Water, Water Everywhere

BACKGROUND: This piece explores the work of regenerative agriculturalist Dr Charles Massy through an interview essay mode with a focus on regenerative practice and its implications and potentials for the practice of landscape architecture. The piece was commissioned by Foreground for publication online as well as in print form for distribution at the 2018 AILA Festival of Landscape Architecture which was themed “The Expanding Field: Changing the Future of Practice”. The online piece was the ‘most-read’ article for September 2018. This article essay explores a developing body of research in which landscape, as a constructed idea, separates us from our environment – with often drastic consequences for our world. CONTRIBUTION: The interview essay makes contributions and generates new knowledge on several levels. It outlines broad changes in the Australian landscape in relation to water, positioning this within a broader socio-political discourse around climate change, reconciliation and the republican movement. In doing so, the practice of landscape architecture is expanded to understand the agency of practice in broader environmental and societal concerns. Massy’s regenerative practice is positioned as an exemplar of this, avoiding expediency and providing a means through which to understand the implications of practice in building resilience – simultaneously of practice and landscape. SIGNIFICANCE: Foreground Journal is published by Uro Publications in partnership with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects with a broad national disciplinary audience across the built-form and urbanism professions. It is directed by an Editorial Team and Advisory Panel providing analysis on cities, places and the people who create them. It aims to advance debate on the design and development of our cities and public places with engaging, knowledge-based journalism and expert opinion, supported by evidence. The work was commissioned by the editorial team.