Simone Bliss is an Australian landscape architect and the founder and Creative Director of SBLA Studio, an award-winning landscape architecture and urban design practice with offices in Melbourne and Launceston. 

Bliss established SBLA Studio in 2016 with a focus on creating socially responsive, environmentally sensitive landscapes that connect people with place. Her work spans a wide range of scales, from masterplanning and urban design to detailed public spaces and custom play environments. She is known for combining ecological thinking, artistic expression and technical expertise to transform conceptual ideas into functional and engaging environments. 

Bliss is an active contributor to the design profession and has served on the City of Melbourne Design Review Panel and other advisory bodies. Her work emphasises connection to landscape and respect for Country, with a strong commitment to collaborative and inclusive design practices. 

She is widely recognised for her creativity, innovation and advocacy for socially and environmentally responsible landscape architecture.

• Fairfield Primary School Masterplan

• Bendigo Kangan Tafe Campus Revitalisation Project

• Keepcup Headquarters, Clifton Hill

• Nightingale 2.0 development, Fairfield

• Deakin University reflection garden

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition, Shortlisted Design Team

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity

• Lilydale High school Entry Precinct and Zoology Building

• Erskine Paddock and Swing Bridge Precinct, Lorne

• The Collingwood Arts Precinct/Collingwood Yards Public Realm

• System Garden Boardwalk, University of Melbourne

• RMIT University Bundoora Campus structure plan (whilst at TCL)

• RMIT A’Beckett Square (whilst at TCL)

• RMIT University Bundoora Pedestrian Spine (whilst at TCL)

• RMIT University Ho Chi Minh City Masterplan (whilst at TCL)

• University of Melbourne Landscape Framework Plan (whilst at TCL)

• University of Melbourne Sports Precinct Masterplan (whilst at TCL)

• University of Melbourne Urban Framework Plan (whilst at TCL)

• Sydney University Darlington Campus Public Domain (whilst at TCL)

• The Australian Garden (whilst at TCL)

• Auckland Waterfront (whilst at TCL)

• Garden for the Future, Bendigo (whilst at TCL)

• National Arboretum Canberra (whilst at TCL)

Esther’s interests stem from the relationships between people and place. She is curious about the complexities of the landscapes we form part of and is fundamentally interested in how our experience of landscape contributes to the way we understand, relate to and ultimately look after the land we live on.

Esther prioritizes strong relationships and rejoices in working together with diverse knowledge-holders and professionals. She believes that beautiful and ecologically rich public space starts with strong, trusting relationships between project team members, the local community, and key stakeholders.

• Description text goeGeelong Bay Trail Revitalization (Enlocus Landscape Architects)

• Rupanyup Streetscape Masterplan (Enlocus Landscape Architects)

• Merimbula Boardwalk Concept Design (Enlocus Landscape Architects)

• Loreto College Masterplan (SBLA)

• Nicholson St Apartments (Kennedy Nolan, SBLA)

• Domaine Chandon Brand Home (SBLA)

• Monash University Clayton - Campus Heart Redevelopment (SBLA)

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity (SBLA)s here

Matt was drawn to the profession through his passion for plants and the overlap of gardening and art. This led to his keen interest in landscape architecture and urbanism due to its positive agency in creating places, spaces, and systems that tell our stories and offer meaningful ways to connect to our world. He is also drawn to the profession’s innovative nature - its ability to solve problems through design to takle some of our world’s most pressing issues. He reckons it’s the best profession in the world.

With skills in planting, ecological design, community engagement, and hand-drawing, Matt has played key roles in designing schools, neighbourhood centres, inner-city public spaces, streetscapes, expansive inter-suburban parks, playgrounds, ecologically informed infrastructural systems, and masterplanned communities.

All Matt’s projects engage a strong emphasis on understanding a site’s history and its unique natural systems towards successful placemaking initiatives and biodiversity enhancement. He is always looking for ways we can innovate our designs and design processes towards sustainable, resilient and socially just outcomes.

• Collingwood Arts Precinct, Collingwood

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition, Shortlisted Design Team

• Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray

• Reimagining Birrarung Exhibition, NGV, Melbourne

• King Island Hub, King Island, Tasmania

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition Finalist

• Loreto College Masterplan, Ballarat

• Motor Accident Insurance Board Rehabilitation Facilities, Tasmania

• Tyntyndyer Cultural Landscape, Beveridge

• Albert Reserve Tennis World, St Kilda

• Monash University Clayton - Campus Heart Redevelopment
  Aro Park, Wellington, Aotearoa/NZ

• Parliamentary Precinct Playspace, Wellington, Aotearoa/NZ

• Hundertwasser Arts Centre, Whangārei, Aotearoa/NZ

• Eastern Porirua Parks Landscape Plan, Porirua, Aotearoa/NZ

• Te Ara Whānui - Kura Kaupapa, Wellington, Aotearoa/NZ

Phoebe Baker is a composer and studio curator at SBLA Studio.

Phoebe is passionate about facilitating spaces and work places that nurture people’s well-being and sense of play. Her extensive experience in the music industry as a performer, teacher, and speaker has equipped Phoebe with a natural ability to collaborate and communicate well with teams. At SBLA, Phoebe facilitates and organises the everyday workings of a group of lovely landscape architects.

