ANDREW
CHRISTIE AILA
Landscape
Architect |
His fascination
with garden design while undertaking a horticulture course in Sydney
led to Andrew Christie becoming a Landscape Architect.He went on to
study at the (then) Canberra College of Advanced Education, now University
of Canberra, graduating in 1986.
"I realised that
I was enjoying the design aspect of the horticulture course that
I was doing part time and went straight from that to the full time
course at the University".
He had previously
worked as a stage hand and then camera man at Channel 10 for several
years and thought horticulture seemed like a good alternative.
He
took geography, technical drawing and commerce at school, which
fitted well with his horticultural studies for Landscape Architecture. "Having
been in the work force for a few years I enjoyed the design studio
atmosphere at Canberra where we got to be creative and play with
coloured pencils and textas.
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project
work illustrated by 'Out In The Open' |
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Andrew and his
wife Cath Renwick ran a small practice called Out
in the Open. Although they create housing designs and urban
parks, they specialise in interpretation in landscape contexts, working
with national parks in particular. "We interpret sites, and design
visitor facilities including masterplanning for tourist drives, picnic
and camping areas and lookouts."
"Landscape Architects
play a major role in what happens outdoors and have the potential
to shape the way our society places itself on the land. As professionals,
we consider all the influences on a landscape when we are planning
and designing.
The
difference between Landscape Architecture and Architecture is that
each design is unique, becoming part of the site and responding to
its topographical and environmental issues."
"We
use CAD (computer aided design) extensively as we find it very
efficient to use.
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project
work illustrated by 'Out In The Open' |
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One of the most
memorable projects Andrew and Cath worked on was at a national park
with an important Aboriginal cultural site on the south coast of
New South Wales. "This was very interesting and satisfying, but
it involved a steep learning curve as the brief kept changing because
of the complex cultural issues.
We worked closely
with an Aboriginal ranger who is also a senior community man. This
was the first job we had done like this and we learned a lot about
collaborating with communities which we have been able to apply in
subsequent projects."
"We now do quite
a lot of work with Aboriginal communities. Cath has written a
book with the Wreck Bay community in New South Wales on plant use
and early life in the community."
After graduating,
Andrew worked for the National Capital Development Commission in
the ACT for a year and went to London to work for a large international
firm. "They had a large building in the city with four floors
of landscape architects - it was the largest grouping of landscape
architects I had seen outside a national conference we had an
Australian ghetto on the top floor.
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project
work illustrated by 'Out In The Open' |
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After a year, Andrew
returned to Canberra and worked for Australian Construction Services,
which was responsible for many of the government buildings in Australia
and embassies overseas. Although he travelled within Australia he
was often designing for sites he had not seen in places like Hanoi
and Pohnpei.
Andrew is proud
of the design of the courtyards at the R G Casey Building that
houses the Department of Foreign Affairs, completed during his
work with Australian Construction Services. "It was a large and
complicated project which stretched out over a number of years
- I think it worked out well in the end."
Andrew
returned to study and obtained a Graduate Diploma in Resource
Management from the University Canberra in 1996 and he and
Cath began their own firm in 1997.
Currently he
is finishing off a project to rehabilitate a public housing area
in suburban Canberra. "The complex original plan has led to
social problems in the public spaces. We are working closely
with the architects re-arranging the streets and open space to
overcome issues of crime, to make the open space more visible
and give the houses a better address to the street.
We are improving
the streetscapes and reinstating the streets as public realms not
just places for cars but places for people use and interact
in."
2009 update - Andrew is now an Associate with JPW in Sydney
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