Landscape Architect: Dr Andrew John Saniga, The University of Melbourne

Location: Making Landscape Architecture in Australia, NewSouth Publishing, A UNSW Press Book, Sydney, 2012.

This history of landscape architecture in Australia, the first of its kind, profiles the people who have shaped the nation’s landscape and forged a profession: designers, architects, public servants and activists.
Using archival images and plans, Andrew Saniga recounts milestones including the creation of Melbourne’s public parks and gardens, the landscaping of Canberra’s open spaces, the design of infrastructure in Western Australia, and the reclaiming of Sydney’s harbour foreshores.
Making Landscape Architecture in Australia tells the story of the battles fought over the right to determine the distinctive shapes and forms of the landscapes that make Australian cities.

Jury Citation

This book on the history of Landscape Architecture in Australia is a remarkable act of recovery. It unravels the often rich and complex story as a continuous, sequential and complete account. It includes the significant movements, people and events that contributed to the development of Landscape Architecture as an art and discipline, in the context of competing professions and professional distinctions.
All peoples and professions need to understand their history so that they may move forward. This thoroughly researched and engaging book is a benchmark body of work that all Landscape Architects would benefit from reading. Its very existence and approach represent the fact that Landscape Architecture in Australia as a profession has reached maturity.
Dr.Saniga deserves our highest recognition for this impressive and invaluable contribution to the academic and professional discourse on Landscape Architecture which will surely make an impact at both a national and international level
We congratulate him on his achievement.

Awarded to Zoos Victoria for advancing landscape architecture and providing leadership in the creation of meaningful, equitable and sustainable environments.

The National AILA Award 2013 is awarded to Zoos Victoria. Renowned as one of the most proactive and progressive conservation focused zoo organisations in the Asia pacific region, Zoos Victoria has a long history of creating meaningful, equitable and sustainable environments. Through the active management of the Zoo's land reserves and the completion of high quality exhibit design commissions, Landscape Architects have played a major role.

Each of Zoos Victoria's sites are located within highly significant landscape settings. This, combined with high visitation levels, makes active landscape management and appropriate design responses paramount. As custodians and land managers for three large sites, the challenges are considerable. These include management of the 22 hectare established heritage gardens of Melbourne Zoo, the 175 hectare bushland reserves of Healesville Sanctuary and the 225 hectare of western plains grasslands of the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

The breadth of landscape types, high visitation levels and exhibited animals have offered unique opportunities for the broad range of local and international landscape architecture practices who have been commissioned to undertake projects for Zoos Victoria. A number of these projects have received AILA Victoria and National Awards. These include Melbourne Zoo's Trail of the Elephants and Stories of the Sea Exhibits, and The Kubu River Hippo Exhibit at Werribee Zoo. The Zoo has been an the forefront of the development of highly evocative and experiential exhibits that provide quality living environments for each animal and establish immersive landscapes where visitors can experience and interact with animals in a landscape setting that replicates the natural habitat of the exhibited species.

These immersive, engaging and complex landscapes offer the landscape architect extensive creative opportunities and design challenges. Establishing robust landscapes that meet visitor and animal demands and resemble exotic environments from different climatic zones is quite a task. Creating landscapes similar to the forests and villages of northern Thailand for Asian elephants, or the spiny forest of Madagascar for lemurs, are just two such challenges faced by designers of recent exhibits.

As clients, Zoos Victoria are renowned for their innovation and strategic approach to projects. Underpinned by a strong masterplanning framework which has been developed for each site, the implementation of each project is considered within a broad assessment criteria that is driven and balanced by animal welfare, conservation and visitation imperatives. The commitment to significant change and improvement is matched by healthy construction budgets, which helps to achieve high quality built outcomes.

