Project: New Conversations with an Old Landscape: Landscape Architecture in Contemporary Australia 

Recipient: Dr Catherin Bull

New Conversations with an Old Landscape addresses a fundamental need in the landscape architectural profession; that of communicating its activities and intentions to a wide audience.

The first audience lies beyond its own confines – co-professionals, including architects, engineers and planners; decision-makers, and clients, including various levels of government and development companies; and non-technical people with an interest in the quality of our landscapes, but without professional knowledge of the institutional processes that shape it.

The second audience is the profession itself. For this audience the book aims (as the first book dedicated to the work of landscape architects in Australia) to provide:
a conceptual framework or theoretical “starting point” for the profession;
a basic introductory text for incoming students; and
an introduction to the issues and pre-occupations that shape the profession in Australia for landscape architects from other countries.

The book aims, in simple and accessible language, to place the work of landscape architects within the cultural and environmental context of Australia, presenting their designs as cultural products that can be analysed and assessed in parallel with other cultural products.

It uses the established rhetorical device of “landscape as text” to do this, suggesting that landscape architects converse with the land in order to propose new landscapes, and that the quality of those new landscapes is a manifestation of those conversations.

Fundamental (although not immediately apparent) differences between the Australian landscape and the home landscapes of its immigrant settlers, have resulted in many environmental problems over the two centuries of its nationhood. Pre-conceived and idealised notions of what the landscape should become have been imposed on the land, and with time, many have been unsuccessful and destructive. Progressive adaptation to the rigours and realities of the environment has been both assisted and inhibited by landscape design, and over the last four decades landscape architects have contributed a new dimension to the process of adaptation.

It is this contribution that this book addresses and discusses, within the framework of major environmental and cultural issues. These issues provide the themes for the chapters and include: living with “the bush”; the challenge of a de-populated “Outback” (the “black stump”); living on the driest continent; the landscape of movement (often over enormous distances and empty spaces); landscape as habitat; and the landscapes of an intensely urban but outdoor culture. Finally, the concluding chapter suggests future trends.

The very invisibility and naturalism of these contributions often belie the skill that goes into their making and although the places that result are valued highly by the community at large, they are not often aware of the work that has made them that way. The work involved is of a range of scales, from the regional to local, and spans time frames from decades to years. It also involves many communities. Nearly all of it is in the communal or public domain, a characteristic of the profession in Australia, and a challenge in terms of meaning. Projects also range from the local and everyday to the iconic sites of national symbolism.

By such a process of discussion and description, the landscape of landscape architecture in Australia is “mapped” for the first time. What is emphasised in the text and the commissioned photographs is the intimate relationship between these landscapes and the people and animals that use them. This, in itself, promotes the notion of value and of meaning.

New Conversations with an Old Landscape is published and distributed internationally. The book has been sold into the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and Korea, with a Chinese edition of 2,000 copies.

NATIONAL AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Tract Consultants

Project: Echo Point

Blue Mountains National Park has World Heritage listing and the view of the Three Sisters is a national icon.

The Three Sisters has been a popular tourist destination since the days of the horse and buggy.

The site consists of three distinct areas – Echo Point including the vehicular turn-a round, parking, terraces, lookouts and the Visitors Information Centre, Darley Park and Lilianfels Park.

The design was developed within the framework of the Draft Plan of Management prepared by Blue Mountains Council.

Key objectives of The Draft Plan of Management included:

• To provide safe and rational access system for all visitors that enhances the quality of the visitor experience
• To provide highly accessible and dramatic views and an introduction to the Blue Mountains National Park that visitors find memorable
• Design Infrastructure and facilities that complement the natural vista and reflect the significance of the site
• Minimise the impacts of visitor use and urban development on the natural and cultural values of Blue Mountains National Park and the Crown Reserve.

The design needed to satisfy the essential visitor expectation of a well-serviced tourist stop and accessibility to the Three Sisters – visual and physical. The footpaths and viewing area needed to accommodate the millions of annual visitors without detracting from the fundamental experience of nature.

