Environment Archives • Orterra

How can Urban Farming help save our Environment

October 30, 2023November 23, 2023 administratorEnvironment, Infrastructure, Property Development and Commercial

Feature Image courtesy of https://www.futurewild.com.au/ Urban farming is defined as “an industry located… within a town, a city or a metropolis, which grows or raises, processes and distributes a diversity of food and non-food products”. It has been suggested that urban farming may be a solution to some of our problems. The environmental impacts of urbanisation have become a growing concern across Australia and the world. It is predicted that by 2050 the functional capacity of cities will need to support over 70% of the world’s population increasing the environmental impacts of urbanised centres. In Australia, the spread of urbanisation […]

Water Sensitive Urban Design

October 2, 2023November 17, 2023 administratorEducation, Environment, Infrastructure

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a concept that’s appearing more and more in local government planning policies across Australia, and rightfully so. It’s a concept that Orterra have embraced for many years because it just makes sense, for the environment as well as for the individual projects we design and deliver. Did you know that Biodiversity is one of our key values as an organisation? You can see all of our values and how we define them right here, but basically, our work has a focus on improving, rehabilitating and regenerating the biodiversity and the environment of our projects. […]

The Role of Environmental Design in Preventing Crime

July 3, 2023October 22, 2023 administratorEducation, Environment, Infrastructure, Property Development and Commercial, Residential, Tech

Did you know that the design of outdoor spaces plays a significant role in the occurrence of crime? It’s actually a concept we’ve long employed in our work with local government and developers in creating new urban landscapes. It is guided by a set of principles based on extensive research from across the globe. It even has its own acronym – CPTED What is CPTED? Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, is exactly that: creating a space that feels safe, so that people can make use of it. Sometimes referred to as Designing Out Crime, it’s multidisciplinary and integrates […]

The Role of Green Infrastructure in Biodiversity

June 1, 2023November 23, 2023 administratorEnvironment, Infrastructure, Property Development and Commercial

Biodiversity is essential to thriving communities, yet, we are losing biodiversity at alarming rates. Green infrastructure is a way to protect, maintain and increase the biodiversity in our urban landscapes and is one which requires a considered planning and design approach. We wrote about green infrastructure here, but as we shared, there’s no real clear definition. The description most aligned to the Orterra philosophy is this one created by the European Commission: “Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services such as water […]

Teenage Girl Spaces – where do our teenage girls fit?

May 10, 2023October 22, 2023 administratorEducation, Environment, Infrastructure

Teenage girls are in a tricky situation. They’ve well and truly outgrown the play equipment and the public parks earmarked for their age group – skateparks and sports and recreation fields – are undeniably over-representatively taken up by boys, metaphorically and literally man-spreading. The lack of suitable and appealing outdoor public spaces for girls is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that we are determined to address in our work as landscape architects. Research tells us that girls use spaces to chat, socialise, linger and connect. Girls schools are leading the way in creating outdoor areas with multi-level […]

The Year That was 2022

November 29, 2022November 25, 2022 debbieAbout Orterra, Education, Environment, Garden Design, Infrastructure, Residential

It’s been a year- this has been a challenging year hear at Orterra. We have had some amazing highs and some lows. We have been a bit quiet on the blog front lately. I know we generally like to give your great content consistently however, we have been very busy creating some amazing designs over the last few months for our clients and as we don’t like to provide you with terrible content hence we have let this slide a bit. But don’t worry we have been planning and there are some great things in the pipeline for next year. […]

Weeds and How To Tell If You Have One?

September 21, 2022October 9, 2022 debbieEnvironment, Garden Design, Property Development and Commercial, Residential, Tech

For many gardeners and non-gardeners, the notion of weeds is that they are this very bad thing that grows too fast and makes the place look ugly. However, the issue of weeds is more complicated. They cause a lot of damage to our natural environment. They cost billions of dollars a year and have a large impact on our biodiversity. What is a weed? The definition of a weed is “a plant that grows very quickly where it is not wanted and covers or kills more desirable plants” Basically, it is a plant growing where you don’t want it to […]

Why is Biodiversity so Important to Orterra?

May 18, 2022January 24, 2023 debbieAbout Orterra, Environment, Infrastructure, Property Development and Commercial, Residential

If you have been following us for a while you might have seen us harp on a bit about biodiversity. It is one of our core company values. Our value states that “We promote, campaign and defend our environment and improve, rehabilitate and regenerate the biodiversity and the environment of our projects.” The 22nd of May is Biodiversity Day we love this time of year as it is a great way for us to really celebrate our environment. It is a time for us in the office to really think about what biodiversity means to us and our work. How […]

5 Of the Easiest Plants to Propagate by Water and How to Do It

April 21, 2022April 21, 2022 debbieEnvironment, Garden Design, Residential, Tech

Propagation is a fantastic way to multiply your plants, without spending any money! Water propagation has to be one of the easiest ways to do this. Here, we will guide you through the steps to rooting your plants in water and we will give you 5 plants that you could use. What plants can you propagate? There are many plants you can propagate by water cuttings, these are 5 that we believe have the best results. Pothos or Devils Ivy – Epipremnum aureum Philodendrons Monsteras Arrowhead Plant – Syngonium podophyllum Wandering Jew – tradescantia pallida What do you need? You […]

Three Things to Think about when Building Around Trees

December 10, 2021December 10, 2021 debbieEnvironment, Infrastructure, Nature Play, Property Development and Commercial, Residential, Tech

Mature trees have so many benefits we have talked about before including shade, habitat, and character to name a few. When you are building or renovating it is important to keep as many trees as possible. Today we are going to talk about three things you need to be aware of when building around trees. 1. Damaging the Trees Roots A tree’s roots are where they get all of the water and nutrients from. They have a network of roots that can extend way beyond the canopy of a tree and not only provide food but support for the healthy […]