John Williams, a landscape architecture student from RMIT University is the recipient of the 2016 Hassell Travelling Scholarship – Robin Edmond Award.
Given out annually, the Hassell Travelling Scholarship – Robin Edmond Award recognises graduating landscape architecture students who show outstanding potential for future contribution to the profession. The award sends the winner on an educational tour to a destination undergoing significant development or renewal.
Eighteen students nominated by seven participating universities around Australia were interviewed for the award with John selected as the winner for his outstanding research project titled 'The Space In-Between'.
John’s project focused on the highly-industrialised suburb of Brooklyn in Melbourne’s inner-west, which is just 10km from the CBD but has a landscape dominated by quarries, landfill and large industrial estates. Taking a multi-scalar approach to the reintegration of post-industrial sites, John used phyto-remediation strategies to develop a framework for land rehabilitation that supports greater accessibility, diversity and resilience for urban communities undergoing renewal.
The Space In-Between report proposes a new model of an urban park for Brooklyn that will use the naturally cleansing capacity of select plant species to enable a staggered development transition from contaminated brownfield into a productive, mixed-use residential community.
Hassell Head of Landscape Architecture, Angus Bruce said they were extremely impressed with John’s compelling design solution. He adds that the research comes at a time when cities are facing rising pressure to adapt degraded inner-city sites to house and transport swelling populations.
John will be travelling to Amsterdam on the scholarship.
