AILA
NSW 2007 Awards
CITATIONS
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THE NSW AWARD IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Project: GLEBE FORESHORE
by Mather & Associates / Anton James Design
This project, in its simplest sense, is a pathway system that provides public access to the Glebe foreshore edge. Its beauty, lies in its thoughtful and strategic response, at all levels, to a range of site conditions. At times past layers are revealed as artifact, in others it engages directly with the found condition, never forcing itself upon the site, but rather responding intuitively to it.
The path’s rationale is twofold: not only does it provide access along the foreshore edge but it also acts as a driver for environmental rehabilitation of the sensitive marine ecosystem along its 2km length. This includes the introduction of bioswales to intercept stormwater prior to entering the harbour; the construction of a salt marsh habitat at the outflow of the Rozelle Canal, the rehabilitation of the city’s most urban mangroves and increasing the inter-tidal habitat zones.
By employing a restrained palette of materials, mainly concrete with some sandstone and timber as accent, the pathway becomes a series of experiences, which read as a collective whole. The selected materials do not dominate the experience but rather work to enhance them. The resulting experience is a relaxed stroll along the foreshore edge which takes you past intimate beaches, mangrove communities, industrial artifacts, residential development and quiet, reflective places for sitting and absorbing the harbour view; a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.
The Glebe Foreshore walk is a well conceived and finely-crafted project which further develops the fine body of work created through the collaboration of Mather & Associates and Anton James Design. In giving this award, we also recognise their contribution to the profession as one of Sydney's leading design teams and we congratulate them for their work on the Glebe Foreshore walk.
2007 AILA NSW Award for DESIGN in Landscape Architecture
AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Project: GLEBE FORESHORE
by Mather & Associates / Anton James Design
Over 2km long, the Glebe Foreshore Walk forms the western most segment of the City of Sydney’s planned foreshore walk which stretches from Woolloomooloo to Rozelle Bay. The project provides continuous public access from the surrounding highly urbanised areas along the Harbour edge. The pathway acts as a unifying armature, connecting streets, paths, and open spaces, thus remaking and consolidating the historic relationship of Glebe to its harbour edge.
Designed by Mather & Associates and Anton James Design with the City of Sydney this segment of the walkway steps, segues and sweeps around the historic Harbour edge, subtlety changing its rhythm and tempo in response to the natural and cultural artefacts, landform and environmental conditions, while maintaining a seamless storyline.
The design uses a simple palette of materials and detailing, concrete dominates with timber and sandstone used as accent. The resulting composition is a delight which sits in poetic harmony with its unique marine and industrial environment.
Perhaps the project’s greatest success is that it sets about repairing the site’s marine ecologies while providing access to this jewel at the edge of Sydney Harbour.
Mather & Associates and Anton James Design in association with the City of Sydney are awarded Excellence in Design for their achievement.
MERIT AWARD
Project: MURRAYS BEACH
by EDAW (Aust)
Murrays Beach is located 125km north of Sydney on 600 hectares of land, bounded by Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean. It represents the future for this type of residential development on our coastal edge.
EDAW’s work within this project highlights the role Landscape Architects have to play in helping to deliver an outcome that responds to all aspects of the existing site. Development of housing on this undeniably sensitive site has been intelligently handled by the establishment of a number of key moves which underpin the design. These are:
The transfer of 180 hectares of the site to NSW Government as National Park;
The initiation of a public education and information programme;
The incorporation of best practice environmental concepts throughout the master plan and design stages and;
The development of a construction management strategy.
The constructed landscape uses simple robust materials that respond appropriately to the site, blending the built form with the greater landscape to create a collective whole.
EDAW and their client Stockland are to be congratulated for their rigorous and thoughtful approach to this sensitive site.
MERIT AWARD
Project: BARCOM PARK
by Sue Barnsley Design
For many years local residents rallied against St Vincent Hospital believing development had battered and shaded their neighbourhood park. The City of Sydney, working with the local residents and St Vincent Hospital, initiated a park upgrade and engaged Sue Barnsley Design to undertake the design.
The remade Barcom Park is effectively double the original size, achieved by the closure of two boundary roads. The resulting design is a finely detailed park that is both functional and satisfying. Light now penetrates; lawn and seats provide meeting places while a new path system better integrates it with the surrounding community. Issues of scale are particularly well handled. The park manages to be both a place of intimacy and respite whilst acting as a permeable nexus for a series of pathways and streets.
