Simone Bliss, senior landscape architect at TCL, has worked on a range of not-for-profit projects both nationally and internationally.
Her portfolio includes the implementation of a framework plan for Melbourne University, the National Arboretum Playground, Canberra, and the masterplan and community consultation for a new wildlife sanctuary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Architecture & Design spoke to Bliss about the National Arboretum Playground project, falling ill while working in Ethiopia and why she wished she had designed Plaza España in Adeje, a small town in Spain.
What projects are you currently working on?
A series of outdoor spaces for an international University in Ho Chi Minh City and a Cemetery in Victoria.
What challenges have there been with the projects and how have you approached them?
We value site specificity quite highly so want to ensure that the university design outcome is pertinent to its Vietnamese context. It’s a little tricky as the university itself is an international campus, so tailoring the outcome to all staff/student needs is a challenge.
For example, the use of lawn in a Vietnamese context differs to a western sense. Lawn is seen as a backdrop, an object that is highly manicured and therefore not inhabited in the same way as a western setting. The university programmed an area of lawn for an outdoor cinema event. Half of the students laid on the lawn, while the other half dragged over tables and chairs or sat on the adjacent path. The design needs to be sensitive to these cultural differences.
Another challenge is sourcing local materials in Vietnam, from Australia. We have teamed up with a local landscape architect to help us during the design development stage to ensure we understand the local materials and construction process as much as possible.
Can you tell A&D about the National Arboretum Canberra playground project?
Pod Playground was inspired by the National Arboretum 100 forests, a concept of housing rare and endangered trees from all around the world that can grow in Canberra’s climatic conditions.
Within the Arboretum sits a large copse of cork oaks. This copse was planted in 1917 at the instigation of Sir Walter Burley Griffin and has been periodically harvested for cork ever since. The playground takes inspiration from this forest of oaks and has catapulted their acorns from their forest floor to land atop of a hill, somewhat larger. Here they rest, taking on anthropomorphic qualities.
The acorn area of the playground consists of the storm acorn, the scary acorn, the lookout acorn, each themed with customised play items such as portholes with insects, thunder sound panels, rain and hail tubes and wind chimes. Kaleidoscopes sit within the lookout acorn, perched five metres above the ground balancing elegantly on its kneed steel posts.
The playground aims to pursue wonder, imagination and enchantment. It was designed to encourage flexibility and spontaneity in play. We set ourselves the challenge of designing a customised playground inclusive of as many play items as possible to see how far we could push it.
The toddler play area draws inspiration from our weird and wonderful native flora. Glass reinforced concrete Banksia seed pods rest within a sand pit with Banksia seed 'lips' attached to the external forms, inviting children’s curiosity to these strange looking creatures. Toddlers are invited to dig, bury and make noise. Bamboo chimes, bongo drums and a thongophone animate the play structures.
It was an incredibly rewarding project to be involved in and I feel privileged to have worked with such talented artists and fabricators, Agency of Sculpture and Big Fish to fabricate and deliver the acorns and Banksias.
What has been the most interesting project you have worked on in your career so far?
In 2008, TCL undertook a masterplan project for a wildlife sanctuary devoted to animal welfare in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mistreated, rescued and recovering animals were brought to this site for rehabilitation.
We visited the site for three weeks with a team of animal specialists and the client, Born Free Foundation. We detailed lion habitats, circulation systems and tested options on how to keep the animals separate to the visitor experience. The secondary principle to housing animals was to provide education to the Addis Ababa and surrounding community through interpretive trails and visitor centre programs.
Whilst we were there, we all caught some sort of lurgy, taking it in turns to fall ill. I was told by the groundskeeper of the sanctuary that I was sick because I had smelt the scent of cheetah - not a sentence you want to hear when you’re laying flat on your back surrounded by wilderness, with nothing but a cushion to protect you!
Landscape projects can sometimes take year to develop and can look quite different from the day it's completed to 12 months down the track. Are there any landscape projects you have seen that you initially disliked but later visited it again and saw it differently?
Landscape projects definitely have varying lengths of maturity. They are constantly changing, something which we have to consider in the early design stages. I wouldn't say that there were projects I disliked initially. There are, however, projects that I fall more in love with at each visit.
The Arboretum, for example changes dramatically through the varying seasons and won't be at its peak for many, many years. Each forest has a specific pattern relating to a fact of its species. This fact is an embedded cultural/scientific or social story that gave us a way to layout all of the forests in relationship to their microclimate requirements. Every time I visit, a new pattern reveals itself, providing a clue of what is to come.
What is one urban space you wish you had designed and why?
Plaza España in Adeje, a small town in Spain, by Fernando Medis Architects. What I admire about this project is the lateral thinking displayed by the designer and his ability to listen to the community. The architect was given this site to create a sacred museum. He chose to morph the brief a little and designed the museum underground.
By demolishing the existing building, he revealed a grand view to the adjacent mountain ranges and created a large plaza to host events and celebrations for the township, which according to him, was a much needed gathering space for the town.
If you weren't a designer, what would you be doing?
Perhaps studying zoology and its relationship to bio-mimicry. I saw a talk recently by architect, Michael Pawlyn and found him very inspiring.
Image: Brett Boardman
