AILA NSW Awards 2008
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THE 2008 AILA NSW MEDAL IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Nungatta Station Land Management Program
Material Landscape Architecture
The Project: A 5500ha cattle property, located adjacent to the Genoa River. A vast cattle property, sitting in the heritage area of the upper Genoa River Gorge, adjacent to sensitive ecological areas, National Parks and State Forests. Located near the Victorian border, west of Eden, at the southern most tip of NSW
The Nungatta Station Land Management Program has brought the highest level of scientific research to the forefront and created a detailed landscape matrix, to analyse and understand measurable tangible outcomes for the cattle property. The resultant document ensures the property’s future prosperity with carbon-trading, sustainable tree plantations and future eco-tourism ventures. This sound business approach to land management processes has captured ongoing funds and grants to support the ecological projects: restored wildlife corridors and the continued sustainable process of agricultural practices of grazing, pest and weed control.
The project clearly demonstrates at all levels how a landscape architect can provide key project management skills in understanding sustainable agricultural processes for local, regional and national organisations utilising sound master planning principles to develop a strategic forward thinking document. It has adopted stewardship principles by collaborating extensively, bringing in specialist expertise from all levels of federal government, state government, local government, NGOs and the local community to achieve the vision for the ongoing sustainable longevity of the property in a heritage significant and sensitive ecosystem.
This project in all its aspects is truly “Inspiring”, “Beautiful”, “Succinct”, “Intelligent” and “Genuinely Sustainable”. In giving this award, we recognise the immense contribution and inspiration this exemplary document is to the profession of landscape architecture providing a benchmark for land management practices at a time of such critical environmental demise and financial hardship of our agricultural landscape. We congratulate Material Landscape Architecture for their work on Nungatta Station Land Management Program, truly deserving the highest professional recognition - NSW AILA Medal in Landscape Architecture!
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Landscape planning is becoming increasingly important as we face the impact of climate change, shrinking as well as sprawling cities and the loss of productive lands. Although the technologies used for landscape planning have become highly sophisticated, we have not faced such troubling issues on the ground since the McHargian days.
We look forward to landscape planning taking a leading role in addressing the current crises.
Overall: The entries for 2008 were, in the main, urban in their focus. The fourteen projects submitted ranged from guiding policy documents to highway upgrades, as well as masterplans and strategic designs for planned communities. All entries showed concern for environmental sustainability. Although there were a number of strategic planning innovations, the jury was concerned that generally there appeared to be a lack of social and environmental contextual information. Because such information is one of the distinguishing qualities of landscape planning, it was felt that none of the entries was appropriate for the Project Award for Excellence in Planning.
There were, however, some exciting and inventive submissions, accordingly four awards for Planning in Landscape Architecture, including one special jury citation, were nominated.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR PLANNING IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Jury Citation for Innovation in Planned Communities
Green Square Town Centre Public Domain
mcgregor+partners
Green Square in Sydney’s inner south has been the focus of much good practice in urban consolidation, including a number of outstanding landscape projects such as Victoria Park and some delightful courtyard spaces within the high density residential complexes.
The Green Square Town Centre Public Domain study is a significant contribution towards the effective maturation of the area as a community responsive place.
The study is strong and coherent. Although a draft document, it is graphically intriguing, drawing from some of the communication techniques associated with landscape urbanism.
In social and environmental terms, the study is innovative and strongly strategic, showing clear development from principles to realization. The articulation of different planning scenarios was inclusive, encompassing and innovative.
The jury wished to give an award to this project because of its meritorious nature as well as a special citation for excellence in Planning and Innovation for Planned Communities.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR PLANNING IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Eum Yang
mcgregor+partners in collaboration with Choi Ropiha
This project for a new city model was a highly innovative submission. It reinterpreted the city within a space/time continuum with compelling graphics. The context for the new city model was not entirely clear, however its strength lay in presenting new ways of modelling de novo city development.
The compendium of ideas challenged conventional planning processes and methodologies.
Social and environmental sustainability were explored through exciting communicative techniques to convey difficult interactions at the interface of urban functionality and the natural environment.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR PLANNING IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Randwick Significant Tree Register
Landarc
In Sydney, managing a heritage of significant trees is not easy for local governments. There are many overt and covert practices that bring about the demise of old trees resulting in the loss of a little understood aspect of our landscape heritage.
This submission demonstrated a clear understanding of this heritage and the substantive documentation needed to support heritage planning methods. While strategic planning for dealing with conflicting values about urban trees was not explored, the output was a thoroughly researched, professional and comprehensive survey.
