Abstract
This two-part paper superimposes current landscape urbanist theory onto practical suburban master planning experience so as to help landscape architects play a more influential role in shaping contemporary patterns of suburban sprawl. The theory and practice described are predicated upon a sense that the incipient movement of landscape urbanism is well suited, but not yet practically applied to suburban conditions. It is argued that the discourse of landscape urbanism needs to define itself more clearly in relation to dominant socio-political and aesthetic movements such as smart growth, green urbanism, and new urbanism. Via the discourse of landscape urbanism, the practice of landscape architecture in suburbia can shift from one of relative superficiality to one of structural influence. The paper first positions landscape urbanism in the context of a wider array of (sub)urban planning and design theories. It then describes and reflects upon a three-year master planning project of a suburban residential development for 40,000 people in Perth, Western Australia. This project suggests that the status of the master plan in relation to landscape urbanism’s emphasis on indeterminacy is a key issue.
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