The 2019 edition of the festival, themed The Square and the Park, proposes to investigate the two landscape typologies of the title through the lens of contemporary landscape architectural concerns including design, politics, ecology and management. More details on the Festival to be released soon.
The 2019 International Festival of Landscape Architecture adopts the typologies of the Square and the Park to explore how we conceive, design, fund, construct and manage urban open space in our contemporary context.
This focus is particularly relevant to a Festival held in Melbourne – a city which at various times has had problematic relationships to the Square and the Park. For example, colonial Melbourne emerged from a speculative grid conceived without a civic square, ringed by a series of colonial parks and gardens that erased significant Kulin nation gathering grounds. More recently, the internationally celebrated Federation Square was scheduled for partial demolition to allow the insertion of an Apple global store, stirring debate over the Square’s continuing role as a public space.
This Festival advocates for a greater ambition for designed parks and squares in all Australian cities, conceived to extend beyond an internal professional discussion to reach the broader community, politicians and other design disciplines.