In the past decade, Australia has faced unprecedented challenges in water shortages due to extreme drought and climate change. As a result, the practice of Australian landscape architecture has had to accommodate and adapt to arid climate, often times in the form of dry landscape designs.
Dry landscaping is increasingly becoming popular for projects in Southern California due to our own widespread efforts to make more water-conscious design decisions. Because our climate and urban conditions are highly comparable to metropolitan Melbourne’s, we can gain much insight from researching Melbourne’s past projects and interviewing some of its leading landscape architecture firms to find out the kinds of experiences and lessons they have learned in applying dry landscape designs to their work.
Goal of Study To explore the field of landscape architecture in greater metropolitan Melbourne and gain new insights on the ecological and aesthetic benefits of applying the art of dry landscape design.
What can EPTDESIGN learn from Australian landscape architecture? How have heavy constraints in water resources helped push their creative limits to seek out fresh, innovative ways to shape Melbourne’s landscapes?
How can we in Southern California better utilize our own dry landscaping resources to create more ecologically sensitive and aesthetically pleasing spaces for our communities?