If you are in Melbourne 26 March to 5 April, be sure to visit Melbourne Design Week.

We have a few planty picks for the week!

WILD CITIES

Presented by Wendy Steele, Tess Lea, Hélène Frichot and Ashley Dawson
What does it mean to be “wild” in the 21st century? How is the concept of civilisation grounded in damage and dispossession? If we accept that we are in the midst of a climate emergency what can we do to shift that?  Four new books – Planning Wild Cities: Human-Nature Relationships in the Urban Age, Wild Policy: Indigeneity and the Unruly Politics of Intervention, People Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons and Dirty Theory: Troubling Architecture – explore these interrelated questions and in different ways ask whether we care enough for the earth and each other to reimagine our urban futures.

GUERRILLA GARDENING

Presented by Pam Denton
Drawing on Denton’s short how-to guide for guerrilla gardeners, this tour looks at existing projects and offers tips and tricks for the aspiring and established gardener alike.

CONTENT CONTENT

Presented by Gemma Savio & Chloé Roubert

‘Once emblematic of suburbia, individualism and monocultures, in the context of Australian cities, the lawn is having a renaissance. Throughout the pandemic in Melbourne, like many other cities, the delineation between footpath and grass became the signal for a shift in social dynamic – providing a platform for shared experiences and community. Content Content uses this emergent landscape for cultural and social exchange as a platform from which to develop a vision for collective contentment.

Content Content is an installation that fosters conversation about public space and well-being. The event takes place over three days on the lawns of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria’s Melbourne Gardens. The project facilitators, Gemma Savio and Chloé Roubert invite the audience to become caretakers of the space, and one-another through discussions around the Melbourne Design Week themes of care, community and climate.’

REWILDING THE SKY

Presented by Salad Dressing and Superterrestrial

The notion of Rewilding the Sky emerges from the rise of skyscrapers higher and higher, and in their reflection of our desires. As a result, a trend in landscape design arises – the roof top garden. Building upon this totem of anthropocentrism, the exhibition includes ten rooftops to contemplate what is much more than just a new artificial landscape of capitalism. Five of the rooftops express the current relationship between humanity and ecology, thus reassessing the connection with nature through palaeontology and genomic sciences. Through the extension of a terrestrial bonded landscape, the other five buildings mirror a new connection with the exploration of the “sky and beyond”.