2011 AILA VIC Award Winners

The AILA Victoria Medal for Landscape Architecture

Project: NATIONAL ARBORETUM CANBERRA
Practice: Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Client: ACT Government - Economic Development Directorate
Partners: Tonkin Zulaikha Greer

This planning project was an inspired response to the complexities of accommodating and positioning a rich tapestry of flora in a recently fire ravaged site on the western flank of Canberra. Demonstrating qualities of temporal thought, careful human and flora management and curatorship, sensitivity to siting of facilities and infrastructure, the overall masterplan lays the foundations for a highly significant and diverse arboretum collection whilst successfully addressing the topographical and aesthetic characteristics and constraints of the site.

National AILA Award - 'The AILA'

The award is presented to VicRoads, the peak organisation in the planning, design and development of Victoria’s public road infrastructure.

VicRoads has provided continued leadership in landscape architecture and the design of public infrastructure in Victoria. VicRoads is now considered a world leader in facilitating and promoting innovative and context sensitive design for public roads and their associated infrastructure. The organisation has provided, throughout its history, support for the development of landscape architecture and landscape architects.

Landscape design was formally introduced to the organisation in 1975, when the Landscape Section of the Country Roads Board was initiated with Rosa Niran leading the early work on the F19 Eastern Freeway. Later, towards the end of the 80s, there was the ground breaking Eastern Freeway design, drawing heavily on the work of architects and landscape architects to create a freeway that spoke to the driver as well as providing public space elements for adjacent suburbs. Subsequently, many major road projects came to be led or informed by landscape architects, notably the much awarded Craigieburn Bypass having as lead consultant the landscape architectural practice TCL (Taylor Cullity and Lethlean). Within VicRoads itself, the landscape division undertook the planning work for the Eastlink corridor, and the design for the Ringwood interchange, which were then delivered by Wood Marsh and the landscape architectural practice Tract.

The discipline of landscape architecture has been deeply involved in both the planning of infrastructure projects, and the landscape and visual impact assessments of many roads and bridges throughout Victoria. And the landscape architects within VicRoads have been passionate advocates for good design, contributing to the broader education of their peers, engineers and architects, and initiating original research into plants and ecology, landscape management and water sensitive urban design.
Many Australian landscape architects have worked with VicRoads, from the original planning of road and freeway alignments, to concept design, to delivery and maintenance of these projects. We would like to give particular recognition to the female landscape architects who have provided leadership. They are Rosa Niran in the 1970s, Jackie Ross in the 1980s, and Lorrae Wild from the 1990s to the present day. In addition we would like to recognise the many other landscape architects who have practiced, and continue to practice, within VicRoads.

To achieve great outcomes – or even simply good outcomes – the planning and design of infrastructure must engage with the environmental, social, economic, ethical and political concerns that such projects generate. And to their enduring credit, rather than deflecting and avoiding these complex discussions, the many landscape architects within VicRoads have risen to the challenge and involved themselves with these issues with dedication, research and professional leadership.

Staying within the realms of best practice is an ongoing endeavor requiring advocacy, research and education; as a profession we look forward to working with VicRoads into the future, and together meeting both the environmental and economic needs of Victoria. We also look forward to VicRoads’ future leadership in promoting sustainable travel outcomes for all modes of transport across the transport network.

Design Award

Project: 717 Bourke Street, Melbourne
Practice: ASPECT Studios Pty Ltd
Client: Probuild Constructions (AUST) Pty Ltd

The landscape at 717 Bourke Street describes an urban landscape proposition that draws its contextual reference, material palette and design character from the City of Melbourne paradigms, overlaid with moments of difference.

The design fills the interstitial space left over by the footprint of the surrounding buildings, and is informed by their facades. The landscape architects propose a ‘topographical carpet’, spreading outwards from building edges, blurring the interface between public and private, active and passive, building and landscape.

The carpet is expressed as a geometric mosaic pattern of bluestone, granite, splitstone and seasoned hardwood that successfully shifts three dimensionally to form occupiable plinths, edges and platforms, and separating circulation from carefully oriented occupiable spaces. Indigenous copses of banksia and eucalypts, under planted with native grasses, provide a drought tolerant reference to the site history as the edge of a former swamp.

This project is a successful detailed addition to the pedestrian grain of the docklands precinct.

Urban Design Award

Project: Clifton Hill Railway Project Landscape
Practice: Jeavons Landscape Architects
Client: Department of Transport

The Clifton Hill Rail Project began as a key transport initiative to duplicate the railway track between Clifton Hill and Westgarth Stations. The result of which was an opportunity to deliver a landscape that stitched together the Merri Creek environs, a new rail bridge, pedestrian and cyclist needs and the local community.

