Arcadia has announced Mackenzie Saddler is the recipient of the practice’s Indigenous Landscape Architecture Scholarship at the University of Technology Sydney.
A proud Wiradjuri man, Saddler is currently completing his third year of a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and also works as a mural and installation artist. Arcadia Founding Principal, Alex Longley, says Saddler was the perfect choice for the scholarship.
“With the scholarship program in its fifth year, we are thrilled that Mackenzie has been selected as the most recent recipient. He impressed us from the outset with the work he has done with his Wiradjuri community in Leeton, as well as on Ngunnawal Country, designing murals and installations,” he says.
His personal journey to understand Indigenous culture and history and his willingness to share his experiences make Mackenzie a valuable contributor to Arcadia and our future scholarship recipients.”
Saddler is currently working with Arcadia at their Sydney studio. The budding landscape architect believes rigorous research and understanding the natural sustainable and human flows of a site is crucial to designing a space.
“In my time working at Arcadia, I have been able to build on my cultural knowledge through connections with other Indigenous designers and Indigenous Knowledge Holders,” Saddler says.
“Listening to the Indigenous Community is an important part of my design process as it allows me to bring the relationship that First Nations people have with the land to the forefront when people interact with my designs, and this aligns with Arcadia’s focus on designing with Country.”
Arcadia’s Indigenous Scholarship, established in 2017, seeks to assist with increasing Indigenous representation in the built environment. Scholarships are now available at six universities nationally. The scholarship is now on offer at the University of Canberra, UTS, UNSW, RMIT, the Queensland University of Technology and University of Western Australia.
