Layered Landscapes: Links between Brazil and Australia after the Second World War

ABSTRACT The modern garden in Australia after the Second World War reflected international design movements along with new appreciations of the country’s indigenous landscapes. Conservation activities and concern for environmental quality expanded in the face of the development boom’s insatiable quest for resources and unprecedented threats to natural systems. The Australian profession of landscape architecture, institutionalised in 1966, emerged in response. An uneasy association of planners, architects, horticulturalists, foresters and others stemmed from sometimes vastly different standpoints that remarkably coalesced around singular points of reference. One possible source requiring clarification is the work of Brazilian landscape architect and artist, Roberto Burle Marx (1909–94). Evidence suggests that Burle Marx’s alluringly graphic landscape designs struck a chord, sometimes very clearly, influencing Australian designers such as John Oldham (1907–99), John Stevens (1920–2007), and Karl Langer (1903–69) in their landscape designs surrounding freeway interchanges, atop office block car parks, and for tourist resorts alike. This gave their practices a leading edge. In other instances, connections between Burle Marx and Australian founders of the profession were merely subtle traces, and the subliminal influence instead sheds light on the character of the Australian profession rather than overt derivations.