The result is a beautifully executed landscape which demonstrates the integral role that a landscape architect has in delivering a multi-dimensional project varying in scale, programs, stakeholders, and contexts.

This project demonstrated sensitivity to social, cultural and physical contexts through an extensive consultation process with the community and various authorities. It also demonstrated the role of the landscape architect from the broad strategic scale to the detail resolution. The project focused on improved accessibility and community linkages but goes beyond a cycle routes and footpaths and creates a public space in an area that is generally forgotten. This is further developed through the use and treatment of the space under the bridge as a ‘Park.’

The jury were also impressed with the relationship the landscape architect developed between the Department of Transport and Melbourne Water and the opportunities that have resulted. The realisation of the strategic ambitions was demonstrated not just at a master plan level but also at the delivery intimate details such as the reuse of rail tracks within the vegetation.

This project delivers on a technically challenging project that balanced a range of expectations through a skillfully delivered and well resolved design.

Project: Monash University Museum of Art, Ian Potter Sculpture Court
Practice: Simon Ellis Landscape Architect
Client: Monash University Museum of Art
Partners: Kerstin Thompson Architects and Fiona Harrisson

The Ian Potter Sculpture Court project transformed a former lifeless car park into a new exciting campus focus. The Court accommodates multiple roles and plays a part in the daily exchange of campus life and the internal program at the Monash University Musuem of Art.

The jury was impressed with the clearly articulated design concept based on a series of layers operating at different scales - that of the campus, the site and the body.
The elegant execution of the design with its clean lines and restraint and the integration of architecture and art produced a highly commendable outcome. Beautiful spaces invite for interaction and social benefits.

The integration of existing trees, a rainwater garden and flexibility in the new planting gives this project good environmental credentials and resilience for the future.

Project: Dandenong Education Precinct
Practice: Outlines Landscape Architecture Pty Ltd
Client: Hayball and the DEECD

Following the controversy following the rollout of the Building the Education Revolution program, this project by Outlines Landscape Architecture highlights the ability for landscape architects to deliver high quality educational landscapes as essential parts of new building programs within schools.

The Dandenong Education Precinct provides a series of flexible spaces around seven individual learning hubs each connecting to a central open space. The angular forms of the landscape respond to the built form, provide connections across the site and provide the spatial arrangement for the various landscape programs which are integrated with the new educational philosophy of the school. The distinction between indoor and outdoor teaching spaces is blurred through the use of benches which extend through the buildings into the landscape.

The individual landscapes around each of the seven ‘schools’ creates a sense of belonging and ‘community’ for each school while providing clear connections to neighbouring buildings and the common open space establishing a collegiate atmosphere through careful landscape planning and design. The central ‘agora’ is a large and flexible space able to accommodate a range of formal and informal activities.

Water Sensitive Urban Design is embedded in the landscape design through detention basins integrated into functional landscapes.

Residential Design Award

Project: Medhurst
Practice: Tract Consultants Pty Ltd
Client: Robyn and Ross Wilson

The landscape for the graphic residence at Medhurst is restrained and elegant, combining functional external living spaces, swimming pool and kitchen garden, and grounding the house and vineyard within the extended landscape of the Yarra Valley.

The driveway approach to the house is carefully orchestrated via a sinuous gravel incline, located on a ridgeline, which skirts, and locates, both vineyard and cellar door. The driveway extends through a tall stand of eucalypts, which open to reveal the house perched over a magnificent view of north-facing vineyards, the Yarra Valley, and the tail of the Great Dividing Range.

The landscape treatment around the house is sculptural, reflecting the formal geometry of the architecture, countered by soft batters and curved edges. The soft landscape palette comprises Lomandra ‘Tanika’, avenues of Manchurian Pears, lawns and bolstering of the existing eucalypt forest. Plant massing is used to provide a ‘kinetic pedestal’ for the house.

Medhurst is a successful meld of contemporary architecture and landscape, juxtaposing the sculptural and the natural in a striking composition.

Planning Awards

Project: Living Links Master Plan Corridor Identification and Analysis
Practice: Urbis
Client: Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority

This project demonstrates the unique ability of the landscape architecture profession to analyse and synthesise a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research supported by extensive stakeholder consultation to produce a practical and adaptable Master Plan which will provide a solid basis for future planning and management for Dandenong Creek and its tributaries.

The Living Links Master Plan by Urbis covers the Dandenong Creek catchment encompassing most of the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. The document uses data analysis and consultation to identify 13 corridors for priority management.

These corridors feature areas of cultural, environmental, social and recreational values. The Master Plan provides a framework for connecting, protecting and enhancing these features while providing pathways and shared trails along each corridor.