Zoos Victoria's commitment to conservation and sustainability is broad and evidenced at all levels of their operations. Their commitment to fighting wildlife extinction includes extensive breeding and recovery programs for threatened species and working with visitors and supporters to reduce threats facing endangered wildlife, particularly habitat reduction. The Zoo's approach to visitor experience is underpinned by a 'connect, understand and act' philosophy whereby visitors are encouraged to take home a conservation message and action it in their every day lives. The highly successful mobile phone recycling programme to reduce Coltan mining in the Congo and the 'Don't palm me off' campaign against destructive clearing associated with palm oil plantations are examples of Zoos Victoria's international commitment to conservation and the environment. Recent exhibits have been designed with these important conservation messages as central to the visitor experience.

Zoos Victoria's commitment to the profession of landscape architecture is evident across many levels of their operation. Whilst at various times, Landscape Architects have been employed on staff to design, implement and manage landscape projects, most large-scale exhibit projects undertaken over the past 30 years have been undertaken by consultant teams who are led by Landscape Architects.

The Zoo's long standing commitment to the profession has provided opportunities for a significant number of local and international design firms who have undertaken design projects across their three sites. With well-structured briefs and the allocation of significant capital works budgets, Zoos Victoria has helped to foster the landscape architecture profession within Australia. A number of the local firms have built on the opportunities and experience developed on Zoos Victoria projects and are now consulting internationally.

Across many levels of its operations, Zoos Victoria exemplifies the primary requirement for the AILA Award 'to advance landscape architecture and to provide leadership in the creation of meaningful, equitable and sustainable environments'. This, combined with their significant conservation and environmental education programmes, makes Zoos Victoria a highly worthy recipient of the 2013 AILA Award.

Australian Garden Completion

Landscape Architect: Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Paul Thompson

Location: Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria

'Australians are surrounded by ocean and ambushed from behind by desert – a war of mystery on two fronts' Lands Edge, Tim Winton

In a former sand quarry, a new botanic garden has been completed, one that allows visitors to follow a metaphorical journey of water through the Australian landscape, from the desert to the coastal fringe.
Via the artistry of landscape architecture, this integrated landscape brings together horticulture, architecture, ecology, and art to create the largest botanic garden devoted to Australian flora. It seeks, through the design of themed experiences, to inspire visitors to see our plants in new ways.
The completion of the Australian Garden comes at a time when Botanic Gardens world-wide are questioning existing research and recreational paradigms and refocusing anew on messages of landscape conservation and a renewed interest in meaningful visitor engagement.

The Australian landscape is embraced or shunned by its people, loved for its sublime beauty or loathed as the cause of hardship. Artists and writers have often been inspired to design or write in response to subtle rhythms, flowing forms and tenacious flora of our landscape. Still others have attempted to order the landscape, and conceive of it as humanly designed form.

At the Australian Garden, these tensions are the creative genesis of the design. On the east side of the garden, exhibition gardens, display landscapes, research plots and forestry arrays illustrate our propensity to frame our landscapes in more formal manners, whilst on the west, visitors are subsumed by gardens that are inspired by natural cycles, immersive landscapes and irregular floristic forms. Water plays a mediating role between these two conditions, taking visitors from rockpool escarpments, meandering riverbeds, melaleuca spits and coastal edges.

Jury citation

Stage One of the Australian Garden Project in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens had a deep impact on Botanic Gardens around the world and on our profession in Australia.
The challenge of following on from this dramatic start set the bar high for Stage Two. Taylor Cullity Lethlean and Paul Thompson are to be congratulated on the success of the Australian Garden Completion. As Landscape Architects, we will undoubtedly draw inspiration from this garden for many years to come.

Box Hill Gardens Multi Use Purpose Area


Landscape Architect: ASPECT Studios

Location: Irving Avenue, Box Hill

Box Hill Gardens is a mature historical park within the urban centre of Box Hill, 14 kilometres from central Melbourne. The Box Hill Gardens Master Plan of 2011 proposed a shift in the usability of the park proposing new recreation elements and the rejuvenation of existing park spaces. This is in response to the increasing urban setting of the park and corresponding increase in workers and residents to the area.

