National Arboretum Canberra

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The National Arboretum Canberra comprises 100 forests of endangered tree species from around the world on a 250 hectare former fire ravaged site. The project was won by Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL), in collaboration with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, through an international design competition held by the ACT Government in 2004. Perry Lethlean, as a Director of TCL, led the implementation of this project. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project redefines the meaning of a public garden in the 21st Century. Growing out of the very real issues of sustainability, biodiversity and public environmental concern, the National Arboretum is a strategy, a program and an ongoing event. The 100 forests not only provide a unique experience - the pleasure of being enveloped in a forest of one species - but are also seed banks for the future. As it develops into the future, the National Arboretum continues to build links across the world, an exchange of knowledge and actual plant material that works towards reversing the planet's loss of biodiversity. This project demonstrates Lethlean's contributions to contemporary design processes that connect to a site's context, its specificity and nuances, including its cultural and environmental qualities, and garden design that elicits meaning and interpretive experience for the public. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: This project was awarded 'Landscape of the Year' at the 2014 World Architecture Festival. It also received top honours from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture (AILA), including the 2014 Australian Medal for Landscape Architecture; 2014 Sir John Overall Award for Urban Design; 2011 Victoria Medal in Landscape Architecture; and 2011 Award for Planning in Landscape Architecture. From the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), it received the 2014 ACT Canberra Medallion. It has been critically reviewed in professional journals Landscape Architecture Australia and Architecture Australia, amongst others.