There are up to 3 million visitors per year to Echo Point lookout. At least 1 million visitors make a purchase at the visitors centre. All of these visitors are ‘pedestrians’ at some stage of their journey. This concentration of pedestrians usually occurs between 11am and 3pm. The pattern of high visitation in short time frames means the infrastructure must be able to cater for short, intense periods of use.

The previous lookout was inaccessible to the mobility impaired, the Three Sisters were obscured on approach and the scale and majesty of the Blue Mountains was hidden behind a series of terraces, parked cars and tourist coaches.

Project Team
Principal Consultant Tract Consultants
Ancher Mortlock & Woolley Architecture
Nobis Architecture and Building Architecture
NBRS & Partners Heritage Consultant
Partridge Partners Structural and Civil Engineering
E. Shelmerdine Electrical & Mechanical Services & Lighting
Page Kirkland Partnership Cost Planning
Minale Bryce Design Strategy Signage, Art co-ordination, site interpretation
JBA Urban Planning Statutory Planning
Jamieson Foley & Associates Traffic and Transport
Gunninah Environmental Consultants Environmental assessment
Australian Quadraplegic Ass. Access Consultant
Corporate Risk Services Risk assessment
Bushfire & Environmental Services Bushfire assessment
Contractor Walter Construction Group
Landscape & Stone Walls Regal Landscapes

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Sue Barnsley Design

Project: Commonwealth Place ACT

This project brings together two complex programs, one to create a habitable and captivating outdoor place, capable of engaging and sheltering one and twelve thousand people.

The other to respect the views and discipline of the dominant Land Axis and the structure of Griffin‘s plan for Canberra.The initial image was of a cupped hand, representing gathering and collection at the Lake edge. This gentle curve is at once open and enclosing. Its edges hold the axis, while the ramp extends the axial view. It forms a habitable, iconic topography.

Its primary character is of a warped landscape which wraps Griffin’s Land Axis. The cupped form is an inversion of both Mount Ainslie and New Parliament House. From across the Lake, Old Parliament House is positioned at the centre of an ellipse, celebrating the modest built beginnings of democracy in Australia. This ellipse is described by the base of the Cupped
Square of Commonwealth Place and the curved line of New Parliament House. The intention of the grand ramp was to be an inflected space, transforming from wall to landscape bench, physically connecting Commonwealth Place with the great lawn in front of Old Parliament House.

Our hope was that the views linking Old Parliament House and the waters edge of Lake Burley Griffin would be clearly revealed and celebrated for the very first time. The ramp now links to second monument, the mound of Reconciliation Place. Materials were specifically chosen to express a gentle and fluid monumentality. The liquid light of the glass walls plays with and softens the Canberra sunshine through out the year. The flickering of glass and the delicate and variegated pattern of the stone-faced back wall is suggestive of a curtain draped across the site, gradually lightening toward the ramp opening.

The dark pavement emphasises the cutting and incision of the landscape and joins the recessive quality of the grassed lawns of the Parliamentary Axis. A grove of white birch trees navigates across the space, immediately populating this grass theatre. Bounding avenues of gum trees hold and ground this place within the Parliamentary landscape.

Competition Team:
Durbach Block Architects
Sue Barnsley Design
Harold Straatveit
Cusp Media

Project Managers:
Weathered Howe
Design Team:
Architects:
Durbach Block

Landscape Architects:
Sue Barnsley Design
Structural, Civil & Hydraulic Engineers:
Ove Arup & Partners
Lighting Design:
J3 Design
Quantity Surveyor:
Page Kirkland DCWC (ACT)
BCA Consultants:
Philip Chun & Associates

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Phillips Marler

Project: Bedlam Bay Interpretive Walk

The recently declared Parramatta River Regional Park is a long narrow strip of foreshore land between the historic Gladesville Hospital and the Parramatta River.

Following preparation of a Plan of Management by Spackman and Mossop, and an Archaeological and Cultural Landscape Management Plan by Context, the Bedlam Bay Interpretive Walk was the first and primary capital works design project commissioned for the new Park.

Project at a Glance

Name: Bedlam Bay Interpretive Walk
Location: Parramatta River Regional Park, Gladesville
Construction Budget: $550,000
Client: Central Directorate, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Entry Category: Design

The walk was designed and constructed in two stages.