ASPECT Studios and its design team were commissioned by the City of Whitehorse to create an innovative multi-purpose space with a diverse array of recreation activities and events within the historic and well-loved Box Hill Gardens.
Three key concepts have driven the design. Firstly, the creation of a contemporary recreational and events surface, that progresses from the traditional singular-use sports court. The surface functions as a flexible community space, providing courts for multiple sport and recreation activities and areas for public events.
Secondly, the recycling and reinterpretation of the former tennis club house and clay courts. Part of the clubhouse has been retained and reused as seating platforms, while recycled bricks from its demolition have been utilised as feature elements within the construction of a new toilet block facility and associated brick platforms. The umpire chair and tennis roller from the previous clay courts have been salvaged and installed as playful remnants of the previous life of the site.

Thirdly, the use of colour and graphics to encourage use and activity and to create a distinct surface that differentiates itself from the existing park character. A dynamic and engaging super graphic defines the play areas and creates an iconic and playful destination for the growing community.
A 1km long path for walking and running will be added to the space in the near future. The path will circumnavigate the gardens, with the start and finish lines dovetailing into the multi-purpose area.

The final design of the space successfully embodies a bold contemporary aesthetic with layers of history and memory, and the careful integration of landscape and built form elements.

Jury citation

This is a transformative project that has a bold and contemporary aesthetic, and is successful in the way it integrates the history and memories of the site. This project is acknowledged as a potential model for the conversion of a disused facility into a flexible space that better meets changing community needs.
The large flat expanse left by the former tennis courts have been enliven by dynamic graphic elements that are playful, striking and engaging. The reinterpretation of the history of the site has been sensitively interwoven into the space by the recycling of building materials and the salvaging of playful remnants of the former tennis club.
The jury acknowledges the Box Hill Gardens Multi Purpose Area for demonstrating a shift in how parks may be used.

'Rezza' – Leamington Street Skate Park Upgrade

Landscape Architect: City of Darebin

Location: 73 Leamington Street, Reservoir

Leamington Street Skate Park or 'Rezza' as it is known by the locals, is located in an out of the way section of Edwardes Lake Park, Reservoir, on an old tip site sandwiched between an ancient lawn bowls club and cracked clay tennis courts. At first glance the site appears dilapidated, with trees struggling to grow and a sea of undulating asphalt trying to hold back the rubbish and fill buried below like children's toys under a rug.
Around mid-2000, Darebin Youth Services designed and implemented, with the local skater and BMX communities a small 'street style' Skate Park on the site, gleaning an old netball court in the corner. The skate park was well loved and valued by the local skaters as it provided a street style course which was seen in contrast to the popular 'bowl' skating of the time.

However, the 'cherry' that really made the riders come back for more was the integration of an old-style tram barrier into the park. The bright yellow wedge-like object was unlike anything that had been considered in a skate park before and which made a direct reference to the urbane objects that street skaters appropriated in the 'everyday landscape'. It was this object and this idea of the appropriation of the everyday urban object as skate obstacle that triggered the next incarnation of the skate park. With the increase in riders using the park, so came a desire to expand the park's boundaries. Darebin Youth Services working closely with Council Landscape Architects at the time, plotted the takeover of a further two half netball courts in order to accommodate their plans for expansion.

The Youth Services and council landscape architects collaborated, consulting with local youth, skaters and BMX riders to start to develop the ideas of what the extension might look like. Youth Services had a long-standing relationship working with the local skate community and had developed a strong relationship of trust.
What came out of this dialogue was that everyone wanted to keep the existing aesthetic of the Rezza Skate Park: keep it rough, keep it dirty and keep it 'ghetto'. The decision to build upon the street style skate park also was a pragmatic one. The fact the site was moving and receding in particular locations due to the unstable subgrade, meant that excavation below 500mm was not possible, so this cancelled out any possibility of building a bowl or even installing large footing required for ramps.
The step that followed was to find or design the objects. Youth Services had already gleaned an old steel slide that had been modified by a local steel engineer from a playground. The slide set a precedent for the design approach and confirmation that we could design a skate park from 'found'/ donated urban objects that could be modified into unique skate obstacles.

