BE Inspired Podcast EP18 – Designing Outdoor Spaces with Debbie Laporte

In this wide-ranging episode of the BE Inspired Podcast, host Seton Walsh-Rose sits down with Debbie Laporte — Director and Founder of Orterra Landscape Architecture — for a deeply insightful conversation about the power of landscape design to shape how we live, play, learn, and age.

Debbie brings a career spanning the public and private sectors, work in London, time lecturing at QUT, and now running her own Brisbane-based practice across education, commercial, infrastructure, and residential projects. Together, Seton and Debbie explore why play is one of the most undervalued tools for child development, how inclusive design is far broader than most people think, the reality of urban heat and the urban heat island effect, the full lifecycle of landscape from design to maintenance — and the one book Debbie thinks everyone should read.

About the Guest
Debbie Laporte is the Director and Founder of Orterra Landscape Architecture, based in Queensland. Originally from New Zealand and raised in Australia from age three, Debbie has built a career spanning public and private sectors, including several years working in London. She also lectured and tutored in landscape architecture at QUT before founding her own practice.

Episode Chapters

• 00:11 – Welcome & Introductions
• 00:18 – Meet Debbie & Orterra
• 01:53 – Why Play Matters in Education
• 03:22 – Screen Time, Nature & Movement
• 04:26 – Two Very Different Children
• 06:13 – Designing for Inclusivity
• 08:40 – Neurodiversity & Sensory Design
• 09:28 – Just Having a Bad Day
• 10:59 – Infrastructure & the Full Lifecycle
• 11:38 – Who Inclusive Design is Really For
• 13:17 – The Pram Moment
• 14:09 – Walking in Every User’s Shoes
• 15:44 – Plants, Low Maintenance & the Myth of No Maintenance
• 17:03 – Southbank & Highly Used Landscapes
• 18:39 – Landscape as the Make-or-Break Factor
• 20:48 – Most Proud Projects
• 23:58 – COVID & the Rediscovery of Outdoor Space
• 24:55 – Urban Heat Island Effect
• 28:25 – Designing for Climate & Shade
• 30:24 – Footpaths, Accessibility & Planning
• 33:34 – Rural vs Urban Design
• 35:47 – Landscapes Change — Embracing the Lifecycle
• 38:21 – Gardening, Neurology & Dementia Prevention
• 39:07 – The Power of Digging
• 40:31 – Designing for Every Life Stage
• 41:54 – High Density Living & the Public Realm
• 42:22 – Book Recommendation & Wrap-Up

Key Takeaways

• Play Is Far More Than Physical Activity
  • Play is a primary vehicle for children to develop emotional regulation, gross and fine motor skills, learning ability, and social relationships.
• Choice Is the Foundation of Inclusive Design
  • Not every child (or adult) will thrive in the same type of environment. Inclusive design means providing genuine options.
• The Pram Test Is a Design Superpower
  • Having her first child and using a pram completely transformed Debbie’s awareness of accessibility failures in everyday design.
• Landscape Makes or Breaks a Space — Literally
  • Every place has a feeling. Landscape design is what creates or destroys it.
• ‘Low Maintenance’ Does Not Mean ‘No Maintenance’
  • One of the most common client misconceptions: that once a landscape is built, it maintains itself

Sound Bites / Quotes:
“It can make and break a project — or a space. Every place has a feeling and a character. How we design them will either improve or make that worse.”
— Debbie Laporte, ~18:39

“If you look at all the types of disabilities, and then all the people with a temporary disability, and then all the children, and all the elderly — the majority of us in some way have a disability according to the ‘perfect person’ we’re supposed to be designing for.”
— Debbie Laporte, ~11:47

“Digging is actually one of the best things anyone can do — if you’re having a stressful day, a hard day. If you go and actually dig, that is one of the best things you can do for yourself.”
— Debbie Laporte, ~39:20

References & Resources
Book Recommendation:

• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
  https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Women-Data-World-Designed/dp/1419729071
• Publisher page: carolinecriadoperez.com