Team

Alex Longley

Managing Director

Alex founded Arcadia in 2011 to establish a landscape firm that is driven to create world-class landscape outcomes. His passion for connecting people with the landscape, and his longstanding industry relationships built on his ability to deliver exceptional projects, have helped Arcadia become one of the leading landscape architecture firms in Sydney. Also key to Arcadia’s success is the way Alex’s belief in nurturing team development has built a talented team within a collaborative workplace environment. Alex has provided the inspiration for a unique studio culture, including Friday BBQs on the deck, the annual ski trip and Arcadia’s famous Christmas parties. 

Michael Barnett

Managing Director

Mike became a Principal of Arcadia in 2014 bringing an ability to create authentic and compelling open spaces. Mike excels at challenging the process and driving the team to deliver rigor and detail in their work. This results in project outcomes that exceed client expectations, strengthening Arcadia’s reputation for delivery of quality projects. Mike’s an adventurer at heart – whether you find him snow-boarding, on his motorbike or exploring Sydney’s newest open spaces with his family, you can be sure he’s finding inspiration for his innovative designs.

Chris Tidswell

Studio Lead - Sydney

With a passion for designing memorable places, Chris’ approach is always specific to the site, creating a narrative to support the place and experience.His multidisciplinary qualifications allow him to provide extensive knowledge to create high quality designs in the public realm. He has Landscape and Architectural Masters Qualifications that are accompanied by a Project Management qualification, giving him a well-balanced and complementary skillset to deliver a market leading approach to Urban Design and Landscape Architecture.

Nathan Clausen

Studio Lead - Brisbane

Excited by the opportunities to help shape public domain in Brisbane, Nathan has been leading the Arcadia Brisbane studio since it was established in 2018. With a passion for designing inspirational places that activate and invigorate spaces for people to enjoy, Nathan has led the team to deliver imaginative, intelligent and client-focused design solutions in sectors as diverse as public realm, residential, retail, health, aged care retirement living, infrastructure, sport and recreation and education.

Nelson Gomes

Studio Lead - Melbourne

With a passion for city-shaping projects and a love for design, Nelson has used his people-centric, collaborative and innovative design style to lead some of Melbourne’s most high-profile landscape architecture projects in recent years. His extensive experience across all project delivery stages and working in a range of scenarios, uniquely positions him to lead Arcadia’s Melbourne studio.

 

Mitchell Audsley

Studio Lead - Canberra

Born and bred in Canberra, Mitchell has returned to his hometown to lead the Arcadia Canberra studio. Mitchell specialises in multidisciplinary projects, with the vision to deliver functional and invigorating spaces which showcase his attention to detail through high-quality outcomes. With a keen interest in sustainability and horticulture, Mitchell not only aims to integrate these to optimise the user experience in his designs, he also spends any free time he has digging, planting, and tending the chooks creating his own productive garden. Lucky Canberra team to share in the yield from his garden!

Matt York

Studio Lead - Geelong

Matt York is a registered Landscape Architect with over twenty five years’ experience in design throughout Australia, Europe and South-East Asia. An award winning Landscape Architect and designer with expertise in strategic advisory and design, his passion is to collaborate, produce site responsive designs and deliver landscapes of all scales and complexities.

Matt is immediate past President of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects(Victoria Chapter) 2021-2023. He also sits on the City of Melbourne Design Excellence Advisory Committee (DEAC).He currently advises both NSW Government and Department of Transport and Planning (Victoria) with focus on Green Infrastructure and Inclusive design, and chairs the AILA Victoria registration panel.

Matt brings extensive project experience working in multi-disciplinary teams, and ensuring a collaborative design process delivers on the responsibilities of Landscape Architecture and project partnerships.

