Engaging in More-than-Conservation in Multispecies Cities: A Study of One Central Park, Sydney

This thesis engages with how 'living walls' could play a role in familiarising urban human populations with multispecies cohabitation, contributing to an ethic of conviviality in cities. A bricolage approach, comprising semi-structured interviews, observation, participatory photography and review of grey literature, historical sources and ethology literature, has been used to develop a more-than-human geography of the East and West towers at One Central Park. One Central park is a privately owned, mixed-use, green infrastructure precinct in Sydney City with two residential buildings that are characterised by living walls filled with vertical gardens and planter boxes. Bringing more-than-human geography into close dialogue with approaches in the broader environmental humanities, this project looks to engage with the unequal experiences of dwelling in multispecies cities in the Anthropocene, and advocates for the practice of 'more-than-conservation' in the policy and planning of cities. Using a storied approach, this thesis focuses on three key themes: temporality, biocultural belonging, and multispecies conflicts. It argues that living walls provide a forced close proximity between human and nonhuman dwellers that, if coupled with facilitated engagements and thoughtful urban design, could provide opportunities to foster attentiveness to nonhumans, contributing to an ethic of conviviality among residents. If this coupling does not occur this kind of intervention may instead entrench existing dualisms, like that of nature/culture and wild/domestic, within the city