Stage 1, covering the western end of the site, is south-facing, shaded and densely vegetated, sloping steeply to the river. For decades, it was used as a hospital dumping ground and has areas of very deep fill and heavy weed infestation as well as rock outcrops, sandy coves, remnants of old gardens, aboriginal middens, old ferry wharf and abandoned sewerage settling tanks. It is a quiet, mysterious and tranquil place, long neglected (except by a few locals) and without public access before construction of the walk.

Stage 2, covering the eastern end of the site, is open and park-like with views to major hospital buildings on the ridge. It includes the old boatshed used by a local boat club and wharf ( originally the main point of river access for the hospital), a large and functioning oval and a secluded beach – the site of an old hospital baths – also without public access before construction of the walk. Although more open and accessible than the western end, it still retains an atmosphere of casualness and peace.

Project Significance

The project is a good demonstration of a wayfinding project for a historically and environmentally complex site, designed by a landscape architect on the basis of extensive landscape analysis and practical on-site study.

The walk, as reported by the NPWS, is popular with the public and well-used.

The project is a practical demonstration of how, even with a limited budget, it is possible to achieve a high degree of customization of landscape structures – steps, bridges, walkways, viewing platforms, signs, seats, amenities building, boat racks –based on simple robust materials and careful consideration of landscape principles.

The project is an effective demonstration of integrated landscape architectural design and cultural interpretation.

Project Consultant Team
Landscape Architect, Architect and Head Consultant: Phillips Marler

Engineer: Richmond and Ross

Interpretation Consultant: 3D Design

Archaeologist: Anne Bickford

Quantity Surveyor: BDA Consultants

Photographer: Eric Sierins, Max Dupain & Associates

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: HASSELL, Landcom and the NSW Department of Commerce

Project: Victoria Park

Victoria Park is a 24-hectare mixed-use development that has been undertaken by Landcom. It will incorporate medium and high-density housing, commercial and retail facilities for a population of 5,000. 
Prior to European development the site was part of the Botany Swamp – a large wetland and lagoon ecological system that extended from Centennial Park to Botany Bay. Watkins Tench described it in 1789 as “the finest meadows in the world”. The site has been developed since the late 1800s, firstly as a racecourse and then for heavy industry.

Brief
Landcom set a clear agenda for excellence and innovation on this difficult and degraded brown field site. The brief for the renewal of the site included a requirement for a high quality landscape within a benchmark development for inner city urban redevelopment.
The project exceeded these expectations by virtue of its innovative water management system and the integration of the system into the high quality external living environment. In this respect the project has become a benchmark for water sensitive urban design in an urban context.

Scope
The scope of work undertaken within the consultancy included master planning refinement for the development site, and design of the public domain, which included the public streets, and three new public parks.

Concept
The concept for the design of the public domain embodies four key principles that relate to its place. These include the following.
— Environmental strategy – incorporating a site-wide approach to ecological systems, particularly water management.
— Interpretation of the natural heritage – showcasing wetland systems similar to those that once dominated the site.
— Site connectivity – providing a simple legible typology of streets, with a small palette of strong landscape materials and urban elements that unify the site’s complex built form.
— Community development - creating a variety of settings in the public domain to meet the needs of the new residential and working community.

The consistency of the design approach is evident throughout the public domain. East-west streets feature median bio-retention swales or wetlands that are a focus of the water management system. North-south streets mimic more traditional avenues. The parks have a deliberate richness in spatial form and materials, unified by the common thread of indigenous planting of wetland species, structural form of buildings, and a landform that is moulded to accommodate water detention requirements. Public artworks express and celebrate improved water quality achievements, and plant selection and habitat creation consistently support the local ecosystem and promote biodiversity.

The success of the project is the direct result of strong collaboration between the design team and Landcom who supported the design through all stages of the delivery of the project.

The master planning, design and documentation of the public domain was undertaken collaboratively by the Government Architects Office (formerly Department of Public Works and Services) and Hassell.
The scope of consultancy undertaken jointly included the refinement of the master plan to integrate a water sensitive urban design strategy, design of the public domain, including streets and parks, and documentation and construction phase services.

