A ‘Love Letter’ to the Garden

Teresa Moller is a renowned Chilean landscape architect with an internationally acclaimed practice that has been presented at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and recognised with awards including UNESCO’s 2020 World Award for Sustainable Architecture. But despite her many achievements, Moller was surprised to be invited to be part of the jury for the National Gallery of Australia’s National Sculpture Garden Landscape Competition.

'I was surprised to be invited but it’s very much an honour,' she says. 'I’ve learned how very special this place is for Australia and the Garden brings so much to the context of the Gallery.'

Moller’s approach to landscape architecture was informed by her experiences growing up in Chile, under the Andes Mountains and by the Pacific Ocean. 'I always had a connection with this very strong natural landscape, and I always found it so strange when gardens and other spaces tried to be something that was not [conceived] of what was already there. I think I was just born with an obsession [to understand and experience] the essence of each place.'

This ‘obsession’ is what Moller suspects led to her invitation from the Gallery. 'My work has always been founded on bringing value to what already exists, and everything starts from there. The consideration of the essence of each place is the starting point in all my work, evaluating and enhancing that, to bring people into nature.'

The jury were unanimous in their decision to nominate CO-AP Holdings as the winning team. For Moller, it was the team’s commitment to keeping the original spirit and essence of [original Sculpture Garden designer] Harry Howard and his team’s vision for the Sculpture Garden that most struck her. 'It aims to keep alight that magic, that special essence that has been growing here for years.'

'Their presentation was very impressive. They started by showing their love for the Garden. It was a love letter but also a very professional proposal. It was both things and that’s very special because sometimes you get a lot of love but it’s not possible to make it work in reality, as happens in other projects. But you can see in their very detailed drawings and images that what they’re proposing is a very delicate, elegant plan and looking at it, you can see how respectful they are with the place.'

Moller, and fellow jury members Nici Cumpston OAM and Philip Goad, found starting each day in the Garden, with its 'glimmers of magic', to be a valuable, grounding experience.

'You see all the ways in which nature expresses herself. It’s in the shade, the leaves, the wind. It’s also in the fact that you can wander and not know where you’re going and then things happen around you—birds, other life—and then art in the midst of all that. It’s just paradise.'

Understanding our relationship to nature and the inherently social function of gardens is a driving concern for Moller in how she thinks about landscape. 'I have this statement that "we are nature" and because we’re nature, we belong here, and when we’re not in the landscape, we’re lost. We don’t know who we are or what we’re for. In my work I look to bring people to nature because that brings them back to themselves. That’s why we feel so good when we’re in a garden or forest.'

In CO-AP Holdings’ plans for revitalising and connecting the Sculpture Garden, Moller notes the way they have designed it as a series of interconnected landscapes with different ‘rooms’ and spaces that allow for moments of discovery. 'Designing a sculpture garden, you have to think about places for the sculpture as well as the planting materials and you can use the plants [as CO-AP Holdings have done] to bring people from one space to the next … that mix of art and nature becomes very special and that’s why the work has to be taken so seriously and with such care.'

The jury also spent time in the galleries and Moller found [lead National Gallery building architect] Madigan’s iconic, brutalist building to have a strong proposal and presence. 'I can imagine visitors coming to the Gallery and being in this strong building and then you need to go into nature to digest everything you have been seeing and feeling, to have time for yourself to incorporate the experience of the Gallery and to incorporate what you have around yourself in nature and art there, too. I think that’s why I see the Garden as having such a unique place in the world.'

The commitment to celebrating Australia’s biodiversity is also part of that uniqueness. 'I come from Chile, where we have significantly fewer species [of trees and flowers] when compared with Australia. There’s a huge, unique and beautiful biodiversity here that I don’t think is so well-known elsewhere.'

Moller thinks that it is the mix between the collection, the Gallery, and the Sculpture Garden that will ensure the new designs are internationally significant. 'With all the native planting, all the heritage elements, all the origins, as well as these new design elements, I don’t know if you can find something like this in any other part of the world. I’m thinking of MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre, Tate ... there is nothing like this.'

Further information on the National Gallery Sculpture Garden Design Competition is available here.