Queensland Sites
2004 AILA award winner
Ecovillage at Currumbin
introduction / location / Qld-Projects
Landscape Architect: John Mongard Landscape Architects
LOCATION: 639 Currumbin Road, Currumbin,
Queensland
Listed as A Case Study for the AILA's 2008-2009 National Climate Change Project
Introduction
After undertaking an Australia
Council funded research project for finding alternatives to suburban
sprawl,
JMLA printed a brochure which was distributed by Gold Coast City Council
to developers.
One such developer, Landmatters Pty. Ltd. was searching
for a team to produce what they hoped would become the world’s
best ecologically sustainable village.
They adopted the ecological principles
of the brochure and hired JMLA to help in this visioning process. |
|
Landmatters Pty Ltd set
out to `build a project that inspires and sets a world’s best standard for the
future community of Australia’. The proposal is to develop an alternative
approach to sprawl by using ecologically sustainable principles.
With
this came the challenge to prove to the local community that suburban
sprawl was not just about to begin on their sensitive doorstep.
The Landmatters
ecovillage would be one of the largest new living areas in the Valley
and this created a potentially explosive political context.
The community design process that JMLA practise – called `Set-Up
Shop,’ shows that working with people and listening to their
dreams is a potent tool for placemaking. In the end, there were very
few people in the Valley who had attended the workshops who disagreed
with the final concept plan.
The brief was strongly influenced by the community
design process instigated by JMLA with the visions, concerns and
ideas of the valley’s
residents actively harnessed through a weeklong onsite brainstorming.
Over four hundred people attended these brainstorms which were run
from the old diary shed on the property.
This proved that co-design
is just as relevant on a greenfields site as in the middle of an urban
area.
The subdivision process at heart has remained unchallenged
in the suburbs in the last thirty years.
Landscape architects rarely
get to draw up boundaries and parcels unencumbered by surveyors, or to
create living places which are led by, not followed by, ecological development
principles.
The layout of the ecovillage truly follows landform and landcover,
creating eco-hamlet footprints which were all created on cleared land
with no environmental constraints.
Client: Landmatters (Currumbin Valley) Pty Ltd
Project: Landscape/Environmental Planning and Co-design for a 220 home ecovillage in the Gold Coast hinterland’s most scenic valley.
Collaborators: A team of 12 consultants, 200 local residents
Budget: $10 million dollars
introduction / location / Qld-Projects
2008
