Sites in and around Canberra
The Waterfront
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
Landscape Architect: Cia Landscapes and Colour
Location: Mundaring Drive, Kingston ACT
Introduction
The landscape aims to compliment the strong architectural style and scale of the proposed built forms and surrounding environment. Art in the landscape is in fact the landscape expressed as art, where earth form, plant material, snaking paths and seasonal change are the artist’s medium.
The design is an artistic interpretation of the Lake Burley Griffin edge adjacent, highlighted through the organically formed solid paths which link podium to podium as well as enhancing the fluidity of the building’s curvilinear form.
The podiums are an expression of the distinct Canberra seasons which provide residents/ users with a series of visually interesting spaces when viewed from above and on the ground plane. This is achieved by a bold palette of plant and hard materials which provide seasonal change and ephemeral qualities as well as a colour association to the various seasons.
Utilization of plant material which is drought hardy yet sculptural, and gentle mounding allows for a composition of colour and form which does not obscure the vistas to Lake Burley Griffin beyond and does not affect the solar access to the northern unit faces. The introduction of few vertical elements to the entry points balances the human and built scales whilst respecting the visual connection to the significant Powerhouse building behind.
Proposed hard surfaces are kept to a minimum to allow for a dominance of permeable surfaces within the podium areas.
There is a defined architectural edge to the development and to the courtyards defining public and private zones. The terracing of garden beds and random cascading of plant material along the northern edge creates visual relief and enhances the sensitive design of this development in its picturesque lake foreshore setting, whilst welcoming pedestrians through the central spine/ connector from the lake.
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
2008
