© Andrew Saniga

Mr. Andrew Saniga is a lecturer in landscape architecture at the University of Melbourne and is currently undertaking research into the history of the profession of landscape architecture in Australia. He writes:

The plan drawings included in the Edna Walling collection are of great importance for landscape architects. As a component of design teaching in landscape architecture at The University of Melbourne, we ask the students to study these works first hand for the quality of design and the expression attained through watercolour and ink pen rendering. In an educational environment increasingly dominated by computer graphic technologies and the expediency of three dimensional rendering, the Walling plan collection challenges students to consider the extent to which design expression is informed by the graphic medium itself. In some instances, when viewing the Walling plans, it is indeterminable which comes first; the logic of her planting scheme and associated design or the very act of layering watercolour and of physically pushing paint across paper. It is strikingly obvious that Edna Walling's two dimensional plan drawings are highly evocative of the physical quality of her gardens in maturity. For all those interested in designing landscape, the collection is a reminder of the importance of the art of design.

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