The rapidly unfolding implications of the Anthropocene call for new design approaches from all disciplines of the built environment. General principles of sustainability and ecology are now challenged by demands to demonstrate a greater level of complexity and performance. This emphasis is accompanied by a vast volume of Big Data which is increasingly informing the future planning and design of our cities. Data explored with digital tools is central to both understanding the implications of climate change and establishing the solution.

For landscape architecture to work effectively within this realm a shift in design processes and methodologies is necessary. While the discipline has a long history of spatial analysis, it has little experience working with systems and data, demonstrating a tentative engagement with the power of the computational. This hesitancy owes much to the influences of Postmodernism and its associated ‘cultural turn’. This was particularly influential in shaping Australian landscape architecture as the young profession positioned in an emerging post-colonial nation sought to develop a distinctively Australian response to place.

The New Technique session explores how landscape architecture might engage with the potential of digital technologies to inspire new design opportunities. Speakers will discuss how real-time data combined with increasingly accessible software present possibilities to embed systems directly into design methodologies. The capability to model fluid dynamics of wind, water, tides, heat, humidity and pollution integrates an evidence-based approach into design and encourages a more creative engagement with complex systems. These time-based investigations move away from a visual understanding of site to encompass the complex behaviour of systems and phenomena, closing the gap between site, science and design. Showcasing design speculation and constructed projects crossing Asia, North America and Australia, this session will project to a future design practice for landscape architecture better equipped to engage with the environmental uncertainty defining the twenty-first century.