This work clearly highlights the ability of landscape architects to understand, filter and prioritise a wide range of scientific, social and cultural data as a basis for broad scale landscape planning to inform a Master Plan that moves beyond the traditional hydrology-focused Waterway Activity Plans.

The Master Plan is a well-founded and accessible document that provides achievable guidelines for social, environmental, cultural and recreational improvements across the identified corridors.

Project: Ensessakotteh: Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre
Practice: Taylor Cullity Lethlean
Partners: David Hancocks and Peter Stroud

This master plan for a new 77 hectare sanctuary, in Addis Ababa demonstrated the important role of the landscape architect as advocate. The breadth of this role as advocate included the community, natural environment and the wildlife that the Born Free Foundation has devoted themselves to.

A small project team from Taylor Culity Lethlean with David Hancocks and Peter Stroud were engaged on a pro bono agreement to create a master plan that sought a solution to housing rescued wildlife that was economically viable and invited visitors. What has been delivered is a master plan that goes beyond a wildlife rescue program and embraces broader values towards the community’s relationship to its natural environment.

The project demonstrates the integral role the landscape architect can play in strategic planning. The master plan responds to issues of access to green open space, education and relief from the urban environment in addition to the key focus of animal welfare.

The jury were impressed with the landscape architects role in providing a short term response together with a long term program to shift cultural and ethical values. This project delivered pro bono and in a short timeframe typified the skills and knowledge inherent in the landscape architect and the difference they can make. Much can be learnt from this project in terms of the delivery and ambition of the masterplan, and on a more specific level in terms of the design of animal sanctuaries and their relationship with the public.

Project: Bells Beach Coastal Management Plan and Master Plan
Practice: Fitzgerald Frisby Landscape Architecture
Client: Surf Coast Shire

This was a robust master planning project that demonstrated all the hallmarks of a robust site analysis and client and user appreciation master planning process.
The landscape architects demonstrated care in addressing the needs and aspirations for an iconic coastal site that experiences infrequent heavy public use and witnesses excessive coastal exposure.

The level and quality of documentation, site analysis appreciation and the use of scenarios to map and test potential impacts and user needs was excellent, resulting in an ecologically sensitive a master plan.

Research and Communications Awards

Project: A comparative study of Melbourne's freeway planting design: implications for biodiversity conservation
Entrant: Zoe Metherell
Partners: Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology

In the future, the landscape architectural design for major infrastructure projects will no longer be based solely on the artistic skills of designers, it will often require a strong scientific/research basis to gain wider support.

Building a convincing evidence-based argument for future works, the research of Zoe Metherells’ comparative study of Melbourne’s freeway planting designs with quantitative techniques for analysing the planting palettes has actually shone a light on the fact that applied research can be both realistic and practical.

Her thoroughness in the inclusions of her study, the species richness, number of plants per kilometer, dominant species, specification of indigenous or weed species, species habit and proximity to remnant vegetation has resulted in exceptional findings.

The research employed in this interdisciplinary approach, makes it quantifiable with a clarity which is readily communicated in a manner in which all can relate.
Zoe also takes an extra step from her detailed study and provides specific recommendations, which are useful for many of us to improve upon the outcomes of our planting designs in terms of biodiversity and the ecological impact of the end product. This turns planting design along one of our most essential modes of transportation into not only an aesthetically pleasing outcome but also an environmentally important element in the urban environment.

The result of this research can not only be adapted by landscape architects in their future design to quantify and improve on the sustainability outcomes but can also be a powerful tool in convincing our clients and the future users of these roads and other linear infrastructure projects.

Future Leaders Graduate Award

Project: Vicscape, Victorian Landscape Architectural Atlas
Entrant: Mathew Leigh Fithall

Mathew took on this project with its daring and challenging initiatives as a graduate Landscape Architect. The research purposely provides a tool assisting AILA in compiling the extensive findings of information gleaned from 31 firms and 3,000 projects into a database that charts the lineal evolution/timelines of the key players from the 1950s through to 2010 that can be used as case study and marker of history for Victorian practices.

Once this 191 page research paper has passed a verification process, it can likely be further expanded and transformed into an Atlas that will help map out the history of Victorian Landscape Architectural practice as a whole.

The first one of its kind, it was put in order of a multiple series of categories for future research; it also attempted to take on an even larger task: to bring the findings to a wider and more diverse audience and to help promote the awareness of the development of the profession in Victoria. It is clear that this initiative may also be readily duplicated for other states and at the national level.

While we appreciate that any research can further be improved upon, as a submission of someone who will eventually become a future Registered Landscape Architect; Mathew should be commended for his persistent investment of his personal time and contribution to the history of the profession in Victoria with his considered research and findings.