Landscape (design) futures: setting a context for continuing dialogue?

How do we define an evolving role for the discipline of landscape architecture in the context of changes in tertiary education and professional practice? Where could its future lie? Acknowledging the multi-disciplinary nature of landscape architecture practice that requires an expanded oversight of contemporary practice and scholarship, this paper explores debates in contemporary issues faced by the discipline in the shifting, often conflicting practices in both higher education and the delivery of landscape architecture amongst other built environment professions. Framed around discussions at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning (ABP) at the University of Melbourne and based on dialogues with various stakeholders from the landscape and allied disciplines - academics, practitioners, students - the paper synthesizes future possibilities in repositioning the profession as well as strategic and tactical synergies between academia and practice.