REALMstudios featured in AILA-LFA Webinar: Linking Research and Practice to Performance

Last month, REALMstudios’ Curtin Exchange Precinct was featured in the 2024 Landscape Performance Case Studies Program Webinar, hosted by the Landscape Foundation of Australia (LFA) in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA). The recent webinar in September highlighted the project’s outstanding research outcomes and reaffirmed the value of evidence-bas

ed design in creating places that are environmentally responsible and culturally connected.

Our Director Damien Pericles co-presented with Curtin University Sustainability Policy Unit (CUSP) Professor Peter Newman and PhD candidate Issana Burhan. The presentation explored how design thinking and rigorous research can quantify the real-world benefits of landscape architecture. The Curtin Exchange Precinct, delivered as Stage One of the Greater Curtin Master Plan, transforms former carparks and sports fields into a dynamic, mixed-use destination for living and learning.

At the heart of the project lies the 'Living Knowledge Stream' guidance document which articulates the major green infrastructure and Indigenous cultural trail network within Greater Curtin. This is embedded in the landscape design by REALMstudios for Exchange. It also informs a public realm artwork, 'Winin Katidjin Bilya' by awarded Aboriginal artist, Kamsani Bin Salleh that is expressed in the pavement of the Design and Built Environment Building Courtyard. For more information visit: 

https://www.realmstudios.com/curtin-design-and-built-environment

https://www.realmstudios.com/exchange-innovation-precinct

In technical terms, the assessment has measured the following performance outcomes:

- 32% reduction in peak stormwater flow,

- Over 5 million litres of rainwater harvested annually

- 8.5-fold increase in plant diversity, and

- Meaningful cultural interpretation that reconnects people with Country through art, language, and landscape.

The research undertaken through the LFA program validates how design can achieve quantifiable environmental and social returns while deepening cultural understanding. We extend our thanks to the LFA, CUSP, Curtin University, Live-In Learning Consortium and our project partners for their insight and shared vision. To read more about the 2024 Case study, you can read on the LFA website.

In recent winter rains the living stream literally comes to life when sufficient storm water capture triggers release and flow along the rill. This random and beautiful event captured in the video below is only the second time seen by Director Damien Pericles since project completion.