Emeritus Professor
Helen Armstrong

Biography

Founding Director: Cultural Landscape Research Unit (UNSW, QUT)
 Australian Landscape & Sense of Place (1978-1985)

In 1985, The Cultural Landscape Research Unit was established whose aim was to define and document the cultural environments of Australia and their resultant landscapes.  Work in this area was undertaken mainly as historical studies to develop contextual guidelines for planning and conservation.
Heritage Landscapes & Migrant Place-making (1986-present)
In the early 1990s research addressed professional and community perception of environmental heritage and how effectively legislation conserves natural and cultural heritage.  This lead onto extensive work with migrant communities in Australia looking at immigrant place making, including heritage values associated with such places (Armstrong).

In 1987, a large research project was undertaken to identify the cultural significance of the landscapes of Queensland.  This project, Contested Terrains, explored ways of analysing meanings and values embedded in landscapes and management models for large scale heritage landscapes (Armstrong, Sim & Seto).

Australian Landscape Design Ethos (1986 – present)

In 1986 a series of videos was initiated documenting profiles of 20th century Australian landscape designers.  Two videos in this series have been completed (Armstrong & Burton).  Other projects have involved identifying seminal influences on current landscape designers and their practice (Armstrong & Mossop).

Cultural Pluralism in Australian Designed Spaces is a new project identifying the hybridity within the designed public places of Australian cities (Armstrong).

Design Partnerships (1987 – present)

In 1987 the importance of cultural values and community meanings was recognised as components of sense of place.  Research projects were initiated to identify community values related to place using community art projects based on the Common Ground movement in U.K

Applied research on collaborative design within selected rural and urban communities, Creative Village, was undertaken from 1992 – 1996 (Armstrong, Le Lorenzo, & the Arts Council of NSW).

 

Creative Works as Research (1997 – present)

In 1997, the concept of the Refereed Landscape Studio was introduced.  This has been applied to graduate landscape design studios.  A set of templates for these studios have been developed and applied.    This has led to a focus on the senior design studio as a site of research through design (Armstrong & Robbins).

In 1998, Creative Works as Research was introduced.  The first project has focussed on Phyto-remediation of toxic sites as environmental art (Steiner & Armstrong).

Marginal Landscape Interpretations (2006-present)

Research into the interpretation of marginal landscapes began in 2006 with a study of the peri-urban landscapes in Australian cities and the zwischenstadt of Austrian towns and cities.   This has culminated in a book  Marginal Landscapes

Mapping Urban Resilience in Riverland Sydney (2013-Present)

This is collaborative research with members of Institute of Culture and Society, UWS.  We are focussed on temporary urbanism in Western Sydney with a particular focus on contemporary Commons

Cultural Contradictions in Heritage Landscape Interpretation (2013-present)   

This research is being done in collaboration with Professor Han Feng, Tongii University, Shanghai where we are comparing Western concepts of aesthetics with Chinese perceptions of aesthetics as it applies to heritage landscapes.