Interloping and its consequences: poaching, opportunism and making mischief in the design of public spaces

The projects that I’ve described in this dissertation have all been procured from the brief of a client. My professional work demonstrates that the field in which I operate in undertaking these projects is the commercial practice of landscape architecture, an activity often contingent on the permission of others. In this research, I’ve identified that the problem of commercial practice is the problem of being asked in the first place, that the request to do work is almost always a disappointment because of what it excludes: the sites outside a boundary, the language beyond landscape architecture and the behaviours of someone other than a frequent sub-consultant. A contribution to knowledge in the field is provided in the area of design process through the demonstration of an expanded definition of professional practice – one which operates beyond the conventional definition of a design discipline asked for and framed by a client’s brief and which provides practitioners their own agency over the that brief and the ability to challenge the tropes of their discipline’s engagement with site. With this new knowledge, designers can direct their own agency to transform the invitation to work into a speculative design space of their own making.