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Award for Planning in Landscape Architecture
Special
Jury Citation for Innovation in Planned Communities
INVERLOCH BROADBEACH RETIREMENT VILLAGE MASTERPLAN
Landscape Architect: Aspect
In recognising this project with a citation, the jury
commends the significant efforts by ASPECT to make the most of a delicate
situation where other developers may have insisted on pursuing a
ubiquitous, well established model or alternatively other landscape
architects might have chosen to walk away from the seemingly intractable
problem of building in a floodplain and wetland.
The Inverloch Broadbeach Retirement Village Master Plan has
balanced the multiple constraints of a highly ecologically sensitive site
with the commercial demand for a viable project. Comprehensive analysis of
the ecological, geomorphological and hydrological conditions identified
land suitable for development and, under the guidance of the landscape
architects, formed the basis for changes to the planning scheme. This
ensured protection of the most sensitive land.
The coastal landscape setting determined all aspects of the
site development. The road layout follows the linear dune morphology,
retaining the highly significant estuarine salt marsh, mangrove shrubland
and coastal dune scrub within a conservation area. Coastal dune scrub
extends throughout the residential development, inspiring a designed
landscape of indigenous plants, including native lawn as fire protection
surrounding the residential units. Constructed freshwater and brackish
wetlands, as part of a fully integrated water-sensitive urban design,
provide water quality treatment and flood mitigation for both the
development and the adjoining township of Inverloch.
ASPECT has
produced a retirement ‘ecoresort’ of commercial benefit to its client and
of environmental benefit to the community. Importantly, the project
demonstrates that accommodating an aging population can assume a model
vastly different to the traditional retirement village.
Images
 
Photographs: ASPECT Studios
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