Islands have always been important to Lisa Mackenzie.

There's one in Loch Ussie between Connon Bridge and Strathpeffer in Ross-shire that has always held her gaze. This was where she grew up, where her father used to take her for walks in all weathers, and where she would hunt for chanterelle mushrooms to supplement her pocket money with her brother.

Her fascination with islands has stayed with her. Now the name of this 37-year-old landscape architect and artist, who is one of the largely unsung heroes of the creative life of Scotland, will forever be associated with one island in particular. And it's an island with a difference. She has designed it and had it created in a man-made loch in a huge development by Highlands and Islands Enterprise near Inverness.

This is the Inverness Campus to the east of the A9, which she masterplanned with Ewan Anderson of 7N Architects in Edinburgh. It will include bases for Inverness College, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland's Rural Colleges (formerly the Scottish Agricultural College), a GP medical centre and a social enterprise hotel. When completed, it could attract future investment of more than £100 million, sustain up to 6000 jobs over the next 30 years and generate £38m a year for the Highland economy.

It already has a new bridge. It is not quite Cambridge's Bridge of Sighs, but it has been christened the Golden Bridge for obvious reasons. It takes pedestrians across the A9 to the life sciences cluster of buildings around Raigmore Hospital.

Amid all this cutting edge science, great thought has been put into the visual psychology of the site, which Mackenzie has been overseeing as a landscape architectural consultant. Four small lochs have been dug to deal with surface water and put landscape at the core of the site. In the largest sits An t-Eilean (The Island) designed to reflect the geography of its Highland setting. In Mackenzie's own words: "It is neither sculpture nor building nor garden, but a fusion of all three."

It will be a place on the water which could host a musical performance, a sculpture exhibition or just somewhere to sit and read the collected works of Tolstoy. A Scots pine grows in the centre of the space anchoring it in its location, but it has been designed to appear as though it is floating. The timber walkway will also give the impression of sitting on top of the water.

According to Mackenzie the structure is all about reaching out to the landscape around it: "There is Ben Wyvis to the north across the Beauly Firth, the Cairngorms to the south, and in the west there is the opening of the Great Glen and the hills above Strath Connon. Meanwhile water and light bounce around the white concrete walls reflecting into the space from above and below the horizon."

It will open to the public later this year but already it has attracted attention with Mackenzie's designs viewed by more than 20,000 people at a prestigious exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. She was one of 10 architects selected for the exhibition, exploring the relationship between architecture, art and landscape.

She explains: "My interest in the reciprocity between landscape and art began when I was a student at Edinburgh School of Art and visited the Kroller Muller museum in the Netherlands. It was such an inspiring place where landscape, art and architecture are woven through 'place'."

Since then she has gone on to seek out these places with visits to the the Naoshima Art Island in Japan and last month a trip to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen.

"These places leave an indelible mark in the memory of all who visit them. The sculptures and artworks have room to breathe and each time you visit the seasons have a different effect on the appeal of the work. I would happily return again and again, they have an enduring appeal. The island in Inverness is a distillation of all I find fascinating in art, landscape, environment and architecture."

It is just the latest chapter in a remarkable career which has taken the former head girl of Dingwall Academy to her present post as a senior lecturer in the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. She's currently developing the first postgraduate European Masters degree in landscape architecture which will begin in September. It will mean the University of Edinburgh collaborating with its educational counterparts in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. At the same time she is in the early stages of developing a landscape for the village of Strathyre. She has recently been awarded funding from Creative Scotland under the Inspiring Natural Scotland programme, and will be working with artist Victoria Bernie.

Along the way Mackenzie has taught in The Versailles National School of Landscape Architecture in France, acknowledged to be one the leading schools in the world, and has been a visiting lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design in the US. She has also been a visiting critic at the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in Japan and held external examiner positions at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

After graduating, Mackenzie spent five years with Bath-based landscape architects Grant Associates, where she gained experience in the creation of urban and rural landscapes. Her first job after graduating was as a member of the Stirling Prize-winning team for Accordia Cambridge, about which the Royal Institute of British Architects said: "This is high-density housing at its very best."

She remains in close contact with the office, recently awarded the contract to "re-masterplan" Wimbledon Tennis Club and the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia.

Despite all this frenetic activity some things never change. "Recently I took my young daughter for a walk at Loch Ussie with her grandfather and we watched ospreys fishing. These are the special moments."

Visit invernesscampus.co.uk.