Landscape architects from both offices were commissioned to undertake and manage the whole public domain process. It involved engagement of a number of consultants including engineers and ecologists, and coordination of public art.
Significantly the public domain design commission proceeded simultaneously with the design and documentation of infrastructure, ensuring that the water management system was coordinated with the roads and services design.
The success of the project also demonstrates the importance of the client’s involvement and commitment to the overall design strategy.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Tract Consultants

Project: Cairns Esplanade

Tract as Principal Consultant, in collaboration with Cox Rayner, won a national design competition in 1998 for the Esplanade Redevelopment. The final stage of Tract’s work was opened to the public on 26 September 2003. 

This was achieved with difficult political, funding and management issues as a backdrop over a lengthy five and a half-year period. Despite a high turnover of Councillors and Council Officers, the design layout and intent remained substantially unchanged from the original competition entry to completion – evidence of a strong and clear idea, well founded in environmental, cultural, social and historical principles.

The existing Esplanade park adjacent to the CBD was approximately 600m long and very narrow, only 40m in some places. It is traditionally a place used by residents in the early morning (for exercise) and on dusk (for recreation). It was used by visitors at all times of the day. At low tide the mud flats extend 800m out to sea, at high tide they are covered.

Local and migratory wading birds gather in three distinct nodes along the Esplanade, opposite the ends of the north / south streets, where stormwater sediment has raised the level of the mud. These raised areas give the birds an extra 40 minutes feeding time per day ahead of the ebbing and flowing tide. These sites are very popular with bird watchers and are in fact internationally known in the bird watching world.

The area of mud flats to the east, between the Esplanade and the Pier Marketplace was known to the locals as the “dead corner”. This area collected debris and litter, since it was not flushed well by the tides and was in a very degraded state. The site area also included the car park in front of the Pier and Fogarty Park to the east.

This project was as much about revitalising the CBD as it was about designing a piece of public open space. In the mid 1990’s a new regional shopping centre, Cairns Central, was built on the southern edge of the CBD (over the railway station). This decimated the vitality of the traditional shopping strip, Shields Street, as the best traders were drawn to the new complex. Council tried to revitalise Shields Street through various streetscape projects with some success but what was really needed was a more holistic view of the CBD.
We began by looking at the entire CBD identifying all the existing important nodes, the new nodes that needed developing and the linkages required between them all. This included looking outside the site at Cairns City Port, a project we were already master planning as a sub-consultant to Cox Rayner for the Cairns Port Authority.

This project was as much about revitalising the CBD as it was about designing a piece of public open space. In the mid 1990’s a new regional shopping centre, Cairns Central, was built on the southern edge of the CBD (over the railway station). This decimated the vitality of the traditional shopping strip, Shields Street, as the best traders were drawn to the new complex. Council tried to revitalise Shields Street through various streetscape projects with some success but what was really needed was a more holistic view of the CBD.
We began by looking at the entire CBD identifying all the existing important nodes, the new nodes that needed developing and the linkages required between them all. This included looking outside the site at Cairns City Port, a project we were already master planning as a sub-consultant to Cox Rayner for the Cairns Port Authority.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Tract Consultants Pty Ltd

Project: Werribee Mansion

The project involved working with three discrete elements within the 140 hectare Werribee Park historic complex, which has developed since 1850’s. 

The elements being the Mansion Hotel (being in part the Old St Joseph wing), The Pavilion (overlooking the Polo Field) and the winery (on the south road). The location of these elements and historic evolution of Werribee Park strongly influenced the landscape treatment. Our initial involvement with the project was in the preparation of a landscape report that dealt with the cultural and physical landscape’s evolution to determine their significance and appropriate management and development strategies.

In developing our design solutions we were particularly sensitive to the historical values attached to the total complex. For example, the old croquet and rose catenae, parterre and north lawn were respected by keeping all road access and parking as far as possible to the southwest. Another measure was to reinforce the row of pine trees (primarily) south west of the rose catenae and parterre by a dense screen planting along the lease line. All roads and areas of car parking used the crushed rock material similar to the current main access ways and drain into grass swales. We also kept the rock fence and gates that were part of the St Joseph development to inform a cultural overlay approach to the design. Our design didn’t attempt to mimic the historic character rather we choose a timeless elegant approach as is evident by the gravel forecourt and linear water feature that divides the old St Joseph’s wing from the new pool/accommodation wing and car park.

