

S: For me, the answer in all three cases is agriculture. The clearing and inefficient use of land and resources is the leading cause of climate change, habitat loss and species extinction. It is an industry that truly eats away at the capital instead of off the interest.

KK: What can industry professionals and those on the academic side do to encourage young people to get into the field of landscape architecture?

S: Promotion and education, I had never heard of a landscape architect until I met one, and I’ve had to explain what it is that landscape architects do to so many people.

M: Publicly celebrating the work of landscape architects is always a good start. It can be difficult to explain or pin down what exactly our field is, specifically, so I would love to see more publicity championing the industry, and inspiring young people to enter into the professional landscape environment.

C: Being heard more? Maybe through collaborating with the public more, or holding landscape design workshops with youths or through more public presentations and exhibitions of projects? When people hear and understand how landscape architecture is addressing real issues and is not just an aesthetic thing, they might then appreciate their landscape more and thus ignite an interest in landscape architecture.