
For the next in our Spotlight series, we talk to Henry Robinson, a University of Western Australia Landscape Architecture graduate who is now living in Melbourne and working as a Project Manager at Arup.
Henry has had quite the journey in the years since graduating from landscape architecture, having worked overseas and interstate before making the move to project management.
Here, we chat to Henry about how he got to where he is now, the relationship between landscape architecture and project management, as well as asking about any tips he may have picked up for us along the way.
What’s your current position and how did you get to where you are now?
Since finishing uni I have been really lucky to have had a great range of experiences. I’m currently working in Melbourne as a Project Manager with the engineering consultancy firm Arup.
I graduated from UWA in 2009 and was offered the Jeppe Aagaard Andersen and Oculus Awards for Landscape Architecture. The Jeppe Aagaard Anderson Award gave me an amazing opportunity to live and work in Denmark in 2010. This was huge for my career and winning a Danish AFL premiership with the North Copenhagen Barracudas was certainly a highlight.
After my time in Copenhagen I moved to Melbourne working with Oculus for two and a half years. The office was right in the centre of Melbourne with a great bunch of employees and I was given lots of design and project opportunity.

What prompted you to make the change to project management, and what parallels do you see between the two industries?
After my undergrad I always wanted to further my study. I thought about registering or doing a Masters in Landscape Architecture, but instead opted to broaden my skill base through a 2 year Master of Project Management at RMIT.
Whilst at uni the second time round I eventually picked up some Assistant Project Management work within RMIT, and on the completion of my studies I was offered a place with Arup. Arup is an independent multidisciplinary firm with a focus on sustainability and ‘total architecture’, which is basically the notion that it’s best to integrate all disciplines within a project. This really outlines the complimentary nature of project management and landscape architecture.
Where was your work experience placement during your degree? What did you gain from it?
In fourth year uni I worked at the City of Perth and prior to that as a farm, construction, and landscape labourer. All were very useful.
I loved my time at the City of Perth and was exposed to a range of professionals from tradies to engineers, arboriculturalists to accountants, highlighting to me the complexity of our industry. I realised the importance of cross-disciplinary relationships and how each discipline has a very specific and important role. Improving the human experience was a key philosophy at the City of Perth. I still really value this approach – the importance of always maximising the utility of space.
Can you tell us about some projects that you’ve worked on?
At Arup I’m working on a range of projects including some related to schools and education facilities throughout Victoria.
At RMIT I was assisting on a software project, which aimed to more efficiently manage Work Integrated Learning. RMIT requires all students to have work place experience. Luckily for me, this role didn’t require my average techno skills but instead the people and management skills I had picked up as a landscape architect. Our skills are applicable in a wide range of industries.
At Oculus I worked on a heap of fun projects with GTV9 perhaps being the most memorable. The project involved the redevelopment of the old Channel 9 studios, where Australian TV gold such as The Footy Show and Hey Hey Its Saturday were once filmed, into a funky high density residential precinct. Oculus were involved right from the start and with the guidance of Mark Jacques I was given a heap of design and management opportunity. Seeing this project finished was amazing and also a bit surreal. After working on it for 2.5 years it was no longer a mash of coloured CAD lines in my head and was actually a real thing!

Which issues do you feel are most important for landscape architects to be addressing in Perth and more broadly, in Australia?
I love public spaces and I think they are a huge part of what makes a city cool. Our cousins, the architects, can often be very focused on the object, whereas landscape architecture focuses more on the context. In a sprawling city such as Perth this is critical.
Great landscape architecture understands that public space doesn’t always need to be grand or ornate to be successful. The way we integrate our projects into urban or natural landscapes is extremely important.
Whether on a larger scale, developing wetlands to output clean and treated water back into the Swan, or on a smaller scale revitalising the alleyways of the CBD to increase the flow and complexity of the city, any landscape architecture project should always aim to contribute to the larger context.
Which resources, whether they be books or websites, do you most often refer to?
These days I spend a fair bit of time reading the PMBOK (Project Management body of Knowledge), the BCA or various construction manuals trying to get my head around all things technical.
I love the living aspect of our industry so a copy of Fleming’s Urban Tree Guide, or any botanical books for that matter, are never far. A Sense of Place by George Seddon is a great read for any young WA landscape architects and like many, I often use the Landscape + Urbanism blog if I need some lairy images to help me get a bit creative.
I love the work of Ian Weir and Nathan McQuoid as they have both focused a lot on the Great Southern, my home, and the immense biodiversity in the region. I have always loved the work of Richard Weller and find his use of data to inform design inspiring.
Often I will send an email to or call or text some of my uni or work friends for ideas and always find their combined knowledge and advice incredibly useful.

