Graduate wins top landscape architecture award

Graduate wins top landscape architecture award

An RMIT graduating project has won the national student prize at the Landscape Architecture Australia Awards.

As the devasting 2019 black summer fires ran rampant across Victoria and New South Wales, Emma Croker dreamt she could one day create ecological solutions for a resilient future within the Australian alpine regions.

Six years later, she has been named the national winner of the Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize for her project ‘Feral Futures’: Tools and Tactics to Regenerate Alpine Sky-Islands.

Emma Croker says her project is a response to witnessing first-hand the annual decline of the Australian Alps landscape. Emma Croker says her project is a response to witnessing first-hand the annual decline of the Australian Alps landscape.

Her award-winning work looks to the near and distant future of the Australian Alpine Sky-Islands, the term given to isolated mountain peaks surrounded by lowlands with greatly different environments.

It examines how changes to these fragile environments can be pre-empted and addressed using real-time data with design strategies, emphasising the importance of data-driven, climate-adaptive landscapes.

The plan includes landscaping buffer zones around heritage huts and significant sites to preserve alpine grasslands, specially designed boardwalks that catch invasive seed species off hikers boots and sensors used across these sites to monitor their health.

The snowline and the alpine grasslands will shrink rapidly in the next 75 years. Proposed biodiversity zones, offset from the receding snowline and the trail, create a buffer for the receding alpine grasslands. The snowline and the alpine grasslands will shrink rapidly in the next 75 years. Proposed biodiversity zones, offset from the receding snowline and the trail, create a buffer for the receding alpine grasslands.

Croker said her project was a response to witnessing first-hand the annual decline of the Australian Alps landscape.

“The snow season is getting shorter, the snow line is shrinking, and invasive species and bushfires run rampant,” she said.

Initially uncertain that architecture could contribute positively towards the social, economic, and ecological dilemmas that the Australian alpine regions are facing, Coker said she found opportunity and inspiration doing what she loved.

“The best thing I did for myself was to continue studying architecture and specialise in landscape down the track,” she said.

“As an avid hiker, I believe hiking trails are an opportunity to engage with the landscape and serve as a tool for preserving the retreating sky-islands of biodiversity”.

“Too few landscape architecture projects are rooted in data and science. By overlaying real-time data with design strategies, we can achieve the best possible outcomes for both the environment and its users.” 

Silver Brumby Hut faces the harsh reality of a rising snowline and is proposed to become a camp site in future. A series of buffer zones radiate out from the heritage hut, creating protection from increased fires and containing invasive species. Silver Brumby Hut faces the harsh reality of a rising snowline and is proposed to become a camp site in future. A series of buffer zones radiate out from the heritage hut, creating protection from increased fires and containing invasive species.

Her personal connection to the alpine region and area of interest was supported by her tutors and aided by the cross-disciplinary opportunities offered within the bachelor’s degree.

“RMIT utilises the best up-and-coming technologies to explore the potential of design. Combined with a push for creative outcomes, it lets you address environmental and social dilemmas in your projects,” she said.

During her studies, Croker created not only beautiful landscape designs built for longevity and change in their environments but also developed her own environmental sensors.

The sensors are a new tool that Croker hopes could become a game-changer for architects and industry organisations as they look to design climate-adaptive plans.

“They monitor atmospheric and soil conditions over time to make sure you are actively decreasing the carbon dioxide in the air, increasing soil moisture and decreasing temperature,” she said.

A sloped seed catching boardwalk designed for every campsite catches the invasive seeds from the hikers. The seeds are washed down back into the feral meadows with the next rain, allowing the native species a shot at survival. A sloped seed catching boardwalk designed for every campsite catches the invasive seeds from the hikers. The seeds are washed down back into the feral meadows with the next rain, allowing the native species a shot at survival.

‘Feral Futures’: Tools and Tactics to Regenerate Alpine Sky-Islands stands as an example of how the newest generation of landscape architects are pushing boundaries and connecting new concepts to the discipline.

Looking to her own future, Croker has landed a dream job with Bush Projects which combines her passions for the high-country, wildflowers and landscape architecture.

“We are just a bunch of people who like hanging out with plants. I wasn’t expecting everyone in landscape architecture to be so helpful, caring and switched on to the effects of climate change whilst actively trying to do something about it,” she said.

“It’s such a large focus and one of the reasons I am so happy I studied it.”

 

Story: Jas McAuley

12 February 2025

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12 February 2025

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