THE AILA NSW AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Sam Fiszman Park
360° in collaboration with Mcgregor Westlake Architects
The jury are pleased to give this prestigious design award to 360° for Sam Fiszman Park. This delightful project designed by 360° in collaboration with McGregor Westlake Architects delivers a courageous and innovative response to the harsh but dramatic Ben Buckler headland at North Bondi and raises important issues of intervention in significant natural landscapes.
The site was formally a car park over contaminated fill. The brief was to create a park that enhance the panoramic views of the site and allow access to the coastal walk. The design components include a turfed entry area and a series of pre-cast and in-situ concrete elements, seats and colourful lookouts that cascade through the site skilfully juxtaposed between sandstone outcrops and boulders. The project adopts water management principles through bio-retention terraces and uses a strong coastal native palette of shrubs and ground covers that successfully withstand wind and ocean spray.
The execution from concept to constructed design is legible and uncompromised. Adopting a simple material palette, the design process has delivered a scheme that is robust, timeless and low maintenance. The project is an excellent example of landscape architecture/architecture collaboration on a small budget of $390,000. 360°, their collaborators and Waverley Council are congratulated for their confident urban contribution to the coastal experience at Bondi.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Rouse Hill Town Centre
Oculus
This $10.5 million project by Oculus has its genesis in a masterplanning process that seeks to raise the bar for urban design. The project is the public domain of a major town centre in Sydney’s expanding North West that seeks to transform the commercial retail core into a civic town centre with design measures that deliver permanency and sense of place - critical aspects of an enduring town centre. Oculus’ role was to realize the character and materiality of the tree-lined roads, pedestrian laneways, town square, roof garden, children’s play space and various courtyard spaces that contribute vitality and enjoyment to the public domain.
The development brief calls for the site to be embedded in its context and to contribute to the sustainable outcomes of the entire development. This has been achieved through an emerging tree canopy, an inspired selection and density of plant material, underpinned by low water use and the playful yet robust detailing in urban elements most notably seats and walls which offer innovation through the palette of materials and colours. Supported by a progressive client, Oculus is congratulated for their role in this well-executed and complex project.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Rest Home
Oculus
This $3m project by Oculus is the open spaces, courtyards, and surrounding landscape of a large and well-funded aged and dementia care facility for the Jewish community in Randwick. It is a project that has celebrated the ‘garden’ in all its dimensions and delivers it with flair and passion. Acknowledging the power of a garden to influence the health of people in their final years, this project has greatly enhanced the overall development , subdued its institutional scale and built form, and delivered a series of beautiful spaces.
A remarkable aspect to this project is the maturity and success of its plantings, since the opening of the
complex two years ago. Supported by a sustainable water management regime that delivers recycled water for irrigation, successful outcomes have been achieved though the densities and arrangements of plants which have been designed for maximum effect within a short timeframe. The planting has longevity through extensive tree plantings that will develop over time.
This project offers an excellent example of design for aged care and shows the potential for these developments to transcend the institutional aspects of such a facility and to create a strong identity of home for its many residents. Congratulations to Oculus for achieving an outstanding project.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Cockatoo Island Northern Apron Park
Taylor Brammer Landscape Architects
Occupying the largest level open space area on Cockatoo Island, this urban park designed by Taylor Brammer has achieved success through restrained simplicity. The brief was to provide a setting for industrial archaeology as well as provide facilities for camping, assist circulation around the island and promote safe access. The main interventions are two pedestrian thoroughfares - a wide fig lined promenade at the edge of the existing rock revetment, and a wide path through the middle of the park which provides the setting for monumental steel artefacts.
The project adopts a restrained and subtle approach to detailing and design intervention which simply knits the ground plain together and allows new materials to blend with the patina of the old. Aside from some idiosyncratic planting choices which seemed incongruous in such a harsh and exposed environment the jury felt that the articulation and resolution of the overall park had been achieved successfully and was highly suited to the site. This is a good example of landscape design within a cultural landscape and much can be learnt from these subtle interventions demonstrating that ‘less is more’. Taylor Brammer and the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust are congratulated for the excellent delivery of this restrained project that contributes strongly to the Sydney Harbour setting.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Magenta Shores
Hassell
Magenta Shores is an integrated 102 hectare golf, housing and resort estate on a narrow spit between the Ocean and Tuggerah Lakes on the Central Coast. Following an existing Masterplan, Hassell undertook the design of the public domain including streetscapes, pedestrian laneways between houses, a small park and the perimeter planting including interfaces with the golf course. The articulation of buildings and surrounding landscape is well integrated on the site and contributes strongly to its success.
