Future landscapes of memory: three years of collaborative tertiary design studio teaching in Perth, Western Australia

This presentation reflects on a three-year collaboration (2023–25) between the Metropolitan Cemetery Board and the School of Design at Rockingham Regional Memorial Park. Here, Master of Landscape Architecture students developed innovative masterplans addressing contemporary challenges of cemetery design, memory, and memorialisation through research, fieldwork, mapping, and design exploration. Harkening back to the elemental origins of Landscape Architecture as a discipline, students engaged with landform as well as the intersection between future ecology and existential inquiry, to create personalised designs underpinned by creativity and scholarly rigor. Guided by industry feedback, the partnership sought a new horizon for Research, Innovation, and Practice (RIP), highlighting new approaches to designing spaces of remembrance and the evolving role of landscape architecture in shaping memory.