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SBLA Landscape architecture/urban design/art

@sblastudio

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National award winning land architecture, urban design, public art and master planning in Naarm + Lutruwita

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Shady Creek House w @mrtn_architects by @sblastudio

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14 days ago

New merch insitu by @sblastudio

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a month ago

Talks at Planting Party on 5 September at Fed Square celebrating community-led environmental action, art and connection, presented as part of RESET.

🌾 Bringing it back to Country
🕐 2pm - 3pm

Join Shannon from Winsor Kerr (@winsorkerr) and Bede from SBLA (@sblastudio), in a collective deconstruction of the central talks table, made of red bluff sandstone and kangaroo grass mudbricks. While we keep our hands busy breaking down elements of the Conversation table to return to Wurundjeri Country, Shannon and Bede will speak about where these materials of the table have come from, how the table came about, and how its accompanying plants might spark new life at Coranderrk (@coranderrk).

🌾🌾🌾

Bede is a landscape architect at SBLA, as well as a writer and teacher. He writes about plants, landscapes and the strange ways people shape - and are shaped by - the places around them. His writing has appeared in Landscape Australia, Wonderground and Kerb Journal. He likes interviewing people who notice what others might miss, particularly the ways different lifeforms and places become entangled.

🌾

As Co-Founder and Director of Winsor Kerr, Shannon brings more than 10 years of experience in architecture and design, with a focus on developing thoughtful, place-responsive and sustainable approaches to design.

Her work is grounded in an understanding that Country is not simply the setting for a project, but an active part of the design process. Shannon is interested in how architecture can respond to the stories, systems, ecologies and knowledge of place, and how these can shape the way a project is conceived, designed and experienced. She approaches this through collaborative and considered processes that bring together cultural knowledge, sustainability, materiality and the lived experience of people.

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@fed.square and @creative.climate gratefully thanks its partners for making Planting possible: @creative_vic, @creative.australia, @melbournewater and Burndap Birrarung burndap umarkoo collaboration, @nowornever.melb and @landcarevic.

Fed Square thanks their year-round Sustainability Partner @BupaAustralia for supporting RESET. by @sblastudio

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2 months ago

Richmond High School is a great example of material reuse.

When Richmond High was initially built, a funding shortfall meant that the landscape ended up being primarily concrete. After a few years, the school fundraised and worked with the wider school community to develop plans for a new landscape that reflected their values.

Among other things, they wanted a landscape that foregrounded sustainability.

SBLA, together with the school community, Hallmark Landscapes, Aunty Doreen Garvey-Wandin and Emma Capper, decided to retain and reuse the existing concrete on site.

Expanses of the existing concrete were sawn into large slabs, while other pieces were stacked to reference geological strata. The stacks double as planter walls and seating.

Among the concrete planters are coir logs made from coconut fibre, which will biodegrade over time while stabilising the planter edges.

Loose concrete slabs form exaggerated crazy-paving pathways, which have been interplanted with flourishing groundcovers. The permeable paving directs water runoff towards acacia and blackwood seedlings.

Plants flower year-round, with wattle in winter and native daisies in spring. Together with the areas of lawn, these elements create many flexible spaces for play.

Read more about the project in Landscape Australia—link in bio. by @sblastudio

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2 months ago

Not every play space is just for kids

Guide Park Playspace transforms a regional park into a place where generations connect, local history is embedded in the landscape and play brings the community together.

#landscapearchitecture #natureplay #playspace #playspacedesign #publicspace taken in Wonthaggi Guide Park by @sblastudio

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3 months ago

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr we’re at the tail end of Waring on Wurundjeri Biik, the longest of the Kulin seasons (April to July!!) - signalled by Waring / wombats being out and about, male Buln Buln / lyrebirds singing in the mist performing their chilly courtships, and the hearts of Komba’derk (soft tree ferns) being ready to eat. Deciduous trees have exposed their sculptural forms. 🪾

Short days mean time to retreat, reflect, laugh, and tell stories whilst the fireplace roars and warm food is shared. Our studio’s Waring retreat took us to the Macedon ranges and the damp rocky walls of Ngannelong / Hanging Rock. Quickly moving clouds shifted across the horizon, moss was happy, soppy and bright.

Karatgurk / The Seven Sisters are now visible above the rising sun, and if you’ve peeped around on Wurundjeri Biik recently, you’ll notice the first Acacias popping - Guling is just around the corner, so much to look forward to!!!! - Words from Matt and Phoebs keeping cosy in the Naarm office 🌿 by @sblastudio

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3 months ago

Yarraville Green has now moved from town planning approval to construction.