This project is a triumph over adversity. Formerly, a degraded and weed infested sand mining site with the added constraints of coastal salt laden winds and sandy soils, the site has been transformed with use of a diverse coastal planting palette, an excellent mix of local and exotic plant material for strong texture and colour - enhancing the lush qualities of the planting scheme. Sustainable management of water with some limited recycled water irrigation and high plant density are noted as part of the successful maintenance regime.
Demonstrating excellence in horticulture and planting design, the quality of the public domain is a defining characteristic of this resort and residential development. Hassell are congratulated for achieving excellence in this project and have provided a strong example to the profession of design quality in resort developments.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR DESIGN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Jury Citation for Small Project
Flour Mills Studio
360°
This $200,000 project designed by 360° is confined to two separate car parking areas on each end of a historic inner city warehouse – essentially the only public open spaces available. Undeterred, the design interventions are clever, humorous and multi-layered including tree planting, a wall-fixed raised corten planter filled with scramblers, lines for a handball court, a ‘red carpet’ leading towards the side entry and various interpretive layers echoing the footprint of former elements.
The project exploits the site potential in a playful and surprising manner and is striking in its simplicity. 360° are commended for their part in the success of this well executed development led by architects, Allen Jack and Cottier.
THE AILA STATE AWARD
FOR RESIDENTIAL DESIGNED LANDSCAPES |
Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Rest Home
Oculus
The Design jury are pleased to give the NSW Residential Design Award to Oculus for their excellent design of the courtyards and landscape for the Sir Moses Montefiore Jewish Rest Home in Randwick.
It is believed that this project delivers a paradigm in the challenging area of design for aged care and has created a treasured environment for the many residents including Holocaust survivors, for whom it is home.
Congratulations to Oculus for achieving an outstanding project.
THE RTA NSW AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ON ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
The Great Western Highway – Shell Corner to Katoomba.
Spackman Mossop & Michaels Pty Ltd
The NSW RTA is to be commended for establishing an award for landscape architects’ role in road projects. This new award for NSW AILA can be a catalyst for imaginative and innovative designs.
Spackman Mossop & Michaels’s project is a fine example of integrated design where architecture, landscape architecture and engineering combine to deliver urban design that enhances the elegance of the road corridor with robust and stylish design interventions.
The project celebrates the infrastructure program for the new corridor but retains existing local road connectivity and provides for pedestrians and cyclists in parallel. Congratulations to Spackman, Mossop Michaels for this excellent built project which delivers on the promise of the earlier intelligent and well conceived Masterplan for the Leura to Katoomba road corridor.
RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATION |
THE AILA NSW AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Landcom Street Tree Guidelines
James Mather Delaney Design
Landcom’s Street Tree Guidelines are an outstanding piece of work. The project brings together the best specialist expertise to focus on an element of the urban landscape which provides significant benefits to the city but does not always get the necessary attention from designers and project managers to realise those benefits.
James Mather Delaney Design have produced a set of guidelines that is comprehensive in covering the planning, design and life cycle management of urban street trees. The research involved in the project is substantial and extremely thorough. The Guidelines report strikes the right balance between information detail and clarity of method and presentation.
The result is a piece of work that is authoritative and well suited to the client’s intended audience, while at the same time having a relevance to the wider landscape profession.
AILA NSW AWARD FOR RESEARCH & COMMUNICATION IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Landscape Professional Practice Reference Book
Graham Fletcher, FBE, UNSW
Graham Fletcher’s Landscape Professional Practice Reference Book demonstrates a commitment and level of expertise that deserves a much wider audience than the university students it is principally aimed towards.
Graham has provided a comprehensive summary of current professional practice that includes critical advice on business practice, ethics and the legal context in which the profession operates. His practice notes cover the application of contract, environmental, property law and intellectual property rights along with the broader issues of professional responsibility. Graham has also provided a bibliography which provides students with a ‘one stop’ point of reference invaluable to the practising professional.