Underpinning the design is an urban water management system which includes transfer of storm water from the Hospital site.
The upgrade of Barcom Park shows how small, considered interventions combined with strategic alliances can transform a place and uplift a neighbourhood.
Sue Barnsley Design with the City of Sydney are to be congratulated for achieving such a successful outcome.
COMMENDATION AWARD
Project: WETLAND 5
by Aspect Studios
This wetland forms part of the chain of wetlands in Sydney Park. This project involves the rectification of an existing wetland that was leaking due to a ruptured substrate.
The City of Sydney initiated this project and should be commended for commissioning architects as the lead consultants in what otherwise might have been less significant infrastructure works. This commission to Aspect Studios has enabled the transformation of infrastructure to artefact. The resultant form powerfully marks the culmination and holding point for the greater park’s wetland system.
The off-form concrete dam reads as a grand sweeping arc, a simple gesture that defines the water’s edge. The arc then acts as an organising framework for pathways, planting, lighting and seating, set amidst existing park trees.
Wetland 5 achieves a successful fusion between an environmental objective and a contemporary design. This unashamedly contemporary insertion is a simple, appropriate response to the Client’s brief and ultimately achieves a memorable space.
Aspect Studios and the City of Sydney are to be commended for this outcome.
COMMENDATION AWARD
Project: M CENTRAL
by 360o
M Central is a 3000m2 rooftop parkland created for the mixed use redevelopment of a heritage listed woolstore in Pyrmont, Sydney. Formerly a concrete car park, it is now a communal recreation space, a true island in the sky.
The design employs a floating deck path through expansive grasslands which provide access to a variety of recreation spaces. The success of the design is endorsed by the fact that images of the rooftop garden figure prominently in M Central’s ongoing advertising campaign.
The Jury were impressed with the strong composition, use of recycled mulches and the technical response to weight loading on an existing structure. This project has achieved a number of successes, most notably by showcasing the potential that rooftops, with good design, have in providing meaningful communal landscapes.
360º and the Hayson Group are to be commended for revealing the potential of this heritage building rooftop.
COMMENDATION AWARD
Project: NOVA RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD
by mcgregor + partners
Nova is a twinned courtyard that serves as the circulation space for 119 apartments in 5 buildings situated over basement parking. Designed as a “pair of gardens”, the courtyards are characterised by willowy Eucalypts in grass mounds, waves of native grasses and serpentine gravel paths.
Nova has contributed to the development of this ‘courtyard’ type in a number of ways. The courtyards operate successfully as both viewed and as occupied landscapes. The relationship of the courtyards to the ground floor apartments has been well considered with a clear hierarchy between private gardens and the common courtyard space. Within each courtyard there is a further division between the general circulation and the circulation to and within each garden, giving the garden areas a better experiential scale.
The courtyards occupy slightly raised plinths with further mounding around the trees to maximise soil depth for tree growth. There is a joy in the range of plant and material textures and they are well scaled to the surrounding buildings. Birds appreciate the indigenous and endemic planting, which references the pre-existing site ecology, whilst the crunch of gravel under foot recalls the bush garden character of the National Gallery.
mcgregor + partners are commended for their thoughtful approach to what is becoming a more important residential building type.
JURY CITATION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Project: CHURCH STREET MALL PRECINCT
by Parramatta City Council
Previously an under-achieving pedestrian-only movement precinct, The Church Street Mall project demonstrates that the introduction of controlled car movement with parking provisions can activate pedestrian-dominated shopping precincts.
The mall’s composition, detailing and material palette, including paved dining areas and creative solar lighting, are appropriate for their location. This composition is underpinned by a number of environmental design principles, including stormwater re-use and biofiltration and energy-responsive design. While not all of these initiatives have achieved their full potential, Parramatta Council is to be commended for undertaking and promoting these initiatives.
The Church Street mall project’s greatest achievement is that it revitalising a failing asset of the city centre and establishes Parramatta Council as a progressive council, prepared to place the environment at the forefront of their agenda.
2007 AILA NSW Award for Planning in Landscape Architecture
AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Project: THE FORMER WATER POLICE SITE
by Aspect Studios in collaboration with Hill Thalis and CAB Consulting for the City of Sydney
The Former Water Police Site in Pyrmont has been contested ground for some time and in approaching the problem, Aspect Studios have responded to the controversy with a strong display of masterplanning skills.
