Dr. Sue-Anne Ware FAILA
Associate Professor, RMIT University, Landscape Architecture Program
Dr. Ware is a Associate Professor of landscape architecture and co-ordinates research across five disciplines in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She is also a program leader of the Urban Liveability Program at the RMIT Design Research Institute.
The Urban Liveability Program is a design research project that engages with and challenges ways to consider the urban form. Embracing the notion that a single urban form may not be appropriate to meeting the conditions resulting from climate change and population growth, the project seeks a plurality of approaches and a plurality of scales of engagement in order to present society with future design scenarios which respond to the effects of environmental and social change on urban and landscape forms.
Her exhibited work, awarded built projects, curatorships, and professional publications, have also contributed to a growing discourse in landscape architecture, spatial intelligence, and design research. Landscape architecture has very few refereed publications, (seven at last count) hence, practice based researched tends to be peer reviewed through professional awards, exhibitions, and professional publications. Dr Ware’s design research work, while having important scholarly impacts, is also valuable in how it contributes to the professional community and the public at large.
More specifically, SueAnne was co-organiser of the Memorials to the Stolen Generation Competition (2001-2002) in conjunction with the Museum of Victoria. She co-authored the brief, received a $30,000 grant from the Sydney Meyer Foundation, liaised between various Aboriginal groups, acted as a member of the jury for the competition, curated the exhibition, and reviewed the work for publication.
SueAnne’s design work entitled An Anti-Memorial to Heroin Overdose Victims was featured in the 2002 Melbourne Festival, received $30,000 Graham Foundation Grant, and won a national design award from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (2002).
Another recent memorial project, the Road as Shrine (2005), was selected for exhibition in Victoria’s State of Design Exhibition (2005) and also received a national design research award from the AILA.
Her most recent project, The SIEVX Memorial, Canberra (2007-2008) examines the plight of a group of 400 refugees, mainly Afghan and Iraqi women and children, who drowned off the coast of Australia. It was recently awarded a National AILA award for design innovation and citation for socially responsible design and is featured in 1000X Landscape Architecture.
Previous work includes, A Moment in Death: A Memorial to Victims of Gang Violence and received a national merit award for research from the American Society of Landscape Architects. It is also featured in Landscape Narratives by Jamie Purinton and Matthew Potteiger.
SueAnne also curated several major exhibitions. Most recently co-curated with Julian Raxworthy, Sunburnt: Australian Practices of Landscape Architecture (2009) is an exhibition of contemporary Australian landscape architecture projects. Sunburnt debuted at the 2009 AILA National Conference, Melbourne and then toured to National Design Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT. This exhibition is touring internationally in 2010.
The curatorial framework provoked discussion about different ways of thinking about landscape architectural practice and discourse in Australia, compared to both the mythologies of the Australian landscape, and its particular urbanism. This exhibition constitutes a research outcome in that it is the first exhibition of its type in Australia, in the premier gallery for Australian Design. The selection of key works in terms of their sustainability, social responsibility, and enduring nature as public realms which are unique to Australia was also a substantial research contribution.
This exhibition highlights how landscape architecture in Australia is leading the profession in terms of resilient landscapes which endure and thrive in our diverse climatic conditions.
Dr Ware’s contribution to the field is substantial. In addition to her publications and design work, she review articles for Landscape Journal, Landscape Review, and has recently been appointed to the editorial board of Landscape Australia in addition to reviewing design work and national design competitions in the field of landscape architecture.
She was a visiting professor to the University of New Mexico in 2005 where two of her students won international design awards for their studio work concerning border memorials. She was a keynote speaker at the 2005 American Public Art Conference, addressing the role of landscape and memory and the ephemera of place.
In 2008 Ware gave invited public lectures regarding anti-memorials at the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, The University of Cape Town, and Unviersidad Ibero Americana.
She lead four international design workshops (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007) regarding memorials to undocumented Mexican workers crossing into America.
In 2007 Dr. Ware was invited to be a juror for the International Peace Keepers’ memorial competition commissioned by the National Capital Authority in Canberra.
She was the 2008 Jury Chair of the State of Design Awards in Victoria, the 2009 Jury Chair for the Unbuilt Landscape Competition held by Landscape Australia.
In 2008 Ware was appointed to chair the ICOMOS’s (International Council on Monuments and Sites) contemporary memorial project selection committee.
Lastly Dr. Ware one of a handful of landscape architectural academics in Australia who hold a PhD which focuses on design research and landscape architecture.
October 2010
Selected Works (4 MB pdf)
RMIT University
The SIEV X Memorial: 2008 AILA Award
The Australian Public Intellectual Network