Studio Welcomes Sarah Cantillon and Kees Liefting

Both Sarah and Kees enter practice after completing their Masters at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, with research grounded in how landscape can support deeper connections between people, place, and the natural world. While their Masters work explored different territories, an interest is shared in how landscape can be read, understood, and cared for over time. 

Sarah’s research focused on biodiversity literacy and planting as an everyday act of stewardship, bringing together place-specific ecology, mātauranga Māori, and accessible digital tools to support more informed planting decisions. 

Kees’ work explored cultural narrative and sensory experience, examining how landscape can orient people to land and sky through spatial storytelling, light, and rhythm, particularly within the urban context of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. 

At Studio Pacific, landscape architecture is embedded across a wide range of projects and scales. Sarah and Kees will contribute to this work as part of our cross-disciplinary team, bringing research-led thinking into the practical realities of design and delivery. 

We’re looking forward to working alongside them, and to the perspectives they’ll bring as they settle into the studio.