In should be noted that the project has already been acknowledged for its excellence in design and construction through State and National Architectural and interior design Awards as well as several Building Awards.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Plan E

Project: Western Power Parkland

The Western Power Parkland Project continues the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authorities commitment to the conservation and enhancement of major facilities within Kings Park that are both sensitive to the existing character and use of the Park, and that add value for Park users in amenity, experience and the interpretation of Western Australian biodiversity. The Arthur Fairall Playground, opened in 1967 and now part of the Western Power Parkland precinct, was built through the vision and efforts of Arthur Fairall.

The existing playground was a much loved and used area. User surveys undertaken in the early stages of the project revealed its success can be attributed to its unique rustic character, its ability to provide a range of passive and unstructured active play experiences and the size and open character of the area allowing for a wide range of family uses including picnics, barbecues and family gatherings. These attributes were all maintained and enhanced in the redevelopment project.

Major design constraints included the requirement to significantly refurbish or replace the aging equipment and degraded surrounds while retaining existing uses, character, scale and historic significance, and provide new play equipment for a wide range of users that is fun, interesting, challenging, educational, suitable for children with disabilities and complying with contemporary codes in a passive recreation environment.

The theme of the playground is the connection between energy and Western Australian biodiversity through time. This theme is designed to provide an exciting and unique play experience and allow for educational and interpretive experiences to be available to playground users. The master plan centers on the development of three main play areas, an island, or secret, playground with the theme of the sun and its relationship to earliest life (Palaeozoic Era), a water playground with the theme of fossil fuels and the amphibians ((Mesozoic Era) and an adventure playground with the theme of wind and fossil land fauna (Jurassic). An interpretive walk portraying the story of the continental land mass and fossils through time, including contemporary flora and fauna, links the three playground areas, significant new artworks based on the playground theme and other elements in the master plan including barbecue facilities and café.

The design and construction of the playground was a major team effort. To ensure the success of the project, the design and construction team included key members of Botanic Gardens and Park Authority and Western Power. Other professionals in the consultant team include Landscape Architects, Architects, Child Psychologists, Environmental Engineers, Electrical and Civil Engineers, Environmentalists, Safety Specialists, Irrigation Specialists, Heritage Architects and Artists.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR DESIGN

Recipient: Tecton Projects and Hobart City Council

Project: Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross Memorial – Queens Domain – Hobart.
Designed by:
Hobart City Council, Tecton Projects
Landscape Architect – Julie Stoneman GDLA (QUT), AAILA.
The Victoria Cross Memorial has been constructed on the Queens Domain Hobart to honour Tasmania’s 13 Victoria Cross bearers.
The Memorial consists of a pair of rammed earth and glass walls constructed on a ‘footprint’ of the Victoria Cross symbol, creating a dynamic gateway into the sacred precinct of Tasmania’s primary war memorial, the Cenotaph. Read More.Click to reveal.

Rammed earth
The rammed earth walls represent the trenches within which so many soldiers sought refuge, and from where battles were conducted.
Soil collected from the battlefields of South Africa, Belgium and France was mixed with soil from the soldiers’ birthplaces in Tasmania, forming ribbons of darker soil in the walls.

Stainless steel bands wrapping the base of the rammed earth walls carry the names of the battlefields and the soldiers’ birthplaces.
Glass
The glass walls allow light to be mediated within the memorial in a highly articulated way through layers of text and imagery.
The light represents hope and ongoing life.

The juxtaposition of the refined glass walls with the rammed earth walls triggers contemplation about the powerful significance of the material world whilst resonating and reflecting the spiritual.

INTENT
Inspire:Acknowledge and honour the Victoria Cross Bearers through highlighting their inspirational personal qualities.
Inspire people to work for peace through expressing the horrors of war.

Engage:Provide interpretation which leads visitors on a powerful and evocative journey.

Amplify:Identify and heighten the existing cultural and physical values of the site.

