Creative landscape inhabitance: the ReGenerate Studio

‘There is a tension in contemporary design studio teaching between the prevailing instrumentality of the ‘learning outcomes’ approach, and the facilitation of student learning through creative experience’ (Satherley 2017:2). This ‘tension’ is notable in those universities which prioritise the preparation of students for employment over their holistic development as designers. It mirrors the challenges faced by many design practices in an environment increasingly governed by economic rationalist imperatives to focus on practical problem-solving, devaluing design speculation and experimentation (Buchanan 2007). In an effort to address this challenge, the Queensland University of Technology undergraduate landscape architecture ReGenerate Studio has experimented with combining creative arts methods with the teaching of practical site planning skills. Since 2014, this studio has been based in a contemporary performing and visual arts venue, Brisbane Powerhouse, which has also acted as the studio ‘client’. The studio brief and teaching strategy are philosophically premised upon Ingold’s concept of ‘creative inhabitance’, in which landscape is continuously re/created through a process of ‘incorporation, not of inscription’ (1993: 162). Students are encouraged to explore how landscapes are created more through what we do within them, than by what we put upon them: i.e. to design from within rather than without, and to prioritise design process as much as outcomes. As will be illustrated, the student response to this process of creative landscape inhabitance has been largely enthusiastic. Studio teaching staff and visiting design practitioners have also observed that the degree of creativity and landscape-specific responsiveness of student work has increased in comparison with the same studio in previous years, while still meeting the practical skills consolidation required by the prescribed learning outcomes. This chapter further outlines the ReGenerate Studio teaching strategy, and discusses a selection of student experiences and projects to illustrate how it has encouraged significant creative studio learning