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Award for Design in Landscape Architecture
Special
Jury Citation for Water Sensitive Urban Design
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY, VCA CAMPUS, ST KILDA ROAD FRONTAGE
Landscape Architect: Coomes Consulting
Group
Construction: McDonald Keen Group and Ecodynamics
The jury was intrigued by this project
which cleverly conveys a story of water flow, capture and filtration in a
strictly limited inner-urban environment. The project is carefully
crafted, accommodating the infiltration requirements of two significant
Kauri Pines, thoughtfully separating essential pedestrian desire-lines and
the complex water passage while incorporating whimsical details which
visibly “code” the process into the site. As a demonstration project for
water sensitive urban
design, it operates as a new campus entrance and is the first stage of a
future upgrading to the VCA frontage. It is clearly successful and
tangibly promotes the role of landscape architects as creative designers
able to innovatively integrate subtle and variable engineering
requirements into expressive, educational and functional spaces.
The VCA campus project represents a
progressive approach to water sensitive design. The landscape architect
has delivered a contemporary design that successfully responds to existing
heritage values and retention of significant existing vegetation. The
project also highlights the importance of collaboration between the
landscape architect, stakeholders and the project team to ensure water
quality objectives are achieved but also combined with an attractive and
functional design.
Images
 
Photographs: Coomes Consulting Group |