Nicole Wilson

Principal - Sydney

If we could bottle and sell Nicole’s energy and her adventurous spirit, we’d be millionaires! If she’s not in the studio inspiring our teams to create world-class landscapes, she’s motoX riding with her boys, riding her Harley Davidson or embracing life on the sidelines as a footy mum. With over 15 years of diverse local and international experience, she has a considered design approach to every project she undertakes. Whether it’s a neighbourhood park for families to gather, or a village square with the flexibility to host events and pop-ups; Nicole’s desired outcome is a project which offers something for everyone. She believes that great design outcomes always stem from the collaboration of many minds. To have the opportunity to come together and generate innovative ways to solve even the most complex urban issues; the end result is always a project outcome that is thoughtful, resilient and enduring. There’s nothing more rewarding than creating new landscapes “that just work”.

Ben Newell

Principal - Brisbane

With 20 years of experience as designer and project manager, Ben has led multidisciplinary teams providing integrated, broad-based solutions on complex design and planning projects. After a childhood of cold Canberra winters it’s hardly surprising that Ben has embraced the laidback tropical lifestyle of Brisbane and a love of outdoor spaces. Designing high-end, sustainable and meaningful public realm & open spaces has become a passion for Ben, to the point where he spends his holidays photographing open spaces. Either that or indulging in his obsession with muscle cars!

Elly Russell

Principal - Melbourne

Elly Russell is a Landscape Architect bringing international experience in high profile and complex projects, leading multidisciplinary teams in Australia, Singapore, Monaco and the UK. Her experience includes Australian and New Zealand public landscapes of international acclaim including large waterfront precincts, urban design frameworks, educational spaces, street scape revitalisations. Elly also enjoys creating smaller inspiring or impactful artful landscapes. A passionate designer and explorer, Elly appreciates collaboration in striving for both ecologically and socially restorative landscapes. She believes an interdisciplinary approach is vital, to achieve the regenerative measures required to collectively tackle our climate and biodiversity
crises, adopting more holistic Traditional Owner notions of Country.

Andrew Mason

Principal - Sydney

Andrew is one of the core members of the Arcadia team and our original Kiwi. While not a morning person, this ice hockey player is renowned for his appetite and a natural design flair that seeks elegant design solutions, often inspired by the richness and diversity of the local landscape environs. As the undefeated Arcadia champion, his karaoke skills are a thing of beauty as well…

Daniel Byrne

Chief Financial Officer

Samantha Chestney

Head of People and Culture

Jason Taylor

Senior Associate

Jason is passionate about creating great spaces in South East Queensland, with a particular interest in designing urban open spaces and active parks. A strong believer in the culture of collaboration, Jason’s strength lies in fostering an openness and empathy with clients, as well as the relevant authorities, to ensure that the various stakeholders’ interests and goals are maintained.

Christoph Kaufmann

Senior Associate

Christoph has seventeen years of professional experience as landscape architect. He has successfully designed, managed and delivered projects across Australia and the Middle East including complex city-shaping rail infrastructure and public domain projects, large-scale parklands and open space projects, learning environments and residential developments of various scales, including master planning.

Using his design, management, and delivery skills to collaboratively develop integrated site-specific high-quality design solutions, Christoph creates sustainable and meaningful public open spaces with a clear sense of space, inspired by their local context, their users and the environments they sit within. As a designer and project manager, Christoph has successfully led complex multidisciplinary teams such as the Urban Design and Landscape team for the Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 project from the design and construction phases through to practical completion of several sections of the project.

Kate Phillips

Senior Associate

Kate is a strong believer that a great design outcome is the product of a strong vision, hard work, and a dedicated multidisciplinary team. No stranger to hard work, Kate is almost constantly in training for different triathlon events. She’s also a great example that landscape architects aren’t landscape gardeners – her bathroom plant is the first plant she’s managed to keep alive!

Daniel Drummond

Senior Associate

Qidi Li

Senior Associate

Qidi Li has over 16 years of experience working in leading landscape architecture practices on projects for public and private clients in Australia the Middle East and Asia. He is known for his passion for landscape architecture and his ability to present strong conceptual design outcomes with a functional and ecological underlay.

Qidi is respected by the industry for his extensive design and management skills. His breadth of experience across all stages and project typologies, combined with a global perspective on design methods and thinking, has resulted in an exceptional ability for project supervision and proficiency in documentation with a high standard of Quality Assurance. He is passionate about mentoring graduate landscape architects, sharing his considerable knowledge and skillset with wider teams.