Question:Prompt multiple readings of issues: politically, socially and physically

Innovative design
Form: The plan of the secondary landscape zone around the Cenotaph takes the form of the Victoria Cross, strengthening the site’s layered significance. The earth and glass walls rise from the outline of the Victoria Cross which is expressed with contrasting paving and yew hedges (to be planted in the future).

The vertical angles of the walls match the angles of the Victoria Cross medal and their taper (a traditional symbol of spirituality) mirrors the tapering forms of the existing Cenotaph obelisk and Bhutan cypresses.

Bench seats take their form and colour from the VC medal and ribbon.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE PROFESSION
This project is a powerful example of art integrated with landscape and as such places landscape art within the discipline of Landscape Architecture, achieved through the Landscape Architect also working as the artist.

Many of the design generators are inspired by the surrounding formal and natural landscapes at the same time embodying conceptual and aesthetic concerns of contemporary art practice.

NATIONAL AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Peter Elliot Architects, Paul Carter and James Hayter and Associates

Project: North Terrace Precinct

Focusing on the road reserve and its immediate environs, including laneway connections north and south, and major building forecourts, the study aims to create the basis for a vital northern edge to the city. 

The intent is that this will link economically important areas in the city such as Rundle Mall, the East End and Hindley Street to the unique array of institutions and the river to the north, while also connecting a series of destinations along North Terrace, which together form the centre-piece of South Australia cultural and civic life.

The Concept and Design responds to the unique setting of Adelaide and in particular North Terrace and enunciated design principles for both the terrace as a whole, and the adjacent spaces which exhibit their own particular character. The design principles identified as critical to generating greater vitality, identity and accessibility along and around North Terrace are:

Thresholds the strengthening and enhancement of garden thresholds at the east and west ends of the terrace
Terrace Walk the creation of an uninterrupted green walk along the entire north side of the Terrace
City Edge the reinforcement of the northern ‘wall’ of the City grid
Cultural Heart an increase in activity in the cultural heart of the Terrace between Morphett St and Frome Rd
City-River links the creation of well used and safe links between the river and City
Terrace Vitality the creation of an urban environment which supports a rich social and economic life

The garden walk or double path still evident in Prince Henry Gardens is the principal remnant expression of the grand vision of the Terrace last implemented in the 1930’s. It is proposed to reinterpret this model to respond to contemporary needs and aspirations and extend it along the Terrace’s entire length. This approach creates a constant 23metre wide vehicle boulevard with a 25metre north pedestrian promenade and a 6metre south footpath.

The new north promenade is transformed as it traverses the Terrace’s different precincts and responds to their urban form and activities.

For a significant length of the Terrace the plan recommends native trees, to visually link to the adjacent parklands and river, to symbolise our contemporary relationship with the Australian Landscape, and to improve biodiversity in the city.

In the Museum Forecourt the plan recommends the collection and re-use of roof and stormwater; a principle which has been followed through with a bio-retention system and storage thanks being integrated into the subsequent design to supply up to 80% of irrigation water for this and adjoining spaces.

The concept master plan has grown out of extensive stakeholder and community input, including reference to consultation undertaken as part of earlier work by HASSELL in 1993. Displays in Rundle Mall and other city locations encouraged community comment which was integrated into the final plans. Stakeholder’s forums were regularly held to update adjoining landowners. In addition extensive consultation was undertaken with adjacent institutions including presentations to boards, meetings with directors and CEO’s and liaison with technical staff. The team reported to a sub-committee of the Capital City Committee with additional presentations to the full council of the City of Adelaide, State Cabinet, and the Capital City Committee.

On completion, the project was endorsed by the board of every civic and cultural institution on North Terrace, the North Terrace Sub-Committee of the Capital City Committee, the City of Adelaide, State Cabinet, and the Capital City Committee.

The principal consultant, landscape architect and urban designer for the project was Taylor Cullity Lethlean, lead by Kevin Taylor. The core design team also consisted of Peter Elliott Architects, artist Paul Carter, and James Hayter and Associates.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: HASSELL Pty Ltd

Project: Ningbo

A vision for a new generation Chinese World City
Ningbo is the second largest port in China, benefiting from its proximity to Shanghai and Hangzhou, and its rapidly growing garment, hi-tech, and education industries.