Based on the City of Sydney’s consultation processes, Aspect have put together a brave community engagement process, taking real options to stakeholders and incorporating much of the feedback in the resolved masterplan. The background to this process has been well researched, including extensive analysis of the regional context as well as the natural and social history of the site. This research is communicated to the public in an exciting series of diagrams and graphics that clearly demonstrate the progression from analysis to principles and then to outcomes. The result is a very legible masterplan that dissolves the difficulties of the process in a well resolved solution for yet another of Sydney’s key harbourside open spaces.
AWARD OF MERIT
Project: THE VISION FOR BOBBIN HEAD AND APPLETREE BAY
by Context Landscape Design and Conybeare Morrison International for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Following the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service’s new direction for detailed precinct planning with its reserve system and in collaboration with the Service’s Planning and Performance Unit, Context has taken an holistic approach to preparing a 20 -30 year revitalisation program for these two important Sydney sites. The resulting masterplan visions incorporate conservation management plans and landscape management plans and successfully recognise both the recreational and natural heritage values of the sites.
Over four volumes, the work has carefully documented the cultural heritage of the place and focussed on the experience of park users. Extensive consultation has involved the park management staff, local groups such as kayakers and historical societies. The result is a masterplan that is comprehensive and deeply thoughtful about the issues to be addressed, including an integrated future for the two sites. The solutions put forward are subtle but keenly directed and have an integrity that will serve the client and the community well over a long term implementation program.
AWARD OF MERIT
Project: RYDE RIVER WALK
by POD Landscape Architecture for Ryde City Council
Opening up access to Sydney’s foreshores has been a long term objective for both state and local government in NSW and Ryde City Council’s Ryde River Walk is another confident step towards achieving this goal.
In its work for the Council, POD Landscape Architecture and its sub consultant team has gone well beyond a simple route planning exercise for a 10km pathway along the Parramatta River to create a masterplan for a fully integrated recreational and educational experience for the public. Conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians, route selection, links to adjacent urban centres and staging have been carefully considered, along with the abundant history of the River. The outcome of this analysis is a masterplan that is rich in recreational possibilities and which interprets the River and its many places through art and the landscape. Throughout the project the community has been directly engaged with the process through cycling and walking events, information days and a public exhibition. As a result, POD has put forward a clear vision for the future and positioned the Council well for a successful implementation phase.
2007 AILA NSW Award for Land Management in Landscape Artchitecture
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Project: PARK FACILITIES MANUAL for NP&WS
by Environmental Partnership
Environmental Partnership has produced a comprehensive manual for the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation for the siting, construction and management of park facilities for all sites managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The result of extensive consultation and thorough research, the manual totalling over 300 pages aims at providing appropriate guidance for parks managers, rangers and designers.
Whilst iconic projects can appropriately remain subject to site specific design processes, this manual establishes new benchmarks for the low key infrastructure that comprises the vast majority of development within the Service Lands. It includes sections on sensitive placement of facilities, lifecycle considerations and sustainability of materials, and comprehensive construction details. The information is set out in a well organised, easy to follow professional and succinct manual, available in a ring binder to allow for future upgrades. Use of this manual will enable all those responsible for the design and management of National Parks facilities to make informed decisions across the array of sites throughout NSW.
The manual has a key role to play in responsibly facilitating increased patronage and greater recreation amenity without causing undue disruption to environmentally or culturally sensitive areas.
2007 AILA NSW Award in Research & Communication in Landscape Architecture
JURY SPECIAL CITATION FOR NEW DIRECTIONS
Project: BIO CITY STUDIO
by mcgregor + partners
Bio City Studio is a timely and provocative design studio framework developed for tertiary students at the University of New South Wales.
The framework champions the profession of landscape architecture as a potentially powerful agent of change and innovation at the urban scale.
It develops a critical and proactive approach to the city as a complex web of potentially vulnerable systems. Unlike many studio projects which are site design focused, the Bio City Studio uses design studio as a way to critique Sydney's current Metro strategy, and, by extension, conventional planning and design practice.
The Bio City Studio is based around a staged consideration of urban processes and systems. This leads to the generation of crisis scenarios of varying magnitude for each of these systems. This in turn is followed by the exploration of short and long term solutions to these crises.
