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Award-winning landscape architect Professor Richard Weller will next week deliver UNSW Built Environment’s Utzon Lecture, Atlas for the End of the World, to mark the 50th anniversary of landscape architecture in Australia.

Weller, the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss his project Atlas for the End of the World, which uses maps to compare the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity targets for protected habitat with what is actually on the ground in the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots.

The Convention, to which 194 nations are a party, has set a target to secure 17% of the earth’s terrestrial areas as protected habitats by 2020.

The academic’s wide-ranging lecture will also examine contemporary landscape architecture and urban design using his iconoclastic design and research projects as examples.

A UNSW alumnus, Weller is best known for creating the Garden of Australian Dreams at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, which attracted controversy for its radical design.

Visiting Australia as creative director of the (Not) In My Backyard 2016 International Festival of Landscape Architecture, Weller will also host the 2016 International Federation of Landscape Architects Asia-Pacific Regional Congress in Canberra.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Weller leads a department perceived by many to be the pre-eminent generator of landscape architectural innovation and advancement. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia and former Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre. He has won numerous international design competition awards at all scales of landscape architecture and urban design. He has published four books and more than 80 papers and is the Creative Director of the interdisciplinary journal of landscape architecture LA+.

About the Utzon Lecture Series: The Utzon Lecture Series was officially launched in 2010 by Jan Utzon, the son of the renowned Danish architect Jørn Utzon. Held on a monthly basis at UNSW, the series focuses on the presentation of ideas from leading contributors of international significance in the design, delivery and management of the built environment.

What: Utzon Lecture – Atlas for the End of the World

When: Wednesday, 26 October 2016, 6.30pm

Where: Ainsworth Theatre G03, Ground Floor, Ainsworth Building, UNSW Kensington

RSVP essential here