The 2017 International Festival of Landscape Architecture: The 3rd City was launched recently by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects in Sydney in the presence of 200 industry, government and media representatives.
Set to be the largest gathering of landscape architects in Australia, the fourth edition of the festival will be presented in Sydney from 12 to 15 October 2017.
Over 600 landscape architects are expected to attend the two-day international conference on 13 and 14 October at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay. The 2017 National Landscape Architecture Awards (12 October) will be held at the urban sanctuary, The Grounds of Alexandria.
Creative Directorate convener, Professor Helen Lochhead explains that the 3rd City is the future city, which will take one beyond post-industrial urbanisation to ask what is necessary and what is possible for future cities, their people, their ecologies and their spaces.
The International Conference will showcase a mix of keynote speakers and short presentations, which will challenge landscape architects to engage with the diverse facets of the emergent 3rd City.
International keynote speakers expected at the festival in October include:
Hillary Brown (USA)
A Professor of Architecture at the City College of New York, Hillary, as a former Assistant Commissioner, founded New York City’s Office of Sustainable Design in 1997, developing its High Performance Building and High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines. Since 2001, her consulting practice, New Civic Works, has engaged public and institutional clients in greening their capital programs. Hillary is the author of Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post Industrial Public Works (2014).
Nina-Marie Lister (Canada)
The Founding Principal of Plandform Studio with a background in landscape ecology and environmental planning, Nina-Marie has worked in both public and private sectors over 20 years, with developers and designers, policy makers and planners. From the City of Toronto and the Ontario Ministry of Environment to Canada’s National Roundtable on Environment and Economy, her work is known for creative, effective and accessible integration of science and policy with planning and design. Nina-Marie is co-editor of Projective Ecologies (2014) and The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability (2008).
Dr Pierre Bélanger (USA/Canada)
An Associate Professor of Urbanism, Landscape, and Ecology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Pierre was the Curator and Director for the controversial Canada Pavilion and Exhibition ‘EXTRACTION’ at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale (@1partperbillion). Pierre is the author of Landscape as Infrastructure and co-author of Ecologies of Power (2016).
Prof Jeff Hou (USA)
Professor and Chair of Built Environment at the University of Washington, Jeff’s research, teaching and practice focus on community design, design activism, cross-cultural learning, and engagement of marginalised communities in planning, design, and placemaking. Jeff has worked with indigenous tribes, farmers, and fishers in Taiwan, neighbourhood residents in Japan, villagers in China, and inner-city immigrant youths and elders in North American cities, in projects ranging from conservation of wildlife habitats to design of urban open space. Jeff is the author of Messy Urbanism: Understanding the ‘Other’ cities of Asia (2016) and Insurgent Public Space (2010).
