Above image: Australian Garden Stage 2 by Taylor Cullity Lethlean, photo by John Gollings. Perry Lethlean, director of Taylor Cullity Lethlean, will speak at Forecast.

When: 16 – 18 October
Where: Festival Hub at State Library Queensland, events at various locations throughout Brisbane.

Whether or not we are conscious of its influence, landscape architecture shapes our perception of public space, informing our sense of place and spatial identity. Well-designed landscapes have the potential to build communities and infrastructure, inviting social engagement while contributing immeasurably to a healthier lifestyle.

Presented by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA), the inaugural Forecast festival will take place in October, bringing together local and international landscape architecture and urban design luminaries for an Australia first event on the banks of the Brisbane River.

The State Library of Queensland will host the Forecast festival hub, designed in homage to Brisbane’s natural features by Melbourne based landscape architects Tract Consultants. The Forecast festival’s creative directors, Diana Snape, Sharon Mackay and Catherin Bull, are excited at the prospect of celebrating the art and skill of place making.

“Forecast brings together architecture professionals, traffic engineers, city-planners from the public sector – it’s a broad range of people whose work crosses into landscape architecture,” says Snape.

“This format is essential because it celebrates the collaborative way in which landscape architects work.”

Being a relatively new profession, landscape architecture practitioners will relish the opportunity to network with their contemporaries and find inspiration at Forecast. The festival boasts a rich program of interactive events and 27 guest speakers, scheduled to instigate healthy debate and provide a platform for constructive public discourse on landscape architecture.

Eminent speakers include US leading landscape architect Julie Bargmann and Perry Lethlean, director of internationally respected Australian landscape architecture and urban design firm, TCL. Landscape architecture enthusiasts seeking an insight into the industry will be enlightened by Forecast’s “Come Back to My Place” events, hosted by some of Brisbane’s most influential urban landscape designers.

The festival will explore some of the industry’s most topical issues, with open discussions theorising the future of the profession, and the importance of sustainable practice.

For more information on the Forecast festival, and a full program of events, visit forecast.aila.org.au.