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Brisbane Foreshore Parklands Project

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Landscape Architect: City Design, Brisbane City Council

Location: Wynnum / Manly & Sandgate/ Shorncliffe. Brisbane, Queensland

OVERVIEW

The Brisbane Foreshore Parklands Project has been a major open space project for the Brisbane City Council. As part of Council’s 2004/05 budget, $24 million was dedicated to the rehabilitation of the foreshores in the suburbs of Sandgate, Shorncliffe, Wynnum and Manly.

The initial, integrated stages of the project were master planning and detailed community consultation. Subsequent stages have been design and documentation, procurement, construction, establishment, community hand over and maintenance.

This document describes the project undertaken by City Design to undertake the master planning and preparation of the Project Concept Plan report.

The brief for the master planning project was informed by an intensive set of consultations that considered all stakeholders and included the objectives of:

  • optimising the recreation and amenity potential of foreshore parks for residents and visitors
  • identification of the unique qualities of each of the foreshore landscapes and facilitating amplification through the design
  • developing a clear planning and design intent that is able to be expressed across different sites and over the staged development
  • establishing a framework for sustainability that runs through the project into implementation, utilisation and management.

The vision established for the Foreshores Parklands Project is of quality landscape settings that realise the opportunities and constraints associated with the natural, cultural and built environments of the foreshore open space network. This included the creation of outdoor spaces responding to Brisbane’s subtropical living, promoting views to Moreton Bay, cultural interpretation of local context and opportunities for new and ongoing community events and festivals.

Special Factors

  • The length of the foreshore parklands totals 14 kilometres and the width ranges from two metres to a hundred and fifty.
  • During the 1930’s Depression, relief workers engaged on construction projects of civic improvement and beautification, carried out improvements on a large scale along the Esplanades. In Wynnum, this work included reclamation of two hectares of mudflats, formation of 610 metres of stone revetment wall and the creation of the Wynnum Wading Pool that opened in 1933.
  • As the foreshore parks are located on Moreton Bay they are highly susceptible to King Tides, storm surges and general salt-water inundation. Over time salt accumulation in the soil had resulted in very poor vegetative performance and a declining useability of the parks. The design uses a series of landscape walls to control approximately 70% of the predicted inundation.
  • Plant species used in the upgrade are salt tolerant natives endemic to the Moreton Bay Region. Trees have been raised behind seating walls and a series of swales harvest site run off and roof water to flush salt from the soil.
  • In the larger park areas run off from roofs, roads and car parks is collected and stored for toilet flushing and irrigation.
  • In the largest area of parkland at Manly, a 75-metre long shelter has been created to provide a large, highly flexible covered area which can be used by a large number of small groups or a very large group.
  • The parklands will act as a focus within the community for gathering, recreation, performance, education, environmental and cultural celebration & recognition of heritage.
  • The local community is involved in planning, design & management and performance monitoring of park facilities.

Budget : The total project budget is $24,000,000.

A project of this size and complexity has provided many opportunities for innovative open space planning.  From the outset the integration of responsive environmental design and its relationship to Brisbane City Council’s 2010 Vision and livability policies have provided a framework on which the master planning and the Project Concept Plan have been developed.

The project team distilled the following key themes from the consultation process as tools to guide the project at all stages:

  • Community - Engage and strengthen the community.  Be responsive to their needs and aspirations. Encourage ownership through community involvement in planning, design, management and performance monitoring of park facilities and use.

  • Sustainability - Develop and demonstrate sustainable design outcomes in the project to enable education and experience. 

  • Site Context & Functionality - Ensure that the broad suburban context provides a full range of recreational opportunities and that the design of the foreshore areas accommodates flexibility and variety in the planning and design of landscape spaces.

  • Natural Environment - Retain, promote and build upon the natural environment ensuring biodiversity and user appreciation and education.

  • Landscape Amenity - Ensure the preservation of a strong sense of place by providing a hierarchy of quality, comfort, meaning and flexibility in spaces and experiences.    Respond to the diversity of users with a diversity of spaces and experiences.

  • Accessibility - Provide convenient, safe and legible access for all wherever practical. Identify and promote urban linkages to public transport nodes, commercial centres, local parks and reserves. 

