In front of 200 industry, government and media representatives at The Calyx, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney on 28 March, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architect’s 2017 International Festival of Landscape Architecture: The 3rd City was launched. The Festival will be presented in Sydney from 12-15 October 2017 and aims to attracts over 3,000 participants across 30 industry and public fringe events.
The two-day International Conference (13 & 14 October) which will attract over 600 landscape architects, will be held at the spectacular Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay and the 2017 National Landscape Architecture Awards (12 October) will be held at the urban sanctuary, The Grounds of Alexandria.
“The 3rd City is the future city, a postulation to be mapped, tested and debated,” says Creative Directorate convener, Prof Helen Lochhead, “The 3rd City will take us beyond post-industrial urbanisation to ask what is necessary and what is possible for future cities, their people, their ecologies and their spaces.”
The International Conference will showcase a mix of keynote speakers and short presentations which will challenge landscape architects to engage with the diverse facets of the emergent 3rd City. The first announcement of international keynote speakers was revealed at the Launch, including:
The 2017 Creative Directorate is convened by Prof Helen Lochhead, Dean of UNSW Faculty of Built Environment, with UNSW Built Environment, Landscape Architecture faculty Catherine Evans, Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard and Mike Harris in close collaboration with Mark Tyrrell (TyrrellStudio) with the support of Dr Scott Hawken (UNSW MUDD Program). Prior to her appointment as Dean, Prof Helen Lochhead held a number of influential positions at Sydney Olympic Park Authority, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, and was most recently Deputy NSW Government Architect.