Mary-Jane Walker is an evolutionary scientist and artist based in Geelong, Victoria.

She is working in 'paper taxidermy' to create more than 80 birds which are under threat in her Now You See Us art project.

Grand tours for the aristocracy in centuries gone by were filled with art and architecture to fulfil the senses.

But what would such a tour look like today if only places created in the 20th and 21st centuries  were on the itinerary?

Richard Weller is a landscape architect who has pondered this question in his latest book, To the ends of the earth- a grand tour for the 21st Century. 

What role can the humble duckweed play as humans embark on missions to the Moon and Mars?

And what lessons can be learned about food security here on Earth?

Professor Matthew Gilliham is the director Plants for Space, a consortium of academics who are turning their attention to this question of botanical survival.

As higher density increases in our cities and we look for housing solutions, how can apartment design be improved?

Dr Elizabeth Farrelly is the founder and CEO of the Better Cities Initiative, an organisation which is calling for better planning models to create more vibrant urban centres into the future.

Sam Cox is a landscape designer who learnt his craft from one of the leaders in naturalistic garden design, the late Gordon Ford.

He takes us on a tour of his garden and reflects on how we can all learn from the natural contours of the landscape.

We go on a grand tour for the 21st century, discuss better apartment design, visit landscape designer Sam Cox in his naturalistic garden, and look to the future when plants can survive on the Moon and sustain us as we journey Mars.

We explore a Blueprint for death on this special episode: why black is the colour of mourning, cemeteries as a boon for the living, Colin Bisset's world tour of monuments, and Jamie Oliver's last supper.

Colin Bisset takes us on a tour of the some of the world's greatest commemorative monuments.

From London's Albert Memorial to Berlin's November Revolution Monument, they speak of a desire to immortalise and elevate a particular viewpoint of history.

What role has the colour black played in mourning fashions since the time of Queen Victoria?

Dr Lorinda Cramer is a fashion historian at Deakin University and co-curator of Back to Black, an exhibition at Old Government House, Parramatta. She charts the changing cultural meanings associated with this darkest of hues.

Chef Jamie Oliver selects the last meal he would have on this earth- his mum's roast dinner.

Surrounded by friends and family, he believes a Sunday roast would be the best final meal, with all the trimmings.