  • Recreation - Design for varied, accessible and balanced range of recreational opportunities and provide facilities and infrastructure to support these and allow for yet undetermined uses.

  • Cultural Heritage - Protect, enhance and promote the cultural heritage of the area and build on existing values to express cultural literacy through planning and design initiatives. The promotion of education through interpretation, environmental / cultural celebration and  recognition of local heritage.

A series of detailed reports and strategies were prepared as part of the master planning to guide the Project Concept Plan and to ensure that the design phases of the foreshore development were guided by a strong, well resolved depth of knowledge.

These contributed to the overall assessment of the existing situation and opportunities and constraints, identification of sustainable initiatives, design recommendations and specific details related to scope. The investigations and strategies included:

  • CPTED – Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Assessment
  • Cultural Heritage Report
  • Assessment of Environmental Factors
  • Detailed Horticultural Assessment, Plant Palette Formulation and Soil Improvement strategy
  • Lighting Audit
  • Traffic Planning
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Water Sensitive Urban Design
  • Accessibility Strategy
  • Architectural Strategy
  • Artwork Strategy
  • Furniture Strategy
  • Irrigation Strategy
  • Lighting Strategy
  • Planting Strategy
  • Signage and Interpretation Strategy

These strategies formed the basis for formal approval by the client in relation to planning expectations and appreciating the sustainability, connectivity and legibility of the overall project.

Environmental sustainable initiatives for the park master planning are divided into the following key themes: Strategic Linkages, Autonomy, Interference, Building Clusters, Biodiversity and Culture.

Sustainability is an integral part of the project vision and Council intends to use the foreshore parklands as a working model to educate and demonstrate new processes and outcomes.

The foreshore parks act as a series of regional destination parks that exist in a linear format. The strength of the longitudinal link is critical to the site’s long-term effectiveness. Linkages to nearby commercial centres, transport nodes and parkland will benefit local communities through the provision of a comfortable network of recreational pathways.  Vegetated corridors within the open spaces will enhance ecological linkages and values.

Autonomy

Resources and cycles are to be largely contained within the site limits. This will have significant implications for detailed design, construction and maintenance phases of the project. For example:

  • Strategies are in place which detail how to upgrade and utilise existing salty site soil into a viable growing medium and
  • Stormwater will be contained on the site, with the water used to flush accumulated salts from the growing media to increase the long term viability of the sites’ vegetation.

Interference

Sensitive areas of the site are protected with restricted access. Where access is essential, structures are to be developed that do not adversely impact on the landscape. Areas of concern include the bushland escarpments and the interface with the tidal mudflats.

Building Clusters

Buildings and facilities will be concentrated to a limited number of locations along the foreshores. Remaining areas can be simple and green, hence reducing the extent of services and design infrastructure. Building design and construction are to incorporate environmental sustainable design principles appropriate for their location, function and scale. Elements to be considered include flexible floor plans, aspect, ventilation, lighting, roof water collection, shade, insulation and building material selection.

Biodiversity

Habitat values for fauna and flora is substantially improved through the use of endemic plant species. Historically the escarpment vegetation has been degraded by harsh winds, so species will be planted to provide buffering for this vegetation and increasing habitat variety. Small-scale habitat corridors or links throughout the foreshores are achieved at ground and canopy level.

Culture

Increase the health and well being of the local community and citywide population by creating an exciting series of linked parks with bay frontage. Add to the depth of understanding by retaining the heritage of the site and providing educational opportunities for the interpretation of its rich history.

Opportunities will be created to provide interpretive information about sustainable solutions and alternative energy.

Provision of a range of facilities will facilitate cultural development and interaction.

Relevance to the profession of landscape architecture, the public and the education of the future practitioners:

Consultation for the preparation of the Project Concept Plan has consisted of engaging Brisbane City Council stakeholders, external stakeholder groups and local communities. Internal stakeholders were identified early in the process to ensure promotion of the foreshore project and opportunity to work with other Council program areas in the delivery of an integrated foreshore outcome.

Community consultation was facilitated through the project team working in association with a consultant to engage the community in the project visioning process, including the development and review of ideas. Input and feedback from the various stakeholder groups, whether preliminary or detailed, has been considered in the development of the Foreshore Concept Plan.

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