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Award for Design in Landscape Architecture
RSPCA
KENNEL COURTYARDS
Landscape Architect:
Site Office Pty Ltd
This low
budget, high-impact project involves four courtyards located between new
dog kennels for the RSPCA in Burwood.
A
whimsical and witty design strategy utilized the distinct coat patterns of
different dog species (which also lent their name to the courtyards)
applying an extended surface sample to the courtyards in varieties of
coloured stone and crushed rock areas, edged by securely pinned white
rope. The simple materials and installation details resulted from an
extremely limited budget and unskilled, corporate volunteer labor. The
four courtyards each received a different ‘spot’ pattern and this gives
each its own identity, in contrasting response to the robust but
undifferentiated architectural language employed on the buildings.
Suggestive
to humans of Japanese rock gardens, and intended perhaps as a
contemplative Zen garden for stressed animals, the project, while it did
research and consider animal psychology, found that this would not be a
primary response from those in the adjacent glassed kennels, although the
maintenance of sunlight was vital. The jury felt that this project was
both a responsible and reasonable yet dynamic and vivid design proposal
that understood and exploited the budget constraints and the visual
opportunities of the overlooked and essentially inaccessible spaces. Along
with the good-will generated through the construction process, it brings
life and humor to often ill-considered and cheerless institutional
environments.
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