Meet Our Directors
Charlie Albone | Co-Director, Landscape Designer and Horticulturalist (MAIH)
Charlie is one of Australia’s most recognised professional landscape designers, with a career spanning more than 25 years. As founder and Co-Director of Inspired Exteriors, Charlie has built an award-winning landscape design studio in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs on a simple but powerful philosophy: a garden is a living, breathing extension of your home’s architecture. A two-time Chelsea Flower Show Medal Winner, his expertise in garden landscape design and horticulture has taken him to projects in the UK, France, Hong Kong, and Singapore, making Inspired Exteriors one of Sydney’s very few landscape design firms with a genuine global footprint.
Beyond the drawing board, Charlie is best known to many Australians as the resident Landscape Design Expert and presenter on Better Homes and Gardens on Channel 7, and previously as a presenter on Selling Houses Australia, a role he held for 13 years. He is an AACTA-nominated presenter, a Member of the Australian Institute of Horticulture (MAIH), and a TLA Ambassador. Every garden Charlie designs is made with long-term beauty, functionality, and liveability in mind. The result is a landscape that does not just look exceptional today, but grows better every year.
Shane Kingsbury | Co-Director and Principal Landscape Architect
Shane is Co-Director and Principal Landscape Architect at Inspired Exteriors, bringing rigorous technical training and a deeply creative, collaborative approach to every project. An honours graduate of UNSW’s landscape architecture program, Shane has extensive experience across high-end residential and large-scale commercial projects Australia-wide, with expertise spanning design, documentation, project management, and stakeholder engagement from first concept through to final delivery. His approach is site-responsive by nature: every commission begins with a thorough understanding of the architecture, topography, micro-climate, and character of the space, ensuring the finished landscape feels as though it has always belonged.
After working with leading design and construction firms across Sydney, Shane joined Inspired Exteriors before becoming a partner, co-directing the firm into the boutique, design-focused practice it is today. Known for his love of organic forms and flowing spaces, Shane’s work as a professional landscape architect is defined by creative problem-solving, meticulous attention to detail and an unwavering commitment to quality.
Industry Recognition & Awards
2024 | The Landscape Association (TLA) Landscape Excellence Awards
Gold Medal – Residential Design 80m² to 200m²
Best in Category – Residential Design 80m² to 200m²
2023 | Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
City of Melbourne Award of Excellence, Best in Show
Horticultural Media Association Award, Best Use of Plant Life
Gold Medal
2021 | Master Landscapers of NSW Awards
Gold Award – Commercial and civil construction up to $250,000
Silver Award – Residential construction between $150,000 – $350,000
Bronze Award – Residential design over 200m2
2021 | UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) Horticultural Exposition, Kunming
One of seven landscape designers selected from across the world to participate, and the only Australian invitee.
2018 | Master Landscapers of NSW Awards
Overall Winner – Landscape Design and Construction of the Year
Gold Award – Commercial and Civil Construction $250,000 – $750,000
Gold Award – Residential Landscape Design and Construction over $75,000
Silver Award – Residential Landscape Design and Construction up to $75,000
Silver Award – Commercial and Civil Construction up to $250,000
2018 | Australian Institute of Landscape Designers and Managers Awards
Gold Medal – Educational or Institutional Playspace
Gold Medal – Garden Less Than 50m²
2017 | Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
Bronze Medal
2016 | Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, London
Silver Gilt Medal
2015 | Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show, London
Silver Gilt Medal
2013 | Australian Garden Show
Silver Medal
Our Approach
We believe the landscape is the most honest expression of a home. It is a living, breathing environment that demands the same investment, expertise, and intention as the architecture it surrounds. At Inspired Exteriors, every project begins with a thorough understanding of the site, the client, and the life they want to live outdoors.
From concept development and DA documentation, through to construction detailing and horticultural consulting, our team of professional landscape architects and designers in Sydney guides every project with creativity and genuine care for the outcome. What sets our work apart is the depth behind it: a studio where Chelsea-level horticultural knowledge and formal landscape architecture training sit in the same room, applied to every project regardless of scale.
Our Collaborators
When a landscape designer works alongside the right architect and builder from the very beginning, the result is a cohesive, considered outcome that simply cannot be achieved any other way. For our direct clients, this network means fully integrated professional landscape design across every stage of a project. For the architects and developers we work alongside, it means a landscape practice whose documentation, site process, and design standards are built to move at the pace and rigour of a premium build.
AQUA Architects
Blue Label Construction
Briony Fitzgerald Design
CO-AP Architects
Etched Outdoors
Futureflip
Gardner Design
H&E Architects
LGDesign Studio
Madeleine Blanchfield Architects
Moldovan Architects
MostynCopper
Roth Architecture
Sandlik Constructions
Statewide Project Management
Those Architects
TKD Architects
Weir Phillips Architects
WMK Architecture
Tell Us About Your Project
Whether you are a homeowner planning a garden redesign, an architect looking for a landscape partner, or a developer with a commercial brief, we would love to hear about your project. Book an initial consultation with Charlie or Shane directly.