Studio 4/01

Studio 1: Cross-scale Spatial Strategies for Ecological Landscape Planning

Siqing Chen

Studio Description

In the process of seeking food, fibre and fuel throughout human history, each of us inherits a legacy and responsibility -- we’re charged with managing environmental changes so that ecology, economy and culture are sustained and advanced. The key to this, from a landscape planner's point of view, is to treat each planning decision as an important part in a cumulative chain of events.

This studio asks a basic question: how to generate robust landscape planning strategies based on credible evidence? Using Melbourne metropolitan region as the case in general and an identified suitable urban growth area in particular, this studio introduces the conceptual framework for regional landscape assessment and planning; and a working knowledge of the GIS techniques applied to visualise demographic, ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic data for ecological landscape planning. Emphasis will be given to idea generation, conceptual design, and formation of integrative and cohesive landscape strategies informed by GIS-based spatial analysis at multiple spatial scales.

Studio Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students will:

• develop a knowledge base of the theories, objectives and scopes of urban and regional landscape planning
• learn the basics of GIS spatial analysis to inform decision making in landscape planning
• develop an understanding of the roles of demographics, ecologies, economic attributes, culture constructs, market forces, public and private stakeholder interests in landscape planning
• understand the data flow in landscape assessment and planning process
• develop skills in applying planning theory to actual sites, and
• demonstrate a basic understanding of opportunities for various disciplines to work together to address issues concerning land use, infrastructure, and natural system components

Studio Leader

Dr Siqing Chen is a senior lecturer in landscape architecture at MSD. Trained in China and the US as an ecologist and landscape architect, Siqing has practiced since 2002 in a range of private and public sector settings in China, US and Australia. Siqing's teaching and research concerns emerging issues of landscape planning, energy landscape, and ecological urbanism. Siqing has published widely on these topics and has supervised more than 20 PhD and master thesis students in these areas including, most recently, MLArch student Cheng Xing’s thesis “Transitioning to renewable energy: An integrated landscape approach” which won the 2019 Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize.

Readings and References

• Steiner, F. 2000. The Living Landscape: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning. McGraw Hill.
• Department of Infrastructure (DSE) (2003). Melbourne 2030: Planning for sustainable growth. Melbourne: Department of Infrastructure.
• Birrell, B., O’Connor, K., Rapson, V. and Hearly, E. 2005. Melbourne 2030: Planning Rhetoric versus Urban Reality. Monash University ePress.
• DPCD (2008). Melbourne @ 5 million.
• DELWP (2017). Plan Melbourne 2017-2050.

Contact Handbook