Studio 3/03

Growing Grasslands

Kath Kok and Elly Russell

Studio Description

Victorians are typically poorly informed about the value of grasslands considered by many as weedy, insignificant and a snake-infested fire hazard. Once covering almost a third of the state, grassland now amount to less than 2 per cent of the Victorian landscape. This studio invites students to address this misconception and reimagine a new future for designed grasslands.

Studio Outcomes

Drawing on your skills as a social media savvy generation, the first part of the studio challenges students to develop a media campaign aimed at shifting the public perceptions of existing grasslands. How can grasslands be branded with a new identity? The second part of the studio critically examines the design potentials of grasslands, exploring the experiential, aesthetic, cultural and ecological value of working with grasslands within inner city urban environments.

The studio will be hosted by Arup and run from their Dockland office (students must have their own computer).  A field trip planned for Saturday March 4^th will introduce students to remnant and restored grasslands in the Melbourne region. Guest lectures from in house Arup staff and external specialists will present technical, political, and ecological considerations for working with grasslands as a designer.

Studio Leaders

Elly Russell leads the Arup Landscape Architecture team in Victoria and has a background in a diverse range of award-winning landscape design typologies. She has specialised experience in leading large multidisciplinary teams for complex, mixed use leisure and tourism masterplans and design for destination landscapes. A creative and versatile Landscape Architect with over 15 years’ experience working within high profile, design driven, multidisciplinary environments, Elly can integrate and coordinate a diverse array of disciplines in the creation of inspiring public realm projects, from streetscapes, waterfronts, parks to eco-tourism destinations.

Kath Kok is an experienced landscape architect with over 15 years’ experience in practice, working both internationally and in Australia in garden design and landscape architecture. Kath’s broad project experiences in concept design to construction, across mixed-use development, heritage parks and gardens, landscape character assessments, urban guidelines, master plans and strategic planning allow her to work seamlessly across scale and project types. Kath’s horticultural training and experience with plants in Australia, the UK and the MENA region equip her with the skills to understand planting design, procurement and maintenance in the urban and natural environments, across ecological zones and continents, and a broad understanding of habitats and natural systems across various scales.

Readings & References

• Victorian government found to have failed to protect critically endangered grasslands | Environment | The Guardian
• Victorian government found to have failed to protect critically endangered grasslands | Environment | The Guardian
• This land in Melbourne is worth $11 million. To some, the grassland that was on it was priceless - ABC News
• Victorian Volcanic Plains - Greening Australia - Greening Australia
• Start-with-the-Grasslands.pdf (vnpa.org.au)
• Resources | Grassy Plains Network
• Grassland: A provocation | Landscape Australia
• Turning a Sydney park into a dynamic grassland: Chloe Walsh | Landscape Australia

Schedule
Lecture Mondays 11:00-12:00 in Old Geology B25 (Theatre 2)
Studio Mondays 12:15-18:15 in MSD Room 227

Off-campus Activities
Saturday 4 March / Tarneit, Caroline Springs, and Royal Park

Contact Handbook