Recent alumni Virginia Overell blends art with landscape. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in Sculpture and Spatial Practice from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012. Seven years later, she returned to the University to complete a Master of Landscape Architecture. Both times, she studied as a mature aged student, which she describes as “an absolute joy.”
After a creative childhood, and a stint studying photography at VCA, you moved to London in your early twenties and worked in hospitality. Why was that time important to you?
After going straight into art school from high school I realised I wasn’t ready to make the most of the course. I didn’t know myself very well and needed the freedom to find my perspective both personally and for my creative practice. Travelling and working overseas was challenging but I learnt to be comfortable with myself, mostly through spending long stretches of time alone.
At the age of 33, you decided to study the Master of Landscape Architecture fulltime. Why?
A good friend who I was at art school with had gone on to do the landscape architecture course. She was telling me about working on a streetscape design with a Feng Shui master and I thought that was such a fascinating approach. The diversity in how public realm projects can be developed and the resulting variety in your day-to-day work life appealed to me. I didn’t really labour over the decision, I applied for the course and was accepted.
How was that experience?
I absolutely loved it. Being a mature age student with other commitments, I was really disciplined. I had established good time-management skills and perspective. And I met people, like me, who were changing careers from all walks of life like a textile designer, anthropologist, ecologist, teachers. They were amazing and their previous experience was a great form of secondary learning for me. The content was so broad, we covered so much material, and I was never bored.
You’ve been working with Oculus since February 2022. What does a typical workday look like?
I am a Senior Landscape Architect. I work on a wide range of projects, some for the public and some private, including health projects, parks and mixed-use precincts. I also do a bit of work on strategic documents and frameworks. I find the more research-based work exciting. We recently completed a Gender Sensitive Urban Design Framework and Toolkit with PLACE Laboratory, Communication Link and Inhabit Place for the ACT Government which is a practical guide to creating public spaces that are more equitable, inclusive, accessible and safe for everyone.
You were recently awarded the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Victoria’s 2024 Future Leader Graduate Award. What does this sort of acknowledgement mean?
I was pretty surprised. My boss put me forward and didn’t tell me! It’s amazing to be recognised and great to get that positive feedback from my peers and profession. It makes me very proud to be a landscape architect.
You’ve also been a great contributor in terms of extracurricular work such as tutoring, establishing a research collective, working on sector committees, contributing to thought leadership. What do you get out of this?
I am a social person, my favourite part of design is that it is thoroughly collaborative. But I don’t want to get bogged down in the menial side of full-time work. I am always trying to stay engaged in broader dialogues and discussions. Coming from an art background I don’t wait around for formal invitations – if there are discussions or events I want to see happening in the industry I will try to organise them myself.
Most recently I did a project for Melbourne Design Week with Olivia O’Donnell, who I have been putting on exhibitions with since art school. We invited a bunch people to submit a video that reflected on landscape in some way – this resulted in a long collage of contributions, from different times zones and seasons, that all communicated the making of place through everyday use and subjective experience. We exhibited it at MSD but also worked with an amazing graphic designer, Lloyd Mst, who made all the collateral for the exhibition but also created an incredible website so the work could be accessed and continue to live on beyond the short Design Week program.
What advice would you give young practitioners?
The broader landscape community is really generous, kind and supportive so just find what interests you and get involved. As far as advice is concerned, I would tell new and emerging landscape architects to say ‘yes’ to everything, especially to things that scare you.
How do you imagine your future?
The breadth and diversity of projects we get to work on in landscape architecture is one of things that drew me to the profession. So, I don’t want to necessarily start specialising in a particular type of work, though I definitely want to continue to work on projects with public art elements.