Darebin then engaged Aaron Wallace from Playce to assist the next stage of the design, helping Council staff and the local skaters to develop a wish list of great skate objects and how they would be arranged on site to create a challenging and interesting skate park. Together, a wish list of items was developed, as well as a list of agencies who we thought might have these objects 'lying around'. Council landscape architects then went to work calling Victrack, Vicroads, Yarra Trams to see if they were interested donating some 'left over junk' to the skate park project. Meeting these staff and getting tours of off the track storage facilities in Niddrie and Spotswood on wintery days and having tours of under the Westgate Bridge to find bits of concrete, were all part of the job for council's landscape architects.
Arranging cranes to collect the objects, working with skaters and consultants to modify objects and describing to steel engineers the importance of creating steel objects that emulate a sign pole that has been hit by a car and which sticks out at a 45 degree angle were all part of the conversations for months in preparation for the new skate park ('Yes Mick, its called a 'pole jam' and the skaters launch off it. We need it about 1 meter in length, on a 45 degree angle and it needs to be flush with the ground – it needs to look like its coming out of the ground').

Suffice to say, the project was installed with much anticipation, with local skaters breaking in over the steel site fencing every other night to ride each new obstacle as it was installed – sometimes even riding on semi- wet concrete (much to our dismay). The skate park is now complete and has become one of the hottest spots to ride in town, even attracting international pro skaters to this northern pocket of Darebin.
The development of this community resource illustrates how skate parks can be used as devices to activate otherwise derelict and undervalued urban spaces. It is this setting that provides a perfect refuge for the local boys and girls to hang out, shoot hoops, and kick a ball and skate without interruption. The site has become an unintentional Youth Precinct.

Jury citation

This small project by Darebin Council landscape architects provides an inspiring example of how an engaging consultation process can defy budgetary constraints to transform left-over space into a catalyst for social inclusion.

The project demonstrates an energetic collaboration between Darebin Council Landscape Architects, Youth workers with specialist advice from Playce Consultants to propose an urban style street skatepark. Council Landscape Architects sourced recycled urbanobjects from the street and from donations by VicRoads, Yarra trams, Bundoora park and Resevoir Council depot. The consultation process engaged youth groups and residents intensively throughout the process, with the local BMX-ers and skateboarders helping design the placement of the urban objects on site.

The result is a well-loved urban skate park that provides a place to reach out and support local teenagers.

Pod Playground

Landscape Architect: TCL (Taylor Cullity Lethlean)

Location: The National Arboretum

Australia has a new National Arboretum. Located in Canberra, this important cultural facility is host to 100 forests of rare and endangered trees from around the world. This legacy project with important environmental and conservation messages will live beyond our lifetimes.
The opportunity to design a play space as part of the 100 forests facility offered an opportunity to creatively engage children with the beauty of trees and we hope, foster a life-long connection to this remarkable environment.

Using the idea of seeds as the beginning life amongst the forest, children and their families can enter a fantasy world of exaggerated scales. A play space with giant acorns floating in the sky, and enormous banksia cones nestled on the forest floor.
The design recognises that play is a vital social development and educational tool for children of all ages, and is particularly important when it assists in forming relationships to its landscape, climate and surrounding context. The world amongst the giant seeds aims to stimulate spontaneity and creativity, to foster the imagination and to challenge and encourage confidence with growth.

Within the arboretum sits a large copse of cork oaks. This copse was planted in 1917 at the instigation of Walter Burley Griffin and has been periodically harvested for cork ever since. The play space takes inspiration from this forest of oaks and has catapulted their acorns from their forest floor to land atop of a hill, somewhat larger. Here, they rest, taking on anthropomorphic qualities.
A combination of Pinus macrocarpus timber battens and red cedar shingles clad a delicate steel finned fame. A clever structural solution put to TCL by Agency of Sculpture during the fabrication process.

