Mapping Edges is a transdisciplinary research studio that explores the relationships between ecologies, people and the urban environment.
Welcome to the planty universe.
ABOUT:
At Mapping Edges, we study the relationship between plants and people and what it tells us about the past, present, and future of the urban environment. Our work is both framed and informed by plant-based ecologies – what we call the ‘planty universe’. The ‘edges’ in our name refer to the idea of edge or ecotone as a transition zone between different ecosystems. Elements from these ecosystems make edges rich in biodiversity.
As researchers, we work at the ‘edges’ of research disciplines – design research and ethnography – and methodologies to cross-pollinate new ideas. We have a particular in interest in both recombinant and civic ecologies and their role in how we design cities to respond to the growing challenge of the climate breakdown.
OUR TERMINOLOGY:
What are recombinant ecologies?
Recombinant ecologies are ecologies that only exist because of human intervention, either deliberate or inadvertent. In Sydney, for example, recombinant ecologies include the banana, papaya, and dragonfruit plants that populate suburban gardens and verges.
What are civic ecologies?
Civic ecologies are the result of deliberate, actions that make connections between people in a particular place. Community gardens, verges tended by residents, and seed exchanges are examples of civic ecologies. Civic Ecologies can make alliances between country, communities, individuals, organizations, local govt, plants, animals, soil, and water.
Our Projects
The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecology (2021)
The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecology aims to produce a map of the civic environmental practices happening within Sydney’s Green Square precinct.
Mapping Marickville (2018)
Marrickville Walks produced a series of print-on-demand booklets about the edible gardens of Marrickville. We explored this environmentally and culturally diverse suburb on foot.
PUBLICATIONS
On Countermapping and codesigning with more-than-humans
This chapter is published in Feminist Designer, On the Personal and the Political in Design Edited by Alison Place, The MIT Press Book Details
DOWNLOAD pdfEdge
Published in Environmental Humanities, 2023, 15, (1), pp. 164-167, Duke University Press As a concept, edge has multiple intellectual genealogies, from ecology to business studies and cultural theory.1 In each field it has slightly different connotations, but it maintains a basic shared meaning: it signifies a transition zone between different systems. In this lexicon entry, we explore […]
DOWNLOAD pdfPlace-based methodologies for design research: An ethnographic approach
The debate about place has long intersected with design studies. Our contribution to interdisciplinary design is to facilitate a dialogue between design and human geography. Grounded in Doreen Massey’s conceptualisation of place as the interrelations of diverse powers, processes and practices, this paper combines ethnographic methods and examples into a succinct place-based methodology for design […]
DOWNLOAD pdfPlanty Design Activism: Alliances with Seeds
In cities across Australia and elsewhere, individuals and groups are experimenting with initiatives to link urban dwellers to local ecologies and strengthen the relation with and awareness of the environment. Community and street gardens, bush regeneration working bees, botanical and bird-watching expeditions in city parks and green areas are examples of this renewed interest in […]
DOWNLOAD pdfThe Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies
Civic ecologies are stewardship activities that combine care for the environment and care for place. The Green Square Atlas of Civic Ecologies shares stories of environmental champions who live and work in Sydney’s Green Square precinct, along with simple tips to green and nourish your neighbourhood no matter where you live. The Green Square Atlas is […]
DOWNLOAD pdfRosemary in roundabouts, lemons over the fence: how to go urban foraging safely, respectfully and cleverly
Published in The Conversation and The Guardian Does anything beat the experience of finding a wild mulberry tree and stuffing a handful of fresh juicy berries in your mouth? Have you ever roasted potatoes with a sprig of rosemary taken from an overgrown nature strip?
DOWNLOAD pdfLATESTS POSTS
Haberfield Garden Competition 2024
Since our 2018 project documenting environmental stewardship practices connecting the gardeners of Haberfield, we have volunteered as judges of the Haberfield Association’s Garden Competition, this year for the category ‘Whole Gardens’. Presentation night was 22nd Monday at the local library. to share the resilience, generosity and innovation of gardeners. For the whole garden catetegory, we […]
PhD Scholarships available
PhD scholarships available with Mapping Edges as part of the ARC Discovery Project ‘Surfacing urban wetlands in two urban renewal sites in Sydney’ Fully funded for 3.5 years full time Email CV and cover letter to Alexandra.crosby@uts.edu.au by 8 April 2024. Successful applicants will join the research team sharing knowledge between partners, with milestones for […]
Following Sydney’s water: visualising socio-ecological relationships
We are absolutely thrilled to be starting on a new project in 2024. This Discovery Project is funded by the Australian Research Council. Wetlands are an endangered ecosystem globally. We aim to foreground, explore and reconnect with wetlands in Sydney. The project builds on research undertaken in Water Stories, using a similar methodology (including walkshops, […]
Pedal Set Go
Mapping Edges has collaborated with Pedal Set Go on a free Guided Ride of Water Stories. The tour is based on the living archive of Green Square. Professional guides show riders the bicycle friendly ways to explore Water Stories that maps the history and practices of water around Green Square. ‘Not only will you never […]
Mapping Edges at Livable Cities Conference
In June, we travelled to New York to present at the Livable Cities Conference, covering architecture, design, city planning, health, technology, urban economics and social policy. We presented our paper ‘Civic Ecologies in Green Square: Beyond urban renewal, towards caring for Country’ on a panel about Sustainability and Society.
Bell frogs, dugong bones and giant cauliflowers: water stories come to life at Green Square
Sheas Creek runs into Alexandra Canal. Photo: Ilaria Vanni, Author provided Ilaria Vanni, University of Technology Sydney; Alexandra Crosby, University of Technology Sydney, and Shannon Foster, University of Technology Sydney Did you know the Sydney suburb Rosebery was home to the now-endangered green and golden bell frogs? That enormous cauliflowers were nourished by fresh water […]
Water Stories: Exhibition, Walkshop and Rizzeria Workshop
107 Projects, Green Square, Joynton Avenue Creative Centre, Zetland. Join us at 107 to launch Water Stories, an exhibition of the archives as estuaries of Green Square. Joynton Avenue Creative Centre 3a Joynton Avenue Zetland, NSW 2017 Wed., 16 November 2022, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm AEDT You can register here or just turn up Walkshop: 19 November […]
Launching the Water Stories website
Did you know there is habitat for endangered frogs in Rosebery? Did you know there was once a violent cauliflower gang roaming the streets of Waterloo? Did you know dugong bones were found during excavation for the Alexandra Canal? These little-told histories are surfacing this week with the launch of Water Stories, a collaborative research […]
‘May you always taste the sweetest fruit’
Ilaria Vanni Shannon Foster, University of Technology Sydney; Alexandra Crosby, University of Technology Sydney, and Ilaria Vanni, University of Technology Sydney Sydney’s Green Square is one of Australia’s biggest urban renewal projects. But it’s much more than a construction site. First Nations people know it by another name: nadunga gurad, or sand dune Country. For […]
Action on SDG 11
The University of Technology Sydney, where Mapping Edges Research studio is located, was one of the first Australian universities to become a Signatory to the University Commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2016. Supporting action on the SDGs at a large university involves getting down to the details of research projects like […]