Located on Stephen Street, the project will deliver 53 residences, comprising 41 apartments and 12 townhomes, designed by Six Degrees Architects for Excelon Projects that are organised around a shared central garden. The design integrates town planning principles with landscape to create residential amenity, drawing inspiration from European co-housing models, including Zanderroth Architekten’s Big Yard project in Berlin.

Our DA team hopes this becomes an exemplar of how to design gentle density with generosity and amenity.

Architect: @sixdegreesarchitects
Developer: @excelon.projects
Landscape Architect: @sblastudio
Town Planning: Hansen Partnership by @sblastudio

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4 months ago

Some close-ups of our work 🌿🌿 Featuring Bendigo TAFE Precinct, Richmond High School, Central Park All-Abilities Playground and Guide Park. We collaborated with @orcharddesign on Guide Park 🪁 Photos courtesy of @piercarthew and @copperdoorstudio by @sblastudio

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5 months ago

But first, Country.

@ngvmelbourne
@shannywins
@sblastudio
@nicholascurrie
@matt_muir36
@alchemyorange
@4langridgestreet
@tarrawarrama
@anita.c.king
@jasmine.hocking_
@jerrysvegiburgers
@trouthouse_
@relativeprojects
@jack.gillmer
@brunswickstreetgallery

Photos by @lewirob.dp

#NGV #MelbourneDesignWeek #CreativeVic and #CreativeState by @sblastudio

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5 months ago

Mdw 26 - link in bio

Red bluff sandstone, eucalyptus infused water, endemic grasses all built from a long exploration into the red bluff formation - formed during the Pliocene epoch. It builds on @matt_muir36 research into seasonal harvesting of Boon Wurrung materials and @marni.reti experience in rammed earth and mud bricks. We are making a table and having a party. We think that everything should start with a yarn and a warm cuppa. This is our offering and we’d love you to come say gday. It’s just a start.

Collaborators:
@marni.reti
@matt_muir36
@jack.gillmer
@shannywins
@constructiveworks
@relativeprojects
@anita.c.king
@4langridgestreet
@sblastudio
@trouthouse_
@nicholascurrie
@alchemyorange
@brunswickstreetgallery

@NGVMelbourne and @Creative_Vic, include #NGV #MelbourneDesignWeek #CreativeVic and #CreativeState and the program dates (14-24 May 2026). Melbourne Design Week is a vital platform for emerging and established creative practitioners, offering the Australian design community and audiences the opportunity to engage with a diverse program of talks, tours, exhibitions, installations, and workshops. Melbourne Design Week is Australia’s largest and leading annual design festival and takes place from 14–24 May 2026.

Photo credits mix of Astrid Mulder, @plopon and bk by @sblastudio

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5 months ago

Melbourne design week 2026

But First, Country: An Evening of Connection

One-night gathering centred on food, culture, and connection. The event brings together mob, allies, and supporters in an intimate, welcoming setting that encourages investment in First Nations design futures. Guests are invited to yarn, connect, and celebrate.

The atmosphere is shaped through music, and a curated visual environment featuring imagery of Australian endemic flora. Styling and spatial design transform the installation into a vibrant, sensory experience.

More than an installation, it is a moment of gathering, grounded in joy, storytelling, and collective presence, where people can eat, listen, laugh, and feel good together.

Honestly just come yarn and have fun fuck yas

Link in bio by @sblastudio

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6 months ago

Milaythina kani (mee lie dthee nah – kah nee) - Country speaks

How do we help ground landscapes in time and place?

How do we allow landscapes to speak for themselves again when they have been talked over, or silenced over the last couple of centuries?

The Palawa worldview in Lutruwita (Tasmania) offers a reality where country speaks to us through expression of seasonal changes, weather conditions. Where observations of these expressions are fundamental in knowing how to relate to places in a way that values sustainability and continuation.

How do we approach the notion of milaythina kani in our Lutruwita projects? One way, is understanding the local ecological web - and making sure that we make space for all web members – the notion here being that if we are providing the right plants, exposing natural systems and understanding endemic habitats – we are re-establishing the infrastructure where Country and people can speak to each other again.

A powerful example of allowing Country to speak again, is through the daylighting of urban creeks that were buried in pipes post colonisation. We know that the removal of flowing water from an ecosystem that requires it to function will have serious consequences for endemic species. We also know that no matter how hard we try to appropriate natural systems out of the landscape they are going to eventually come back in a few extreme weather events.

If we don’t allow space for Country speak – it will eventually yell at us.

Every project is an opportunity towards healing ecosystems – and we will always be seeking this opportunity.

(Very grateful for Trish Hodge’s compilation of ‘Palawa tunapri’ for sharing glimpses of Lutruwita ancestral wisdoms, and very grateful for those who carried such knowledge into the present day against all odds) - Delicate words by Matt 💚 by @sblastudio

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6 months ago