Landscapes for Well-Being

Landscapes for Well-Being (LFWB) is a transformative, climate-positive initiative that reimagines public school grounds as regenerative, democratic landscapes grounded in Country. Led by AILA Fellow and Registered Landscape Architect Tanya Wood, the project brought together University of Technology Sydney (UTS) landscape architecture and architecture students with high school students, staff, local Indigenous enterprise IndigiGrow, artists, contractors, and community members. The result is an avant-garde prototype for equitable, inclusive, and ecologically rich public space.

Delivered as a real-world university studio, UTS students not only designed but constructed two major landscape interventions in response to urgent social, environmental, and cultural challenges. Stage 1 replaced a colonial entry lawn with over 1,000 propagated plants expertly grown on by IndigiGrow from the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS)—of which less than 3% remains—restoring biodiversity and teaching ecological stewardship. Stage 2 transformed an inaccessible courtyard into a fully inclusive outdoor learning environment, complete with yarning circles, accessible paths, and microclimate-responsive ESBS planting. Both landscapes are now fully accessible, including for support unit students—delivering genuine equality in access. Stage 1 was built in 40°C heat; Stage 2 in flooding rains—each constructed by a dedicated volunteer team who embraced the climate extremes as integral to the learning and cemented their belief - the time for action is now.

This pilot project pioneers a replicable model for community-powered learning that unites tertiary and high school students in restoring endangered plant communities. Already, a local primary school is collaborating with the LFWB team on its own masterplan, and the Fred Hollows Foundation is partnering with the team to regenerate the Fred Hollows Public Reserve. The LFWB approach—combining landscape restoration, education reform, and Indigenous knowledge—offers a world-first blueprint for embedding cultural and environmental sustainability into public education.

All materials were donated, reused, or recycled, proving that low-cost design can yield high-impact, long-lasting outcomes. The project increased biodiversity, improved student well-being, and catalysed a powerful cultural shift: high school enrolments have tripled (2023–2025), the school parent committee is full for the first time in years, and the landscape continues to flourish. Gardening and landscape architecture are now recognised as a school sport, embedding stewardship into everyday life. In 2025, an on-site IndigiGrow nursery will launch, transforming the school into Sydney’s first Urban Agricultural High School and making ecology, enterprise, and cultural knowledge central to education.

The project’s innovation has been widely recognised. Cancer Council NSW is using LFWB as a case study for best practice, and the Government Architect NSW will feature it in the new Design Guide for Schools as a model of climate-responsive, culturally grounded, student-led design.

LFWB powerfully embodies the Biennale’s themes of regeneration, articulation, and transition, and reflects the Rosa Barba Prize’s vision of landscape as a driver of cultural, social, and ecological transformation. This is not merely a redesign—it is a radical redefinition of what public education and landscape architecture can be. A bold, replicable, and resilient prototype for shared futures.