Emily Paech & Kathy Trelease | Adelaide Spring 2023

Our conversationalists for this episode are Emily Paech and Kathy Trelease. Emily is a landscape architect at TCL and one of the Creative Directors for the 2023 Australia Pavilion La Biennale Di Venezia, Unsettling Queenstown. She is passionate about developing dialogue around First Nations knowledge and the built environment. Kathy is a founding Director of Eeles Trelease and brings many years of experience working on complex and large architecture projects in Sydney, London and China.

In this engaging episode, our speakers cover a wide range of topics, from the importance of meaningful part-time roles and life balance, to Kathy’s formative time at the Ruth Tuck Art School, and the enduring relationship between art and architecture.

They explore the benefits of undisciplining or cross-disciplining, “cutting down those boundaries between different designers in particular, but all disciplines”. Kathy reflects on the Sydney Olympics as a powerful example of this approach in action, describing how it helped transform the city.

Emily reflects on her work on the exhibition Unsettling Queenstown, for the 2023 Venice Biennale, which focused on the intertwined themes of decolonisation and decarbonisation. She describes the collaboration with artist and scholar Ali Gumillya Baker as a central and enriching part of the project. Kathy shares insights from her work designing for people living with dementia, highlighting the complexities of balancing safety, appropriate care, and procedural requirements. “It’s complex.”

This episode was recorded live on Kaurna Country at the 2023 Adelaide Spring Salon. Held at Brickworks Design Studio on 24 October 2023, the Salon was organised by Alison McFadyen. Photos: Benjamin Liew

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