April 2009

President’s Message

Dear Members and Sponsors

As autumn sets in we have a busy time ahead for AILA in NSW with Festivals, talks, and design salons coming up - and of course Nationally with our conference soon commencing (may 7th to 9th down the road in Melbourne).

With less opportunity to spend time lounging on the beach, it is a good time to get involved with all of what is on offer.

Before going into what is coming up, I would like firstly to welcome Kurt Henkel from Hornsby Council to the AILA NSW Executive as our Local Government representative.

With such a large number of Landscape Architects in Local Government - it is critical that AILA is responding to the desires of this group, and it will be Kurt's mandate to bring any issues and ideas to the table.

Workshops

The recent workshop held in March at Sydney Olympic Park – Parks : past present and future - was a fantastic success with over 70 people in attendance. The programme brought together academics (Linda Corkery and Catherine Evans from UNSW ), practitioners (Tony Mc Cormick - Hassell) and executives (Suellen Fitzgerald , and Andrew Ferris) to present the past successes, and the future strategic challenges of our major parklands.

Suellen Fitzgerald presented on the awesome potential of the Western Sydney Parklands (which is 27km in length and 8 times the size of Sydney Olympic Park) whilst Tony McCormick presented a 10 year post-completion evaluation of Sydney's other great contemporary parkland - Sydney Olympic Park.

The subject of the V8's which have recently been given the green(?) light by the NSW State Government to burn through the town centre of SOP was lightly touched on, and somewhat surprisingly there was not more discussion from the floor about how this completely 'off-brand' event could be staged in the heart of Sydney’s “home to the green games”.

This is perhaps something that some of you may have some further comments on....

Salons

Please book in your diaries a place for two events coming up- the first is the second NSW AILA Salon – on 28th April at the Studio of OCULUS. The Salons are a fantastic forum - casual and interactive, and free, with drinks on us.

Talks

On May 6 we will be holding our next AILA Talk at Tusculum - a strategic look at the sustainable initiatives that are being implemented in Melbourne and now Sydney through their respective 2030 strategies.

The talk will focus on infrastructure and public space projects and will bring together Rob Moore from Melbourne City Council, and Rod Simpson from simpson+wilson who was one of the key minds in the City of Sydney's 2030 strategy.

And in response to the tough times the AILA Talks have been reduced in price to $5 AILA member and $10 for non-AILA members.

Smart Light Festival

The Events Committee through Greg Burgon is organising AILA NSW’s participation in the Smart Light Festival which is on from 26 May to 14 June.

AILA is sponsor and co-organiser for the first Smart Light Symposia, on Wednesday Evening May the 27th at Custom’s House. The topic for the evening is Future Cities – Light and Meaning in the City and will be followed by guided tours of light installations in Circular Quay and the Rocks. Speakers for the evening include renowned Landscape Architect Jeppe Aagaard Andersen.

Talk followed by the Light Walk or MCA event. Peter Nowland will be assisting with the tours and brief tour-guides with his local knowledge of the area

AILA members wishing to volunteer as a guide should contact Peter on pnowland@shfa.nsw.gov.au 9240 8500

Weblink to register for Smart Light Symposia
(free, registration essential):

Click here for more Information

Events Committee web page on AILA website

Finally, it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the talks will be web/pod cast so that our regional members can keep actively involved despite the distance, and that we are about to launch a blog page for our talks, workshops and salons so that you can contribute to the conversations and themes they bring up.

Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Sacha Coles