People

Understorey collaborators Katrin and Kathryn are non-Indigenous settler and immigrant designers. All of so-called-australia is un-ceded Aboriginal land. We work, live, and raise our children on Dharawal Country - saltwater, escarpment, grasslands and ground— shaped for millennia by Wodi Wodi people and other Aboriginal group knowledges, care, and belonging. We honour the ongoing cultural sovereignty of  the Dharawal peoples, and acknowledge their deep relationships with land, waters, and sky that continue to guide life in this region. 

Understorey is committed to listening and learning from Country wherever we go. Centering Aboriginal knowledges must not mean placing the burden of education or leadership onto Aboriginal people. Designing with Country is our commitment to learning without extracting, partnering without presuming, and working in support of Indigenous-led futures.

This approach shapes how we relate to our communities, think, collaborate, and design — listening closely to both human and more-than-human voices, and asking what it means to belong to the places we are privileged to work with.

Katrin is a Registered Landscape Architect with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA). She received her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Nuertingen, Germany, and came to Australia to work in National Parks.

Katrin has 15 years experience in the Wollongong area working with a wide range of stakeholders to achieve complex design outcomes, from master planning through to construction. 

Katrin's excellence in design, documentation and communication can be seen in projects including aged care, educational facilities, streetscape, foreshore, public open space, tourism & residential projects. 

Katrin is motivated by her love of nature and fascination with Australian flora and ecologies.

 Kathryn is an educator, writer and horticulturist, undertaking a Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney. She holds a Diploma of Landscape Architecture and teaches in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. She is an experienced secondary teacher of social sciences and visual arts and has published various articles about ecology, people and landscapes.

Kathryn is passionate about increasing resilience for more than-human life as well as social and environmental justice in all her work.  She loves engaging young people outdoors, gardening on the verge, encountering places near and far, and communicating cultures of shared, biodiverse abundance.