Jason Kocmar

Senior Associate

Jason Kocmar is a Senior Associate Landscape Architect with more than
15 years experience working across broad range of landscape and urban
design projects in ACT, NSW and USA. Prior to joining Arcadia, Jason was
part of an multi-disciplinary firm in Tennesee, where he gained a new
perspective on landscape design and how people interact with the built
environment.

Jason has a passion for designing active public spaces coupled with a
knowledge of how to create distinct and personable human experiences.
A steward of the environment, Jason is proficient in Water Sensitive Urban
Design (WSUD), and understands how to get the most out of tough urban
environments. His extensive knowledge spans concept development,
documentation, and construction management across various design
scales including mixed-use, residential, seniors living, open space, WSUD,
stormwater management and major infrastructure projects.

Annabel Lewis

Associate

Let’s get the obvious out of the way – Annabel’s amazing hair! The hair that was voted runner up in Schwarzkopf’s Most Beautiful Hair competition in 2013 is the first thing we all notice about Annabel. Beyond the mane is a former rural resident who cares deeply about creating drought tolerant, sustainable landscapes. She’s also strongly drawn to education-based projects and loves to draw on the experience of her teacher parents to gain insights for her designs. Annabel’s weekends are filled with bushwalks, country visits and sharing food and wine with friends.

Andrea Banaag

Associate

Andrea’s career in landscape architecture spans more than 10 years with experience ranging from landscape design, project management and field work. Her work encompasses a diverse set of projects including public open space, mixed use communities and luxurious residential areas located in Hong Kong, China, India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Andrea is passionate about the transformative power of landscape architecture on the community’s health and well-being. Her recent works include designing public open spaces for a cultural district and enhancement of infrastructure, developing urban design guidelines for a strategic new township in Hong Kong and enhancing the landscape amenities for elderly facilities.

Daniel Spicer

Associate

Over more than five years at Arcadia, Daniel has worked on projects of all sizes, using his strong skills for communication and innovation to successfully collaborate on multidisciplinary teams. Recent projects include State Significant and city-shaping public domain projects, working in complex packages. He is experienced in using cultural engagement to create spaces with a unique design narrative.

Daniel is passionate about designing organic, multi-functional and unique
spaces within the landscape, focusing on the permeability of activity. A strong believer in referencing the natural landscape into each of his designs, Daniel contributes meaningful spaces within the built environment, striving for unique and collaborative spaces that improve the relationship between the user and landscape.

Yoga Peng

Associate

Yujia (Yoga) Peng is a seasoned Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, brings over five years of consulting experience, excelling in data-driven decision-making with robust analytical techniques.

Her expertise spans the entire development cycle, from DA to construction, with a focus on sustainable design, design guidelines, and Australian Standards. Her portfolio includes successful contributions to diverse projects, listed as below.

Proficient in Revit, Autocad, and programming languages, Yoga enhances productivity through automation and streamlined documentation processes. Her mastery of data processing and visualization, coupled with a deep understanding of standards, positions her as a valuable asset, consistently adding value to projects.

Stacey Edwards

Senior Landscape Architect

Stacey – she’s All Blacks and not Wallabies. She’s Halloween and never Christmas. She’s books over TV and she’s coffee, not tea. And best of all she’s “Hell yes, I’ll give it a go” and we love her for it! Since joining us as a Landscape Architect, Stacey’s innovative ideas around WSUD infrastructures, as well as her love of trees and fauna, have helped to create her unique landscape design style which are an asset to any project.

Victor Lu

Senior Landscape Architect

Victor is a landscape architect with over ten years of experience in landscape architecture, architecture and urban design. He has worked on a diverse range of projects from large-scale urban, architectural master plans to domestic scale boutique landscape and interior design across Australia, China, and the United States.

With qualification in both Landscape Architecture and Architecture, Victor has continuously practiced design in an interdisciplinary manner where he explores the junctures of art, design and technology and how they interweave into spatial and social environment, with an aim to create and foster positive design outcomes for end-users, clients and stakeholders alike.

