Past Programs
Gardening and Landscape - 2005
Russian Parks and Gardens
19/11/2005
We go to a part of the world where the climate is extremely harsh, so you wouldn't imagine that horticulture and garden design would be an important part of life there. Some people might think of Russia in terms of the magnificent architecture and interiors of its onion-domed churches and gilded palaces, but Russia has a rich history outside of the window. Russian Parks and Gardens is a wonderful new book that traces 800 years of garden design there. Geraldine Doogue talks to the author, Peter Hayden, about his research as a garden historian.
The Perfect Glass of Wine
19/11/2005
Ben Canaider's The Perfect Glass of Wine is a book about how the world of wine really works. It's an account of Canaider's world trip, as he attempts to find wine perfection in France and Italy, California, New Zealand and Australia's industrial wine heartland.
This week, Ben talks about his book, why he's skeptical of Penfold's Grange, why he doesn't like to see wines given marks and why he welcomes the revolution in pink wine.
Healing Gardens
15/10/2005
If you've ever spent time in hospital, or you've even been sick and restricted to your bed at home for some time, you've probably experienced an acute feeling of disconnection from the outside world. Generally if you get the chance to at least look out onto some vegetation and see the day unfold, it makes you feel a bit better.
Well this important healing connection that humans have with nature has been the subject of research by scientists over the last 30 years, and today some architects and landscape designers of hospitals are taking up their ideas in their designs.
Ian Forbes is an architect with Woodhead International and has just finished work on one of the largest healing gardens in Australia, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Woodville, west of Adelaide.
WWII and Home Read Transcript
13/08/2005
We've had a huge response to our request for letters about our listeners' memories of their lives during the difficult times of World War II. And, not surprisingly, what many people have written about are the very basics of life: their homes, gardens and the food they ate. The eminent historian Michael McKernan joins Alan Saunders and Geraldine Doogue to read out some of the letters and explore what day-to-day life in Europe and Australia was like.
Peter Walker
09/07/2005
The International Federation of Landscape Architects gathered in Edinburgh on 29 June 2005 to celebrate and honour the lifetime achievements and contributions of one of their members.
The Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Gold Medal is the highest award that can be given to a landscape architect and recognizes the recipient's unique and lasting impact on the welfare of society and the environment. It is the first year this award has been given by the IFLA under the auspices of UNESCO. Peter Walker, from the landscape architectural firm Peter Walker & Partners, is the winner of the Gold Award and Geraldine Doogue talks to him about his distinguished career and how he sees our relationship with nature developing in the 21st century.
Afterlife of Gardens
02/07/2005
We have, in the past, looked at many gardens, but we've tended to limit ourselves to the vision of the designers and the restoration of their original plans. So what have we been missing? Well, when you visit famous gardens like Versailles or Claude Monet's Garden, even though they may have been meticulously maintained, you're likely to see them very differently from the way their creators intended, or countless other generations of visitors have seen and understood them.
So, to right the imbalance, we have a close look at gardens from the point of view of the visitor. Alan Saunders talks to John Dixon Hunt, a very distinguished garden historian who has examined responses to gardens over time in a wonderful new book called The Afterlife of Gardens.
Urban Trees
25/06/2005
We have a look at the value that is given to trees in our urban environment by individuals, councils and managers of large public parks and gardens, and explore the tricky question of managing trees in heritage landscapes.
There is no denying that urban spaces are enhanced by trees, whether they are avenues along suburban streets, ancient stands in botanical gardens or an individual tree in a backyard. So what happens when those trees are under threat from the natural process of aging, horticultural mismanagement, or a squeezing of available land? Ian Innes from the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust and James Weirick, professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of New South Wales discuss the cultural importance and management of trees in the city with Alan Saunders.