The toddler play area draws inspiration from our weird and wonderful native flora. Glass reinforced concrete Banksia seed pods rest within a sand pit with banksia seed 'lips' attached to the external forms, inviting children’s curiosity to these strange looking creatures.
Here, toddlers are invited to dig, bury and make noise. Bamboo chimes, bongo drums and a thongophone animate the play structures.
A large custom designed fishing net and birds nest swings provide elevated views to the broader arboretum, strategically placed adjacent to the Central Valley and in orientation to the Arboretums large sculpture entitled, 'wide brown land'.

The playground aims to pursue wonder, imagination and enchantment. It was designed to encourage flexibility and spontaneity in play. The play space challenges the conventional idea of play environments and demonstrates how a play destination can not only meet stringent play standards yet offer a unique play experience for all.
It is the result of a brave and trusting client and a collaborative group of designers, artisans, sculptors, fabricators, contractors and play suppliers.

Jury citation

The sheer joy of design is evident in this play space. The result suggests a wonderfully collaborative relationship between the designers, the fabricators and the contractors. It suggests they had as much fun designing and building the space as the children now have using it.
The outcome is beautifully designed and executed, balances safety requirements and offers a diverse range of play experiences for all abilities. A fitting playground for the National Arboreteum.

Halpin Way, Settlers Square and Pop-up Park
Landscape Architect: ASPECT Studios
Location: Dandenong



Once a town in its own right, Dandenong has grown to be the second largest urban centre in Melbourne and one of the largest manufacturing regions in Australia. For Dandenong to service the burgeoning population of south-eastern Melbourne, its new character as a highly multicultural hub, and its role as a destination for new industry it needed to undergo intensive rejuvenation.

With the centre of Dandenong in transition, Halpin Way and the adjacent public plaza of Settlers Square would be key elements in its larger urban and social transformation.
With limited urbanity as context, these two public realms required a timeless design which could act as a place in its own right while devoid of built surrounds, to operate as an activator, attractor and focal public realm to assist in driving development, and act as a catalyst for new built form to be delivered into the future.
As lead consultant ASPECT Studios, working collaboratively with a team of artists, architects and engineering consultants, has been involved in the full spectrum of the overall design, from the overall spatial and built form master plan of the precinct, to the design and documentation of the central street and square, lanes, public art and lighting.

From the outset, this project focused on:
the delivery of a one of Australia's first large scale 'shared use' streets – Halpin Way – and working to develop the best shared use street configuration for a complex site,
developing the final land use parcel layout, creating a pedestrian priority link between the station and centre of town over a significant change in level, protecting and incorporating into the new urban fabric the one remaining heritage building in the area, ensuring that the street was non-linear in its form to create a range of spaces and user experiences, and the public square could gather its energy from public activation without relying on commercial usage to generate activity.

The design engages with the topography of the site, and the non-linear nature of the street allows for full integration of public art into the design. Sustainability is embedded in the project, from material selection to construction techniques, and includes water sensitive urban design, passive irrigation to street trees, storm water storage tanks for irrigation, and low energy use lighting.

A Pop-up Park for recreation was established on a key site adjacent to Settlers Square as part of the activation strategy. This project enabled the training and employment of local youth; the resultant active open space combined sports, community and passive recreation into the one site and created an initial central meeting hub for the public, beginning the process of activation and community 'ownership'.

In Halpin Way, Settlers Square and Pop-up Park, ASPECT Studios' unique landscape architectural leadership is developing industry best practice in the delivery of innovative urban form, shared street design and civic rejuvenation.

Jury citation

Halpin Way, Settlers Square and the associated Pop-up Park form an extended civic link over three full city blocks to the revitalised town centre of Dandenong. Halpin Way is a new fully shared and kerbless street with consistent pavement for pedestrians, bicycles and cars. The street has been considered as a stretched urban room, with its width opened up and then tightened to offer a range of spatial experiences.

