STUDIO

Jala is a landscape architecture & design practice interested in plants as spatial, architectural and cultural material.

Based in Melbourne / Naarm and working across Australia, the studio designs gardens and landscapes in close conversation with architecture, place and the people who inhabit them.

Our work begins with the particular conditions of a site. Existing vegetation, climate, soil, architecture, histories and patterns of use become the framework from which each landscape develops. Rather than treating planting as something applied to a finished space, we use it to make space: establishing scale, enclosure, movement, atmosphere and change.

Planting is central to the practice. We work with diverse palettes of native, indigenous and exotic species, selected for their horticultural suitability as much as their spatial and seasonal qualities. Gardens are considered as evolving communities rather than fixed compositions, becoming richer and more evocative as they mature.

This approach extends beyond drawings. Plant procurement, nursery relationships, specimen selection and placement on site are part of the design process, allowing the landscape to respond to the character of individual plants and the realities of what is available.

Jala works collaboratively with clients, architects, designers, horticulturists, growers and landscape contractors from early design through to installation, making landscapes with a strong sense of place where architecture and planting are understood as parts of the same environment.