Episode description

In PlanningxChange episode 99 our guest is Alex Fenech, a landscape architect based in Florida. At the time we recorded the interview Alex was a Vice President at EDSA (https://www.edsaplan.com) one of America’s leading landscape and urban design firms. 

Alex is the past President of ALSA Florida (American Society of Landscape architects) - https://www.aslaflorida.org/AboutFL

In a wide ranging interview Alex talks of the many parts of a landscape architect’s role. These include not just technical knowledge such as soil types and nutrients, drainage and plant characteristics but also an understanding of how people relate to settings. Alex outlines that ‘people’ are not one standard type but that there are social, cultural and generational differences on how we perceive our environment, and the landscape design needs to understand the variety of user experiences. He talks of the need to plan for the life of a landscape environment in terms of care and maintenance, which is often overlooked.

Alex discusses the considerable amenity uplift that well considered landscaping can provide to a variety of settings including as a ‘link’ between buildings, town and city image and the improvement that well curated landscaping can have on heavily used transport corridors. A number of EDSA projects are mentioned as examples.

He talks of understanding the client brief and the skill in ‘steering’ a client to possibilities they might not have expected. There are a number of examples he provides in America and overseas where landscaping and urban form produce outstanding sensory perceptions.

In Podcast extra or Culture Corner (a segment inspired by the ‘London Calling’ podcast), Alex recommends ‘Drain the Oceans’ shown on National Geographic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drain_the_Oceans), this program considers the ocean floor using underwater scanning systems that bring new insights into archeology and sometimes challenge conventional wisdom. 

Jess praises the movie ‘The Lost City of Melbourne’. https://www.thelostcityofmelbourne.org which considers many of the demolished buildings of Melbourne which in contemporary times would obtain heritage listing. Her second ‘extra’ is the book ‘The couple upstairs’, by Holly Wainwright https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761263071/. ‘Writing with both a light touch and vivid intensity, Holly Wainwright explores love, regret, whether you can stop history repeating, and whether or not you should.’

Pete talks about his life long interest in bushrangers and the website: https://aguidetoaustralianbushranging.com.

Audio production by Jack Bavage. The episode was released on 28 October 2022.