Sarah Cantillon

Sarah is a Graduate Landscape Architect with an interest in native planting and the relationship between people, place and ecology. After an earlier career in luxury fashion and e-commerce marketing, she returned to study landscape architecture, bringing a strong grounding in communication, digital platforms and how people engage with information and environments.

Her Master of Landscape Architecture research focused on biodiversity literacy and the role design can play in supporting more informed, place-responsive planting decisions. It explored three connected ideas: reconnecting people with local ecologies, planting as a decolonising practice informed by mātauranga Māori and the use of digital tools to encourage shared ecological stewardship. The work resulted in a location-based design response for Pukenamu in Whanganui and a digital planting resource, Plants of This Place, developed to help people identify native species suited to their local eco-region.

At Studio Pacific Architecture, Sarah contributes a thoughtful, research-informed perspective to the landscape team. She is continuing to build her experience in practice, with a particular interest in ecologically responsive design and the ways landscape architecture can strengthen connections between people and place over time.