When not at SBLA, Phoebe is a performer, volunteer at commmunity radio, and marriage celebrant.

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition, Shortlisted Design Team

• Reimagining Birrarung Exhibition, NGV

• Songwriter - Alpine & Sappho

Colin is an experienced landscape architect， photographer, and graphic designer. He has a particular understanding of the constant dynamic nature of Landscape Architecture, exploring and revealing this through his design approach and methodologies.

He perceives landscape architecture as the agency to address ecological and social issues; seeking innovative ways to bring creativity and heterogeneity into the designed civic / public spaces. Colin’s previous experience in digital media is reflected in his work.

He is highly skilled in graphic representation and visualisations. As well as practing at SBLA, Colin tutors Landscape Studios, Constructed Ecologies and Site Tectonics at the University of Melbourne.

• Bendigo Kangan Tafe Campus

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity

• Erskine Paddock and Swing Bridge Precinct, Lorne

• Lilydale High School Entry Precinct and Zoology Building

• City of Melbourne Green Factor Tool

• Copperfield College

• Legana Primary School

• Nightingale North Walls

• GLM2

• Hoddles Creek

• Footscray Community Arts Center

• NGV Reimagining Birrarung Exhibition

• Kangan Institute Masterplans

• Play and Pond - City Park Launceston

• Mandalay Playground, Beveridge

• Collingwood Arts Precinct

• A New Student Precinct, University of Melbourne (whilst at Glas Urban)

Georgia believes in promoting positive social change through physical space. To her, landscapes hold richly layered histories and she gets enjoyment from collaborating across communities, disciplines and cultures to generate meaningful and site-sensitive outcomes.

To date, her experience spans across playspaces, residential, temporary installations, strategic planning, waterways and master planning. Growing up in regional Victoria, she is passionate about the responsible development of rural and regional areas, and how this may begin to address some of the economic, social and ecological problems associated with climate change. Moving to an inner city home, she is nurturing an ever growing productive garden.

Through her work on the Coastal Resiliency Strategy for East Boston in the United States, Georgia has experienced how landscape architecture can influence positive changes in the built environment at a larger and more enduring scale. She puts this into practice with an approach to creating spaces that builds on context, looking both beyond and into site.

• Hobart Women’s Shelter, Hobart

• Elizabeth Morgan House

  Aboriginal Women's Services, Northcote

• A New Normal, Finding Infinity

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition, Shortlisted Design Team

• Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray

• Billabongs Revegetation & Habitat Enhancement, Coldstream

• Central Park Playspace, Malvern

• Collingwood Community Arts Precinct, Collingwood

• Hobart Women's Shelter, Hobart

• Yellow Rock House, King Island

• NGV Reimagining Birrarung Exhibition, Melbourne

• Larni Yirrip - Dja Dja Wurrung Camping Village (Pollen Studio)

• Balak Kalik Manya - Walking Together (Pollen Studio)

• Moorpanyal Park Masterplan, Geelong (Pollen Studio)

• Castlemaine Health Master Plan, Castlemaine (Pollen Studio)

• Footscray Lions Co-operative Village, Footscray (Pollen Studio)

• Evelyn Street Open Space Renewal, Frankston (Pollen Studio)

• Palais Theatre & Luna Park Precinct Revitalisation, St Kilda (Pollen Studio)

• Coastal Resiliency Strategy, MA, USA (STOSS)

Bede is a Landscape Architect interested in how people perceive and engage with the nonhuman world. This curiosity underpins his design ethos of collaborating with creatures, ecologies and places.

His project experience spans roles at Pollen Studio, as an independent consultant, and as a university educator. For over six years, Bede has taught across both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in design and geography at the University of Melbourne.

Bede also likes to write. His writing has appeared in The Planthunter, Kerb Journal, LA+ Magazine, and Smith Journal, among others. He shares his ideas through public speaking, with presentations at the MPavilion (2021), the International Festival of Landscape Architecture (2019). His 2021 collaboration with architect Vishnu Hazel was exhibited in the Salon des Refusés as part of the LA+ Creature international design competition.

At home, Bede tends to a front yard full of unusual vegetables and a flock of chickens.

• Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray

• National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden Competition, Shortlisted Design Team

• City Park Play Space, Launceston

• Larni Yirrip - Dja Dja Wurrung Camping Village, Bendigo, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Kara Kara Campground, Redbank, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Danks Street & Bothwell Street Biolink Corridor Projects, Port Phillip & Balaclava, City of Port Phillip with The Woody Meadows Project and Conservation Volunteers Australia

• Balak Kalik Manya - Walking Together, Castlemaine and Bendigo, Dja Dja Wurrung (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Hepburn Healthy Walking Trails Masterplan, Hepburn, Dja Dja Wurrung (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Palais Theatre & Luna Park Precinct Revitalisation, St Kilda, City of Port Phillip (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Smith Reserve, Fitzroy, Yarra City Council (whilst at Pollen Studio)

• Property Strategy, Little North Arm Road Thora, 2017-2021 (as BBLA)

• Property Strategy, Plymouth Orchard & Gateway Farm, Michigan USA 2019-2025 (with Garden Juju Collective)

• Promised Land Project, Promised Land Road Bellingen, 2023-24 (as BBLA with Andrew Burgess Architects)

• Arab American National Museum, Michigan USA 2023 (with Garden Juju Collective)