The jury commends the innovative approach brought to landscape education and to the city, and makes this award for the initial conceptual development and establishment of the project. The jury also looks forward to the future dissemination and analysis of results emerging from this process.
COMMENDATION AWARD FOR COMMUNICATION
Project: RTA NOISE WALL DESIGN GUIDELINES
by Johnson Pilton Walker
The Noise Wall Design Guidelines promote a thoughtful, reasoned and integrative approach to the design of this increasingly significant infrastructural element. The guidelines pull together a wide range of research and current practice and make key aspects accessible to a diverse range of practitioners, (although landscape architects are not specifically mentioned!).
The document has a clear and well-considered brief, and is clearly written - stating definitively what it is not setting out to do as well as what it is. The design of the published booklet has a contemporary feel and makes effective use of a pattern book format to illustrate key principles.
THE MINISTER FOR PLANNING’S SYDNEY GREENSPACE AWARD
Sponsor: NSW Department of Planning
This year the Minister for Planning, Hon. Frank Sartor is pleased to announce two winners of the Sydney Greenspace Award. Both recipients have completed projects that closely support the NSW Government’s directions put forward in the Metropolitan Strategy and both address the challenges facing local government in weaving public spaces into the fabric of the city and into the lives of its residents.
GREENSPACE AWARD (joint winners)
Project: CHURCH STREET MALL
by Parramatta City Council
In February 2006 Premier Maurice Iemma announced planning for a network of strong regional centres, including the City of Parramatta, to build fresh business investment, create jobs and housing and create new lifestyle opportunities. This initiative was reflected in the Department of Planning’s Metropolitan Strategy: City of Cities and the Cities Taskforce Parramatta City Centre Plan. Now Parramatta Council has pulled together a whole of Council team to implement these plans and bring new energy into the City.
The Church Street Mall Project revitalises one of the most popular streets in Parramatta by replacing a failing pedestrian precinct with a new safer public place that provides one lane of traffic, active street frontages and comfortable outdoor dining, creative lighting and tree planting. In particular the project incorporates high standards of environmental design including using solar energy to power lighting and bio-filtration to treat stormwater runoff before it enters the Parramatta River. In bringing together so many design outcomes, the Council team has set a new standard for environmental design in Parramatta and created a high quality setting for its community and for business.
Project: DEAN RESERVE PLAYGROUND
by Strathfield City Council
As inner city populations grow, so does the challenge to meet the recreation needs for the community within easy distance of home. The refurbishment of inner city spaces has been at the core of the NSW Government’s Cooks River Foreshore Improvement Program, the Metropolitan Strategy’s Parks and Public Places Actions and in particular the Recreation Trails Network.
Strathfield Council has taken up the challenge with dedication and at the Dean Reserve Playground has transformed an old brownfield industrial site along the Cooks River into a green destination for its community, in particular for the young. Council’s consultation with its community showed up a lack of play space for older children in Strathfield and this provided the impetus for a complex remediation and redevelopment of the site which now incorporates environmental sculpture with an exciting range of play opportunities for children, connections to the Cooks River Cycleway and a place to relax for the wider community. In this project Council took the step to involve professional designers in the process. The result is a confident balance of environmental art, rich recreational opportunities and high environmental design standards which already has the enthusiastic support of the Strathfield community.
2007 NSW AWARD FOR RESIDENTIAL DESIGNED LANDSCAPE
Project: HOLMAN HOUSE GARDEN
by Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture
This garden is part of the award winning Holman House designed by Neil Durbach and Camilla Bloch. It sits on the cliff top overlooking the Pacific Ocean and experiences extreme climatic conditions.
The beauty in this garden lies in its relaxed response to the extraordinary building and extreme exposure. The garden is fluid in its layout. Walls and plants from the past garden are added to or subtracted from, reused and built upon. Native and exotic plants, sandstone and slate tumble down the cliff together to create a series of terraces, each with its own character. Plants battered and shaped by the wind occupy their position because they have proven they can.
The Jury were impressed by the design response to this challenging site, which has resulted in a garden that is both dynamic and rich but perhaps most importantly, a little wild.
2007 NSW PRESIDENT’S AWARD
Award Winner: Terras Landscape Architects
For their contribution to the planning, design and development of the Honeysuckle precinct in Newcastle NSW.
>>> Award lists >> booklet