THE AILA NSW AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Nungatta Station Land Management Program
Material Landscape Architecture
The Project: A 5500ha cattle property, located adjacent to the Genoa River. A vast cattle property, sitting in the heritage area of the upper Genoa River Gorge, adjacent to sensitive ecological areas, National Parks and State Forests. Located near the Victorian border, west of Eden, at the southern most tip of NSW
An outstanding project that immediately impressed the Jury, through its innovation of land management planning, master planning, ecological and agricultural restoration. It achieved a vision beyond the brief and extended the project boundaries to broaden the issues and values at all levels - local, regional, state and national. Inspiring example of a landscape architect working in agricultural land management planning, business sustainability and large scale ecological planning.
Material Landscape Architecture took a simple client brief, to maintain cattle production as primary use and to return pride in the property. The project however went beyond including: education, research of best practices, documented business & financial sustainability and environmental sustainability. It displayed intelligent use of grants funding sourced at many levels for land management and improved the knowledge base for future projects. The project displayed a critical assessment and development of the brief and demonstrated an ability to achieve complex outcomes which are often perceived as mutually in compatible. An exemplary document setting a benchmark for land management practices expressing the full breadth of master planning, ecological planning, business planning, agricultural sustainable practices and developing a strong vision for the study.
Reports and mapping of the property master plan were exceptional: Clear concise graphics, detailed illustrative presentation, clarity of thought and the complex connections were cleverly written and presented to ensure the project’s vision was clearly understood. The project was succinctly and convincingly presented with strong guiding principles for the property’s future inspiring to the client and all involved.
THE NSW MINISTER FOR PLANNING’S SYDNEY GREENSPACE AWARD
This year the Minister for Planning, Hon Kristina Keneally, has chosen a project that demonstrates the on-ground implementation of the NSW Government’s Metropolitan Strategy and its associated Actions from the Parks and Public Spaces Strategies.
- Sydney will have fair access to quality parks and public places for leisure, sport and recreation for the local community and visitors. The city will have a range of open spaces that meet the diverse and changing needs of the community.
- A network of recreation trails will provide walking and cycling opportunities linking centres and parks.
The Great River Walk, Penrith: Stages 1 and 2, Nepean River, Penrith NSW
Penrith City Council
The Great River Walk (GRW) along the Nepean – Hawkesbury Rivers was designated as a short-term and high priority trail in the 2005 Sydney Metropolitan Regional Recreation Trail Framework, which established an integrated network of regional recreation trails across the Sydney metropolitan region. Its regional recreational catchment, connection to water and opportunities to celebrate cultural, natural and Aboriginal heritage make this trail significant in Western Sydney.
The GRW is an example of successful State and Local government, community and industry partnership. Stages 1 and 2 of the Great River Walk (GRW) have been implemented and this 1.5km stretch of the Walk, previously impenetrable, extends north from the loop between the two bridges to the Penrith Lakes development.
Western Sydney is a region with a relative scarcity of accessible open space, and the recreational open space opportunities are greatly enhanced by the GRW. The Walk links with other regional trails in Sydney and is thus part of a network of existing and proposed open spaces of regional significance.
The project maximises connection with the water, both physically and visually. Principles of universal design are employed where opportunity exists to optimise multi-purpose or universal access.
Council’s landscape architects have been able to tame traditional engineering practices and fuse them with softer practices of bushland revegetation, increased visual access, and respect for the River’s heritage and cultural features and riparian environment.
This balance of engineered solutions with environmental principles through embankment stabilisation techniques, retention of existing trees, minimizing impact of landform and addressing extensive weed infestation with planting and bushland revegetation, has created a diverse and intimate riparian character.
THE 2008 AILA NSW PRESIDENT’S AWARD |
Christina Bunbury
AILA NSW State Manager
Awarded to Christina Bunbury, AILA NSW State Manager, for her tireless work with the AILA NSW Executive for fourteen years.
In recognition for her belief in the profession, respect shown towards the profession and the AILA and her constant efforts to promote landscape architects and the profession with every contact with the public, other professions and agencies.
THE AILA NSW STUDENT AWARDS |
First prize: Amy Lindeman
for her UNSW FBE 4th year presentation : Toxic Discourse.
Amy’s presentation is dynamic with highly organised graphics and consistency of ideas. Her project response demonstrates awareness of the current trends in master-planning in Australia and offers an innovative yet practical investigation of the project site. It is comprehensive and highly unified. Her analysis relates to the intention of the concept, and the design development from concept to resolution is confident and well presented with compelling graphics. Amy is congratulated for her excellent achievement in this challenging 4th year studio.
Second prize: Linden Crane
for her UNSW FBE 4th year presentation : Evolutio
AILA NSW Contacts