Which designers, local or international, do you find most inspiring?
My uni friends are a very talented bunch, each with their own styles now working in many different areas and are a huge inspiration. I was lucky enough to have Richard Weller as an Honours supervisor and his depth of knowledge related to landscape architecture and the world in general is phenomenal.
In terms of work experience, Jeppe Aagaard Andersen in Denmark was an amazing first boss, he is very free thinking, well versed in the literature, and really straddles the line between artist and architect.
Mark Jacques at Oculus is an amazing designer, with a natural skill for being able to make things work; he’s also an all-round great bloke. Mark’s designs are multi-dimensional and encourage people to touch and be a part of the space as opposed to just look and admire. My parents have designed and built a few homes over the years too and without any technical training it’s pretty wild to see what they can achieve with a simple set of pencil drawings.

What’s your favourite Australian landscape?
Being from Albany in WA, I’d have to say any of the long coastal walks are right up there, often they are simply just a crushed limestone path following an old fisherman’s track and the landscape speaks for itself. In terms of more humanised landscapes I love the vistas and the amenity of Kings Park and how it provides a rare chunk of the wild so close to the city. I also love the work that has been done by the City of Perth in breathing new life into the underutilised laneways within the CBD.
What’s on your desk?
I’m a pretty big fan of a simple tidy desk so it’s easy to roll out drawings when I need to. I love the black leather Rhodia notebooks so there are a few of those around and I am a big fan of any kind of map/aerial photograph with many pinned to the wall. I have a folder filled with useful sections of the BCA on my shelf and my desktop picture is one I took of a pink snapper up in Shark Bay earlier this year. I have a couple of succulents in water which are near on impossible to kill and considering a few of my friends have taken to calling me “Snax”, predictably there is a tasty little plethora of treats on it as well.
If you could go back and give your first year self-advice, what would it be?
I loved my time at uni and wouldn’t change much, but I think an exchange would have been fun and I probably spent too much time in the computer labs around folio week! A few fellow students went and did a semester or two in the States and Europe, and it was evident from the quality of their work on return that being abroad rapidly grows skill sets and understandings and also sounded like a heap of fun!
In terms of my approach to uni life itself, I would perhaps just manage my time a bit better and reassure myself that the end of semester doesn’t always have to be a mad rush. I think in our industry the notion of a mad chaotic sleep deprived folio week bender is often accepted as the norm, I’m not convinced this should be the case. Efficiency should be encouraged as it’s a great skill to bring with you into the work force and if students want to avoid the rush I’m sure studio coordinators can help improve the project management of studio activities. Working strategically and intelligently over semester is not only healthier but also more conducive to great work.
Also, now I think about it, at Oculus we used to make a lot of handmade models. I was constantly amazed at how descriptive and beautiful they could be, and I definitely could have used these more in my studios.

For you, how did your experience working in the profession differ from the university experience?
I’m sure I’m not covering anything revolutionary here, but the workplace and uni are totally different. The work place is all very real, with less enjoyable ‘reals’ such as strict deadlines, greater consequences and long days. These are certainly outweighed by amazing ‘reals’ like seeing a project built, sourcing real and individual established trees and getting paid.
At uni, there is far more potential for creativity and less focus on feasibility, which is arguably more fun, and with the ability to work at your own pace there’s only yourself to answer to – this can be good and bad.
There is a lot of time for socialising at uni and I think having fun and making friends is a really important part of the experience. With a cohort stretching across the years and the programs of ALVA, the students and teachers I met through UWA have been a huge part of my life both professionally and personally.

Image credits: Henry Robinson (Images 1), Jeppe Aagaard Andersen (Image 2), Oculus (Images 3 – 7)