Take a look around, all around your school, workplace, bus stop.
It’s all been designed, and I’m not just talking about buildings and indoor areas I’m
also talking about gardens.
So if you love natural spaces and the outdoors then hang around, because I’m gonna have
a chat to a landscape designer
Let’s say you want to build a playground, you go to the landscape designer and say
“I want a sandpit with a fort, underground bat cave and a slide”
So the landscape designer compiles information about the site such as ground soil, vegetation,
shape of the land and how people move around
Then they’ll sketch up drawings, site plans, reports and then oversee the construction
process
Today I’m catching up with Tim Davies to see what it’s like being a landscape designer
Tim!
Jesse!
Mate I got a couple of questions about being a landscape designer, I heard you’re my guy
Sure, let’s go outside and have a chat
So Jesse what is it that you’d like to know?
Well first up, why did you choose to become a landscape designer?
I grew up on a station north of Canarvon and I really just fell in love with the land.
I decided to a horticulture apprenticeship up at Kings Park and that really just cemented
my love of the landscape
So when you’re on a project, can you list from start to finish what you do?
The most important thing is to have a conversation with our clients and really get to know them
and understand how they’re going to use the space
Then what we do is we sort of go through putting together an initial plan, then a budget, then
a final plan and then a lump sum fixed cost.
Typically that process will take a couple of months from the initial discussion through
a design phase and then starting the works and completing the works
Cool, and now an easy one, what’s the best part of the job?
The best part of the job is going back and seeing the space where they’ve really used
it really well, the barbeques nice and dirty the paving is all scuffed up, the lawns been
a bit trashed the kids are really using it, footy in the corner and they’re really using
the space and enjoying the space so that for me gives me a real buzz
Awesome, now on the other hand, what’s the most challenging part?
I think the most challenging part is getting it right
In listening to the clients and delivering something that really works for them
So you got to sort of negotiate your way through understanding both a husband and wife’s
wishes, understanding how the family dynamics work and then delivering the end product
That’s also the most rewarding part, when you get it right and everything looks fabulous,
the clients are really happy and they really use and enjoy the space
We’ve come a long way from just pencils and rulers so what other software and equipment
do you use?
We use autocad and sketchup, we can do a flythrough of the projects so we can 3-D the whole project up
It’s really awesome to be able to refine
the design and just give it a tweak and get it as good as we possibly can and an awesome
tool to communicate the vision through to the clients
Alright well before I let you go how about we do the edge?
Awesome
They need to be spatially aware, they need to be passionate about what they do, they’ve
got to be a great listener and a great communicator and they need to be able to be very good at
design and drafting
So creativity comes into it as well If you can list from school to today, what
steps do you need to take to get to where you are?
You need to do a horticultural apprenticeship or a horticultural training so there are certificates
of horticulture, diplomas of horticulture and also in design as well
That can be done through TAFE
A really big part of what we do as a landscape designer is autocad drawings and sketch up
drawings so you’ve got to be really competent
And last one, if you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about being
a landscape designer, what would it be?
If you’re passionate about it, go for it
Beauty, awesome thanks Tim! I know you’re busy so I’ll let you get back to your pencils
and rulers
Excellent, I’ll be pencilling away
Well, there you have it.
If you’re an artistic person with a bit of creativity then maybe landscape designer
is the career for you
Head to the career centre website for investigation, exploration and planning your next step