The latest Utzon Lecture to be delivered by award-winning landscape architect Professor Richard Weller will mark the 50th anniversary of landscape architecture in Australia.

The UNSW Built Environment’s Utzon Lecture, Atlas for the End of the World will be presented by Professor Weller, the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, and also a UNSW alumnus.

Professor Weller’s project ‘Atlas for the End of the World’ uses maps to compare the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity targets for protected habitat with the current situation on the ground in the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots. The Convention has set a target to secure 17 per cent of the Earth’s terrestrial areas as protected habitats by 2020.

Additionally, the lecture will also examine contemporary landscape architecture and urban design using his iconoclastic design and research projects as examples.

Professor Weller is visiting Australia as creative director of the (Not) In My Backyard 2016 International Festival of Landscape Architecture. He will also host the 2016 International Federation of Landscape Architects Asia-Pacific Regional Congress in Canberra.

A widely published author, Weller is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia and former Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre.

The Utzon Lecture ‘Atlas for the End of the World’ will be held on Wednesday, 26 October 2016 (6.30pm) at the Ainsworth Theatre, G03, Ground Floor, Ainsworth Building, UNSW Kensington.