Adrian McGregor is a landscape architecture, urban design professional and managing director of McGregor Coxall, a Sydney- and Melbourne-based environmental design studio. Graduating with a bachelor of landscape architecture in 1988, McGregor began his career in Sydney before working in North America and the United Kingdom. He founded McGregor Coxall in 1998 and the Biocity Studio in 2006 to combine practice with research and academia. The firm has received more than 50 awards, including the prestigious Topos International Landscape Architecture Practice of the Year in 2009, presented in Reykjavík, Iceland. He was also selected as one of Sydney’s 100 most creative people on the ‘Creative Catalysts’ list in 2009. In 2012, he won the Prime Minister of Australia’s Urban Design Award. He is currently working on two books relating to city sustainability. Below, he answers a few questions about using creativity and sustainability to form resilient cities.

IFLA50: Adrian, what led you into the professions of landscape architecture and urban design?

Adrian McGregor: I spent my early years in a typical California-bungalow-style home in the inner suburbs of Newcastle, a steel-making town on Australia’s eastern sea board. My grandmother had a great love of gardening and she had a beautiful yard with fruit trees and verdant flower beds. Helping her in that garden instilled a love of nature in me that inspired a pathway into landscape architecture. Newcastle was a rough industrial town but it had a thriving economy and a gritty urban landscape that left an impression on me. During my landscape architecture degree I became increasingly interested in cities and the macro processes that drive them. I now find myself immersed in the nexus between cities and ecologies.

 IFLA50: Where or how do you find design inspiration or passion?

AM: I usually find inspiration from visiting old cities, modern architecture and remnant landscapes. I believe that great design leaves a legacy of enduring stories. Our studio is constantly searching for the most simple representations of form to achieve a desired outcome. I’m passionate about working with communities and the politics of design. Our cities are facing unprecedented challenges and we must find more intelligent solutions to house a growing global population in declining environmental conditions.

IFLA50: Do you monitor your built projects and actively seek user feedback?

AM: We spend as much time as possible revisiting our built work to observe how robustly they manage the use they receive. We find that with public projects, people are usually very opinionated and the client receives feedback that they pass back to us.

IFLA50: What are the most significant sustainabilty  issues for cities such as Sydney or Auckland?

AM: Clearly climate change and oil depletion are the two most pressing issues affecting the future of our cities. In fact, they are really the same issue because liquid carbon is being converted to gaseous carbon that warms the planet. James Hansen at NASA has written recently that we are experiencing a forcing effect and the planet is warming quicker than all the previous modelling had predicted. For politically stable waterfront cities like Auckland and Sydney, this means rising sea levels and an influx of climate refugees in the future. Food security and water supply are the next issues that will escalate for urban settlements.

IFLA50: Have you had a hero or mentor, or a significant influence, and, if so, what have you learnt from them in particular?

AM: I would say that Le Corbusier has had a significant influence on my design aesthetic. He pioneered modernism and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. 

The 50th International Federation of Landscape Architects World Congress, being held in Auckland between 10-12 April, 2013. More information here.