The project's delivery is designed to take place over a number of years with the associated challenge of designing the street and the square to work in their own right without the immediate benefit of buildings with known uses along a number of their edges. The Pop Up Park is planned to be replaced eventually with buildings.
Settlers Square provides an important link between the railway station and Halpin Way while astutely resolving some complex level changes.

Overall, the project makes a substantial contribution to Dandenong, providing a well-detailed, high-quality civic environment.

South West Victoria Landscape Assessment Study
Landscape Architect: Planisphere
Location: South West Victoria

The South West Landscape Assessment Study, prepared in partnership with local government throughout the region and a range of stakeholders, provides a comprehensive understanding of landscape values, their location and their spatial extent.

The Department of Planning and Community Development commissioned a landscape assessment study of South West Victoria to better understand and assess the visual character and significance of the wide range of landscape types. The study will be used to better inform planning scheme policy, to assist planning decision making, and to ensure landscapes of importance are adequately protected and managed into the future. It will also assist regional planning to support economic growth and development investment in the right locations into the future.

The characterisation of landscape differs from an environmental audit because it involves interpretation and perception, not just a recording of knowledge or facts. The South West Victoria Landscape Assessment Study includes extensive field work, desktop research, GIS mapping, and comparative analysis against various sets of criteria in order to assess and document the character and significance of various landscapes and views. Generally, the methodology is structured around the consideration of the following five key elements:

Landscape character
Landscape significance
Community values
Change in the landscape
Landscape protection and management

Every landscape has landscape character, but only special areas have landscape significance. Landscape significance is the designation of a particular landscape as special or important arising from its cultural landscape values, including aesthetic values (both visual and non-visual) historic, environmental, scientific, social or other values. Landscapes are significant to different people for different reasons. These reasons may include their scenic beauty, historic value, environmental qualities, or less tangible values associated with the place, such as memories or associations. The fact that landscape values are held both by individuals and communities, and that many values exist in the subjective territory of human perceptions is what makes the assessment of landscape significance so challenging and often contentious.

The South West Victoria Landscape Assessment Study provides a detailed insight into the landscape character types and most significant landscapes of the region.

Jury citation

This landscape assessment study covers a large portion of the state of Victoria. It identifies when landscapes are significant and creates a vision to conserve and enhance them.

The power in good planning is to positively guide and sculpt the future of our interaction with the environment around us. This report demonstrates the importance of balancing the needs and values of people with a sound understanding of landscape character.

The scope and influence of this report will provide a valuable tool for the many regionalcouncils within the study. It also raises awareness at community, national, state and local level and the Jury acknowledges the contribution this assessment makes to the field of Landscape Planning in Australia.

Wanginu Park
Landscape Architect: GbLA
Location: Ironbark Drive, Sunbury

Key points

Rehabilitation of 13.54 ha of rugged terrestrial landscape and waterway corridor landscape
Protection and enhancement of 2.88 ha of Plains Grassland in four quality classes
Plains Grassland management, enhancement and consolidation
Management and rehabilitation of degraded landscape within a regional residential context
Revegetation offset requirements
Stormwater retention and treatment requirements
4 years site management

Wanginu Park is situated at the base of a former scoria cone volcano at Places Victoria’s Jacksons Hill Development in Sunbury. GbLA was commissioned by Places Victoria to prepare a landscape masterplan and design documentation and to oversee the preservation, rehabilitation and development of 13.54 ha of rugged landscape. The once heavily degraded site that was utilised for illegal motorcross activities and as a dumping ground for cars, fridges and other rubbish is now a major piece of passive open space that is of great value to the local community and the fauna that utilise the space.

The area was set aside by Places Victoria to treat stormwater and protect valuable habitat and archaeological artifacts while meeting Places Victoria’s objectives for vegetation offset management through improvement of Plains Grassland EVC vegetation while providing for recreation and landscape amenity for the local residents of Jacksons Hill.

