New South Wales Projects & Sites
Manly Corso Redevelopment
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Landscape Architect: Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Location: Manly (Sydney) New South Wales
Walking down Manly Corso ends one of the world’s great journey’s; to travel from Circular Quay in the Sydney City, across the Harbour by ferry to Manly beach. This trip is made by countless numbers of holiday makers, day trippers and Manly locals every day of the year. The rejuvenation of Manly Corso is a critical part of ensuring this journey remains a memorable experience.
While being a highly visited tourist destination, Manly Corso is a critically important part of the character and ambience of the Manly Village, holding special significance to Manly locals for cultural, economic and social reasons. The landscape architecture design team approached the design of the redeveloped Manly Corso with the aim of getting the competing agenda of visitor and local amenity equally balanced.
In meeting this objective, a winning competition design was developed that responded to a myriad of design challenges. Understanding the site’s natural setting, as a narrow lithmus connecting North Head to the mainland, and the Pacific Ocean to the Harbour, was the critical starting point. Being respectful of the original Corso design that brought about the pedestrianisation of the space in the 1970’s, and ensuring the key successful elements of that popular design were not lost, were also important considerations.
Manly Corso represents a microcosm of Manly life, and the design seeks to embody those characteristics: friendly, egalitarian, laid-back (“a thousand miles from care”). As such, new elements are introduced to the Corso to provide a strong, boldly designed urban environment that allows the space to be read and understood easily, to assist wayfinding for the first time visitor, but also meet the expectations of the Manly locals by continuing to provide them with a civic and cultural space they can still call their own.
The design incorporates five large-in-scale but fine-in-detail new urban design elements:
- A granite pavement with wave forms reflecting the ebb and flow of ocean waves and pedestrian movement
- A continuous copse of informally placed Cabbage Tree palms, the local indigenous palm species of Sydney’s northern beaches
- A waterfeature of animated water jets which serve to act as wayfinding identifiers, a cooling element in the heat of summer, an interactive artwork and a place for fun and play
- A suspended catenary wire system supporting public lighting for the Corso in a random ‘starfield’ arrangement to capture the night sky
- A suite of distinctive custom design seating and other street infrastructure including a stage and playground, located to respond to site and function and designed as intriguing objects in the own right.
Conceptually the design as a whole is a contemporary interpretation of sand, water, sky and palm animated by the linear water feature. In its realisation, the design creates a simple and robust framework strong enough to withstand the daily bump and grind.
The resultant place has a relaxed, egalitarian feel while also conveying a powerful visual cohesion which provides the backdrop to the consistent theatre of the Corso’s passing parade.
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
2010
