Taking a long-term vision, with Andrew Neighbour
Andrew is a Landscape Architect and Director of LatStudios, a multidisciplinary urban design and landscape architecture studio. He is an award-winning designer, with more than 15 years experience working in Australia, the Middle East, China, Fiji, and South-East Asia. He shares what he loves about cities and the change he’s witnessed over the past 20 years.
What do you love about cities?
Cities are complicated. I think there's something to love in that complexity. Cities are like any ecosystem; there are creative and exciting memorable moments. Cities around the world have shown to foster art, live music, engineering, innovation, architecture, trade, food and culture. Cities are rarely static, and despite their scale, they're still fragile.
What change have you seen in cities over the past 20 years?
I think the idea of change in cities is a really interesting concept. Having travelled a lot in the past 20 years, I'm conscious that change doesn't just apply to the city I live in. Around the world, cities have witnessed rapid change. This change has to do with the climate; with the mass shifts in manufacturing and trade; and the flux in populations. A city's resilience, in face of change, has been front and centre for me during my career. We talk about change, theoretically, but actually seeing that change first hand, really brings to the fore just how fragile our cities are. Change isn’t always for the better. If you asked me what has changed in cities in the past 18 months, my response would obviously be very different! The pandemic has changed more than just people's ability to work from home. As an urban designer and landscape architect, I see great potential in solving some of the problems our cities are now facing – whether it’s the provision of quality, open space or natural systems within cities; improved active transport options and increasing ways to connect. Accessibility and the quality of open space networks in cities can also provide cities with a layer of resilience.
“A city’s resilience, in face of change, has been front and centre for me during my career.”
What makes for a great urban ancestor?
I think to be a great ancestor, or to be a great steward, you've got to understand where you are and where a site is. In terms of legacy, that may just be a fleeting moment, in which we have an opportunity to be thoughtful, brave, proactive. To understand where we should go, we need to understand where a site has come from, and how people have engaged with it, and loved it. We need to understand the story of the land; the Indigenous stories of that land or the site that you're working on, and what it has meant for others, for many, many generations before us. I think this is critical for how we think about, and approach the design of future cities. As a profession, we’re wired to care about the land plus the roles that environment and ecology play in human systems. A lot of what we do is stewardship; we are very conscious that we are creating spaces designed for now but that have to be resilient for future generations. There's always a balance between working within the short term and having an eye on the long-term horizon. But the challenge with taking a longer-term vision, is that not something tangible you cut ribbons on today. So I think as a society we need to be brave enough to be long-term thinkers and be prepared to really invest in our legacy. Being able to shift to a long-term mindset is really a gift.
What’s your parting advice for emerging practitioners?
If I had one piece of advice it would be ‘just be brave’ – I still need to remind myself of this! I feel like there’s growing risk aversion, which maybe justifies why we don't do things sometimes. But being brave, I think, can transcend you and at any point in your career, you can push a boundary or push the needle to make great change.
