By Sue White
Name: Hamish Dounan
The profession: Landscape architecture
The organisation: CONTEXT
The job title: Director
The pay: Roles in the field at director level pay between $140,000-$250,000+, according to the Global Salary Guide 2024 prepared by Bespoke Careers.
Landscape architect Hamish Dounan rides a motorbike to work to avoid the traffic and says the “vibe” of his office is very important.
8am. My passion for design and love of nature led me to landscape architecture more than 20 years ago. Today, like most days, I ride a motorbike in to work. It’s a practical way to deal with the city traffic.
I love the creativity of landscape architecture. We focus on the spaces leftover between buildings to design streets, waterfronts, parklands and open spaces, even entire regions.
At CONTEXT we have 27 staff and usually over 20 projects on the go at once, so I spend the first hour on emails that may have come in overnight, just getting my day focused and in order.
9am. First up is a meeting with one of the open space teams. We are currently dealing with a riverside site that has issues ranging from contamination to flooding and ecological restoration. The team is testing innovative solutions to bring back some of the lost plant species to allow them to re-establish on the eroded foreshore.
There are plenty of spaces to choose from, as we have a wonderful studio in the top of a heritage building with gabled ceilings. There are spaces everywhere to pin drawings and draw on, as we often need to explain our thinking visually.
10am. I spend some time with our graphics department, then there’s a short consult with executive team members. Today we have to make a number of high-level decisions, including reviewing strategic business directions and potential tender submissions.
11am. Our business is largely focused on public domain work, so it’s all about designing places. Today I head down to a heritage site not far from the office with one of the team to make some checks on a project.
With heritage sites we often can’t rely on survey information, so we need to do almost a ‘ground truth’ and check it in reality ourselves, just to confirm all the information is correct.
1pm. Back at the studio a few of us gather over lunch. A fun casual studio vibe is a high priority for me. People and culture are a big part of the job, so one of the most important things as director is making sure that our people are top performing and happy, and that everyone has good and strong relationships with their managers.
I also want to ensure people have the chance for personal and professional growth. At the end of the day our team are ambassadors for our company and our brand and I want to make certain they want to work here.
2pm. This afternoon, like most afternoons, I’m in an impromptu workshop with one of our creative production teams. We have gathered a number of different people to pick apart a project, just making sure we are getting our most innovative thinking on it.
This collaboration and discussion is a big part of our culture – after we totally unpack a project we may go back to our client and tell them why part of our thinking has changed.
6pm. Back on the motorbike to my place where I head straight out for a swim or walk with the dog before dinner. Great way to end a day!
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