GbLA worked with the former Ecological Engineering and Paroissien Grant and Associates to prepare a rehabilitation strategy for the heavily degraded Harpers Creek that meanders through part of the site and also for the design of a constructed stormwater wetland within difficult terrain. Highly erosive soils, steep terrain up to 1:1 grades, sheer cliff faces and recorded archaeological sites within the project area further added to the challenges of achieving vegetation offset targets, pedestrian access, water quality harvesting and management requirements.

The vegetation management and improvement regimes included fencing to exclude grazing, rabbit control programs promoting natural regeneration of the native seed bank, mosaic burning, mulching of extensive areas of woody weeds to provide cover to the existing seed bank, planting of over 200,000 plants, direct seeding 340,000 grass species and ongoing monitoring of the performance of the vegetation.

Pedestrian trails, picnic areas and interpretive signage all help to the local community to interact with and appreciate the landscape and historic cultural significance of the site and the local area. The development of a passive circulation trail and interpretive signage strategy, seating and picnic facilities has helped local residents engage with the space and to engender a sense of ownership of a once highly degraded landscape.
The rehabilitated landscape also provided new habitat opportunities for local wombats, kangaroos, frogs and bird life, including a wedge tailed eagle that resides in the local area.

Jury citation

GbLA Landscape Architects has delivered a beautifully executed restoration andmanagement project for Places Victoria and the new community at Jacksons Hill Sunbury. This 13 hectare, heavily degraded site has been transformed using best practice landscape management into a thriving restored natural landscape. The project demonstrates a commitment to the long term processes required re-establish a landscape that can promote natural recruitment and become low maintenance.

Through sensitive interventions, GbLA have revealed the natural beauty of the site and re-connected with the heritage and cultural context of the site toprovide an engaging place for the local community and fauna.

HASSELL Temporary Projects and Public Interventions
Landscape Architect: HASSELL
Location: Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar: Queensbridge Square, Melbourne;
Chasing Kitsune: Various locations in Melbourne CBD;
Walk the Line: 4.3 km of the Sydney CBD

Recently, HASSELL has invested significantly in the delivery of temporary projects for the public realm, recognising the opportunity to extend customary approaches to design practice by taking advantage of the flexible and mostly unconstrained temporary project platforms on offer which, through their ephemeral nature, allow greater freedom to experiment in the pursuit of innovative design interventions.

This investment in pro-bono and self-commissioned projects represents a desire to seek new ways to create and promote truly engaging public places. While the scope of each project varies widely, HASSELL embraces all temporary projects as vehicles for testing ideas, as opportunities to directly challenge established modes of public occupation and behaviour, and as a chance to 'design-in' humour and surprise to delight people and draw them to the streets.

HASSELL actively encourages its developing designers to take charge of these fast-paced projects and aims to deliver them via collaborative interdisciplinary teams.
Observation of the public response to these temporary offerings, both on location and through a variety of subsequent and supporting media; together with the practical lessons learned over their condensed project lifecycles, enables the collection of quick and invaluable insights. These insights can empower our practice as designers with fresh strategies for public engagement, which in turn can be transferred to our more permanent public development projects, helping to secure their long-term popularity and success.

Jury Citation

The Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar, Chasing Kitsune and Walk the Line represent three projects that Hassell have undertaken in both Melbourne and Sydney. They explore how Landscape Architecture can interact with urban spaces through the introduction of innovative and quirky pop-up designs.

Each is a low-cost, pro bono or self-commissioned project that challenges the public to view spaces differently. Hassell also use these projects in-house to educate and encourage their developing designers to explore and drive these fast-moving projects from inception to delivery.

They are fun projects that bring the work of the profession to a wider audience in a vital and engaging way.

The Jury commends HASSELL for their fresh initiative in exploring research and communication within the professional practice and making the fruits of their labour available for the enjoyment of the public and the betterment of the city.

