Dr Saskia Schut
Lecturer
School of Architecture and Built Environment
College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.
I am a landscape architect, artist, researcher, and educator, currently living and working on Kaurna Country, Australian continent. I am invested in researching and teaching that is grounded in relationships and grassroots actions. Through expanded fieldwork, collectivity, and earth-centred ontologies, my practice-led research explores water-led design as an instigator for social ecological justice.
I am a co-founder of the research collaboration Tributaries, through which we investigate how water, as an interconnected tributary system, can help us imagine and enact reconnection and regeneration of water bodies for a more just future.
A series of recent projects used listening, walking, and drawing together as ways to connect the public with lesser-known urban waterways that course through Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country in Narrm/Melbourne.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 - ongoing | Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2018 - 2022 | Lecturer | University of Technology Sydney |
| 2017 - ongoing | Landscape Architect | Self employed |
| 2008 - 2017 | Sessional Lecturer | RMIT University |
| 2008 - 2010 | Research Assistant | RMIT University |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Award | Unlandscaped 2011, Road Trauma Memorial Project | Design Research Institute, RMIT University | Australia | - |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| French | Can read, speak and understand spoken |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | RMIT University | Australia | PhD |
| 2007 | RMIT University | Australia | Bachelor of Design, Honours (Landscape Architecture) |
| 1994 | Monash University | Australia | Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Schut, S., & Dann, Y. -L. (2021). Movement-drawing: recalling a hidden creek. In G. Baker, F. R. Chen, L. Fenaughty, C. K. Li, L. S. Liu, S. Read, & Y. Na You (Eds.), Kerb 29 Wild (Vol. 29, pp. 51-53). URO Publications. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Schut, S., & Dann, Y. -L. (2023). Drawing as a Web of Movements. École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Lyon. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Schut, S., & Shimada, R. (2025). Healing Mud: Practices of Care for Aqueous Ecologies. Poster session presented at the meeting of Book of Abstracts from the URBIO International Conference “Urban Biodiversity and Design in Australasia: research, teaching, and collaboration opportunities East to West”. Austrralia: University of Western Austrralia. DOI |
| 2019 | Schut, S., Waghorn, K., Harvey, M., Houghton, C., Bonham, A., & smith, V. (2019). Whau Conversations: Hikoi. Poster session presented at the meeting of Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies. |
| 2016 | Schut, S., & King, L. (2016). To Vector, To Idle, To Aggregate, To Disperse. Poster session presented at the meeting of PSi#22 Melbourne: Performing Climates Conference. University Melbourne, Narrm/Melbourne. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Authors: Schut S, Robinson G, Dann Y-L, Woods B. Title: Tap into a Spring of Minerals. Extent: A1 colour poster. |
| 2023 | Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Micro-Sensing. Extent: 6 hours. |
| 2022 | Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Silurian Geology. Extent: 3 minutes, 50 seconds. |
| 2022 | Authors: Schut S, Miller A. Title: SwampGut. Extent: 3 hours. |
| 2022 | Authors: Schut S, Dann Y-L, Robinson G, Woods B. Title: Tributary Project. Extent: 10 videos ranging between 2-5 minutes. |
| 2017 | Authors: Schut S. Title: moving towards, away from and parallel to the rising sun. Extent: 2 weeks, 4 walks of 1.5 hour duration. |
| 2015 | Authors: Schut S. Title: Gesture 4, in Beginning In Incompleteness: works in formation. Extent: approx 20mx20m. |
| 2014 | Authors: Schut S, Mitchell S. Title: Reading Room. Extent: approx 20m x 20m. |
| 2011 | Authors: Mitchell S, Schut S. Title: Sun / Shift // Drift. Extent: approx 100m x100m. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Schut, S., Dann, Y. -L., Robinson, G., & Woods, B. (2023). cre-cre-cre... creee (Extent: 3 hours) [Public art event]. Melbourne: Tributaries Collective, Open House Melbourne. |
| 2023 | Schut, S., Dann, Y. -L., Robinson, G., & Woods, B. (2023). Tributary Encounters (Extent: 3 hours) [Exhibition]. Narrm/Melbourne, Open Natures 2023: Tributaries Collective/ Open Natures. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Schut, S. (2023). Nurturing Earthly Intimacies: A Fieldwork Practice for Planetary Reparation. (PhD Thesis, RMIT University). |
Scheme: School Research Growth Scheme, ACE
Funding agency: University of Adelaide
Grant name: Tributaries: regenerating and reconnecting overlooked waterways
Date: 2024
Amount: total project funding $3,000
Scheme: Annual Arts Grant
Funding agency: City of Melbourne
Grant name: TRIBUTARY PROJECT II
Date: 2022-2023
Collaborators: Ying-Lan Dann, Geoff Robinson, Benjamin Woods
Amount: total project funding $15,000
Scheme: Annual Arts Grant
Funding agency: City of Melbourne
Grant name: TRIBUTARY PROJECT I
Date: 2021-2022
Collaborators: Ying-Lan Dann, Geoff Robinson, Benjamin Woods
Amount: total project funding $7,000 + $5000 industry in kind contribution, Bus Projects
Scheme: Creators Fund
Funding agency: VIC ARTS
Grant name: sun / drift / shift
Date: 2013-2014
Collaborators: Dr Scott Mitchell, Joseph Norster
Amount: total project funding $10,000
I have been teaching in landscape architecture, interior design, and art since 2008. I am interested in how learning and teaching can emerge through more relational models, where, together as spatial designers, we can prepare for a more just ecological-social future. Methods explored include speculative design, collaboration, storytelling, regenerative practices, ecological practices, process-led design, and place-based design. A recent design studio, Swamping, conducted at UTS, engaged with the littoral and material senses of swamps as complex organisms to reimagine multi-species collective futures. Design proposals were developed using animation, film, stories, and by adopting and modelling the proposed imaginary collective. @swamp_ing
I have taught into undergraduate and post graduate levels, developing, leading, coordinating and delivering courses in Design, Landform, Botany, and Communications.
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Park Life Circles : A Deep Learning Framework for Park System Design in Shanghai's Mega-Region | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Yingxin Xia |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Park Life Circles : A Deep Learning Framework for Park System Design in Shanghai's Mega-Region | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Yingxin Xia |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Location | Program | Supervision Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | A method for observing, witnessing and learning with novel ecologies for Landscape architecture. Design-led Research. | University Technology Sydney | - | Master | - | Jessica Garment |
| 2020 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | 'Tending to scalar ambiguity': explores design methods for landscape architecture that foreground ambiguity, nuance and scalar complexity. | University Technology Sydney | - | Master | - | Ella Farley |
| Date | Topic | Presented at | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 - ongoing | FIELDWORKS: Sensing Energetic Phenomena | Online | Harvard graduate School of Design | - |
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