Yiling Jiang

Senior Landscape Architect

Yiling graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Masters degree of Landscape Architecture and Bachelor in both Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Having lived in different cities in China and Australia, she has developed a strong understanding of the culture of both of the countries. Her design approach is centred on local culture and humanistic thinking.

With more than five years of work experience in Shanghai and Sydney, Yiling has developed expertise in infrastructure, having supported large infrastructure projects locally and interstate. This expertise has provided a strong foundation for Yiling to expand her skillset across all sectors.

Ruiqi Shen

Senior Landscape Architect

Ruiqi Shen has contributed to numerous landscape architecture and urban design projects spanning Australia and China. Engaging in every stage of project development, he predominantly operated within the private sector as a consultant and designer, collaborating with government agencies and real estate developers.

Ruiqi’s key areas of interest and expertise encompass Transitoriented Urban Design/Landscape Architecture, Place-making, Global Design Practice, and Computer-aided Design.

Yuan Fang

Senior Landscape Architect

Yuan is a senior landscape architect in Arcadia Melbourne studio. Yuan has worked on and managed a variety of international projects, particular in world class luxury residence and hospitality and tourism design. She has strength in design at detailed scales. She is passionate about exploring design with its cultural and art essence.

She is a strong believer in the culture of collaboration and communication, Yuan’s strength lies in fostering an openness and empathy with clients, as well as the relevant authorities, to ensure that the various stakeholder’s interests and goals are maintained.

Rebecca Lee

Senior Landscape Architect

Rebecca is a multi-award winning landscape architect, valuing technical rigor with on-ground, inclusive work processes and outcomes. She is the winner of the 2019 Karl Langer award; the highest industry award recognised by AILA for a graduate landscape architect. Her pioneering research exploring drought in Southern Queensland has been published in Landscape Architecture Australia.

She has a diverse set of technical skills ranging from design documentation, 3D modelling, diagrams, renders, GIS, computer programming, data analysis and visualisations. Rebecca’s unique skillset enables her to support team members on a variety of projects ranging from detail design to large scale master planning and system analysis.

She has previously been involved in several AILA award winning projects including West Village and Oxley & Stirling Residence.

Clara Reutter

Senior Landscape Architect

Clara is an Architect and Landscape Architect with a strong passion for the interplay between the built and natural environments. With 8 years of experience, she has successfully delivered acclaimed private and public realm projects, curated intricate multi-residential podium designs, and conducted small-scale experimental designs and research endeavours.

Drawing from her background in Architecture, Clara possesses invaluable insights into material usage, sustainability principles, and seamless project coordination across both disciplines. Her diverse portfolio includes master planning initiatives and public realm projects of varying scopes, affording her a distinctive perspective on early-stage design ideation as well as project execution.

Clara’s engagement with academia through teaching in various universities has significantly influenced her work, enriching it with rigorous research, innovative problem-solving approaches, and a steadfast commitment to human and environmentally centred solutions.

Chang Liu

Senior Landscape Architect

Coming from Xinxiang, a small city in China, Chang has brought a simple, fresh and contemporary design approach to Arcadia, combining her modern Asian influences with an enthusiasm to embrace and experience the outdoor lifestyle of Sydney. Her favourite outdoor space is a table tennis court – but while she plays to relax, she’s happiest when she’s winning. That’s the competitive spirit that makes Chang perfect for Arcadia!

Rose Gurney

Senior Landscape Architect

With more than three years of industry experience and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) from the University of Technology Sydney, Rose’s key interests lie in sustainable landscape design that facilitates multi-species habitation and community engagement. Rose is driven to create resilient landscapes for future generations to enjoy and learn from.

Rose’s experience spans various sectors, including high-end residential, masterplanning, open space, commercial, health and education, working on all stages from concept to project delivery. She is developing her understanding and experience working with First Nations collaborators and Knowledge Holders and is passionate about designing spaces sensitive to these stories.