Tropical Trees
28/05/2005
We go to the tropics to take a close look at some of the magnificent private and botanical gardens that have been created there by one woman. Margaret Barwick was born in New Zealand but has spent much of her life living on islands in the Caribbean, the South Pacific and in what is called "the warm heart of Africa" - Malawi. She's created a countless number of important gardens in these places and from her experiences she's compiled a comprehensive encyclopaedia about Tropical and Sub-tropical Trees that's unrivalled in its scope and detail. Now, Margaret Barwick has recently visited Australia so Geraldine Doogue talked to her about her passion for tropical plants and garden design.
Home Affair: Apartment Gardens
28/05/2005
Home Affair is the part of the program where we explore new ways of thinking about a particular aspect of our domestic environment. This week we have a look at the some of the changes that are being made to the landscapes surrounding the apartment buildings that are springing up in our cities. A lot of attention is given to the building itself: is it sustainable, does the ground floor relate to the street, but there are also important considerations that apply to the gardens. Geraldine Doogue asks Sacha Coles, the director of the landscape architectural firm Aspect, to describe his innovative courtyard solutions.
Al-Azhar Park in Cairo
14/05/2005
Recently (25th March 2005) His Highness the Aga Khan and Her Excellency Madame Suzanne Mubarak opened a new 30 hectare park in the centre of Cairo. Al-Azhar Park is a massive project not only because of its size in a city with one of the lowest ratios of green space to urban population in the world, but also because of the restoration of historical monuments and the rejuvenation of the surrounding neighbourhood that resulted from cleaning up and greening this inner city site.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which focuses on the physical, social, cultural and economic revitalisation of communities in the Muslim world, formed partnerships with international, national and local NGOs and institutions to make this park possible. Alan Saunders talks to Cameron Rashti, who has overall responsibility for the Al-Azhar Park, to find out more about what it looks like and how it has impacted on the residents of Cairo.
Desert Gardens
02/04/2005
How would you describe a garden? A few trees, shrubs and some annuals, perhaps a fountain and a bit of lawn, somewhere to sit in the shade and relax? These aren't uncommon requirements, in fact they may even be hard wired into our brains, from our earliest beginnings in the temperate environment of the African savanna. So what happens, when a few millennia later, we're faced with living in or near a desert? Is the only possibility to enclosure a bit of green space so we feel more comfortable? A conference at the National Library in Canberra took a close look at how people have modified their traditional ideas about gardens, particularly in dry environments. And one of the participants, William Fox, has spent much of his career contemplating the complex ways that desert landscapes, human cognition and history collide to create our perceptions and treatment of those places.
Home Affair: Water Wise Gardens
19/02/2005
This week, we'll be looking at water conserving gardens. Now many local governments have put restrictions on when and how we can water our gardens. Suburban sprinklers left on the lawn are a thing of the past and magazines and gardening shows on TV have been encouraging us to plant natives. Geraldine asks Tony Wilson, landscape designer and lecturer at Ryde Horticultural College of TAFE, if this is all we can do.
HomeAffair - CLADDING
12/02/2005
The next in our HomeAffair series, where each week an architect, or someone from the building industry, gives us their views about a particular feature of our homes.
Now if you were brought up on the story of the three little pigs you were indoctrinated early in life into believing that a house of bricks was far superior to a house of sticks or straw.
And certainly in Australia bricks have been viewed for many years as a more prestigious material to clad a house in than timber or iron.
So it's time to have a rethink about house cladding.
Home Affair: Tiles or Tin?
29/01/2005
The first in our new series, Home Affair, where each week architects - or other professionals working in the building industry and landscape - will have their say about our relationship to some particular feature of our domestic environment.
To kick it off, a disucssion about one of the most ubiquitous features of suburbia, the humble roofing tile.
Architects Without Frontiers
29/01/2005
When the call went out for volunteers to help in Tsunami-affected areas it wasn't surprising to hear that people with medical expertise were needed, as were engineers. But there was also a call for architects to assist in the rebuilding of communities.
Quick to repond was Australia's own Architects Without Frontiers, which now has people on the ground in Sri Lanka looking at how Australians can work with local architects in the massive task ahead of rebuilding coastal communities.
Architects Without Frontiers was founded eight years ago to help rebuild communities that have been devastated by war, social conflict and natural disasters.