Strathewen Community Bushfire Memorial
Landscape Architect: Urban Initiatives
Location: Chads Creek Road, Strathewen

The design of the Strathewen Bushfire memorial was a collaboration between Urban Initiatives and Arterial Design. The intent of the memorial was to capture the many and varied effects of the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires on Strathewen residents, as well as the surrounding environment. It was to be a place that acknowledged individuals who lost their lives in the fire, as well as telling the story of camaraderie and strength in rebuilding the community after the fires. The challenge was to take visitors on a journey of before, during and after the fire, without them reliving the horror of the event. It was to capture the gravity of the day and the ripple effects on the community, but to be sombre and respectful in its treatment.

The memorial sits in a peaceful and tucked away section of public reserve near the recreation reserve which was the central gathering point for the community immediately after the fires. It was designed to fit within the bushland setting with seating for quiet contemplation and reflection. The local provenance planting and materials for the memorial were selected to ensure the memorial has a resonance and timeless quality, which sit firmly within the space and ground on which it is set. The memorial was designed to tell the story to future generations. Constructed from sandstone and slate with concrete and timber seating, the materials were chosen to weather well over time and endure a lifespan of up to 100 years.

The design brief was the result of extensive community engagement and from the start of our involvement and collaboration, the community ensured a strong ownership of the project. They were open to the process of telling their stories and we made the commitment to them that every voice would be represented. Arterial worked with the concept of haiku poetry to weave the varying intensities of people’s words into a journey of diverse experiences: heat, wind and fire, loss, grief, rebuilding, joy and friendship. The haiku verses were sandblasted at varying depths into sandstone that become more legible via the shadows that they cast. The juxtaposition of content allows the reader to grab moments of highs and lows without becoming overwhelmed with the enormity of the event.

The community expressed a wish for a water element as a symbol of cleansing the soul and nourishing new growth. This inspired the simple concept of water drops in the landscape. Water drops of course create ripples of concentric circles. Circles have no beginning and no end. They represent the cycle of life and of healing. As we got to know the community and they told us their stories, we began to reference the water drops as teardrops. And so developed a simple concept of four tear drops in the landscape radiating ripples out into the surrounding environment. These were carefully sited with a natural cleared area close to, but sufficiently separate from, the recreation reserve.

Across 400 pieces of circular sandstone cut to varying radii, there are a total of 10,000 words set within the ground plane. These are arranged within the four circles thereby telling the collective community storey of Strathewen. The memorial is a seamless integration of story and context.
The approach path to the memorial contains a ring that references stories of Strathewen before the fire, while moving over the bridge and stream the main central circle tells the story and tragedy of the event.

The intensity is focused on the central droplet which is surrounded by a circular bench seat. Embedded within the paving are the names and ages of the 29 community members who perished. Text bands carry stories of broader losses on the outer edge of the central ring and more personal acknowledgements closer to the centre. The visitor journey intensifies toward the centre of the main circle. Brief poems and short memories begin to acknowledge the names of loved ones. In the centre of the main circle lay 29 stainless steel plaques, (surrounding a reflective stainless steel dome), each carrying the name and age of a community member who died in the fires. Amongst those names is Jacinta Bartlett (landscape architect, colleague and former client), her husband Garry and 6 year old daughter Erryn.

There is a circular seat defining the inner circle thereby embracing the sacred nature of this central space. The third ring contains messages of thanks for the support that the community received during and after the fire, while the final ring focuses on the future and stories of renewal and recovery. The combination is a very moving and powerful interplay of landscape, story and experience.

Jury citation

This is a remarkable project. The work of Urban Initiatives and Arterial Design is an extraordinary gift to the community of Strathewen, to those who have been lost and to those who remain and face the challenge of rebuilding their lives. Tragically, the town of Strathewen with a population of only 250, lost 29 people in the Black Saturday Bushfires. The courage of both the designers and the community members in beginning the journey of healing and then holding fast to the create their memorial together is both inspiring and humbling.

The Jury acknowledges the countless hours, dedication and commitment this project asked of the designers. The contribution you have made to a community who has lost so much inspires us all.