The brief called for the designers to capture the essential qualities of Victoria's tall mountain forests with trees, plants and wildlife, to provide a beautiful and refreshing musuem experience, and to captivate visitors with stories drawn from the Museum's unique view of the forest.

The approach went beyond the purely ecological. Influences that shape the forest environment, or agents of change, were identified: water, earth, climate, fire and people. These elements became the basis of the arrangement of the exhibit.

The result is a living sculpture, that utilises plants, animals, digital technology and synthetic materials to paint a picture that encompasses the naturalistic and abstract

J U R Y ' S    C O M M E N T S
This project is commended for the manner in which the landscape architects have pulled together a highly complex team. The jury also considered that the team had resolved the technical difficulties of producing a landscape of this scale within the confines of a building. The design produces a commendable transition from the natural to the symbolic environment, although it was felt that this transition could have been taken further.

The overall project was of an extremely high quality and the jury believed it would become one of the important internal building landscapes of Melbourne.