Reflecting the rapid urbanisation of China, Ningbo is expected to double its population to 3 million by 2020.

Designing a new city centre in a country with a 4000-year history of city planning and design, raised important issues of cultural relevance.
“ Our concept blended traditional Chinese principles for city design such as ‘the magic square’, and ‘the field of nine divisions’, with well developed Chinese sustainable practices in agriculture, such as water management for flood control, irrigation and aqua-culture; and soil conservation and waste recycling. We then added complimentary and contemporary technology, in treatment of stormwater, sewage and other wastes, and generation of energy from the sun, wind and waste, to make a sustainable city for the 21st Century.”
The HASSELL concept allowed for a new city with about the same density as Berlin or Paris.

The detailed design concept for the new city centre was developed for a 7km2 (700ha) site within the overall expansion area. The HASSELL team modelled the form of typical buildings for each city block, mixing residential, commercial, retail and government uses with lively boulevards, civic spaces and an extensive park and canal system threaded throughout the city centre. The centre allows for a resident population of 100,000 people, to be housed at medium and high densities, taking advantage of the extensive park and water system which will generate high levels of amenity for new development.
Building envelope studies were developed in commercial, mixed use and residential areas of the city centre specifying height built and built form, including streetscapes, orientation and overall city from considerations.
Concept designs were developed and modelled in these dimensions for all the major civic buildings along the urban axis and all the sports and entertainment facilities on the knowledge axis.
Building design guidelines are accompanied with recommended sustainable building design guidelines for materials, energy use and water conservation, to compliment the ESD agenda for city infrastructure.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Coomes Consulting Group

Project: Barlings Beach

This project demonstrates the key role that Landscape Architects play in planning and designing developments that respond to and enhance the environmental qualities of an area.

Coomes Consulting Group was the key consultant for the preparation of a masterplan for a high quality, low density, integrated residential development, located on a 33.5 ha parcel of coastal land, at Barlings Beach, Tomakin, NSW. The unique coastal setting, together with the complex and varied landscape character of the site, presented the team with an array of environmental, physical, cultural and socio economic challenges, requiring a sensitive approach.

The masterplan for Barlings Beach derives from a process balancing technical research and analysis, along with broad consultation to inform an urban design concept and detailed design. The scope and composition of the project team contributing to the masterplan married a broad range of skills and experience, encompassing landscape architecture, planning, urban design, and architecture. At a technical level the project team commissioned site-specific research with regard to archaeology, culture and heritage, flora/fauna, soils and water quality. Where findings warranted further investigation, additional research was undertaken.

From the outset, the design process sought to ensure that all relevant public and private interests in and expectations of the development of the land were acknowledged, considered and integrated into the masterplan.

A sensitive approach will be taken in the planting of local natives in the appropriate zone, in order to respect the different vegetation communities existing on the site and the characteristics of each of these. Planting will be simple both in structure and species selections, primarily based on a lower storey of native grasses and sedges with an emergent tree canopy of predominantly Casuarinas and Banksias. Shrub planting will generally be limited to uses such as screening, softening or barrier creation where required. The planting will also create a continuous landscape character through both the public and private realms, with a sense of the buildings and roads being nestled into openings, in an otherwise continuous natural coastal landscape. This will be achieved in part by positive and descriptive landscape design guidelines, coupled with covenants requiring the use of mainly local plant materials.

Open spaces and parks will be strategically located to protect the dunes, the Aboriginal Place, the escarpment, swamp areas and creek environs, whilst also facilitating view corridors, connections and buffers. Boardwalks will allow sensitive access along and across the dunes, and to the beach area, meeting the objective of ‘treading lightly’ on the landscape. Open space and parks will be enhanced with informal feature elements reflecting a coherent palette of materials and elements. Other landscape elements will be designed to ensure consistency with this, and will aim for simplicity in form. The overall approach will be to use natural materials that blend in with the landscape. Several key landscape locations however, will be signified by strongly coloured walls, in order to create focal points within the landscape.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: John Mongard Landscape Architecture

Project: Toradin Village

Toradin is strategically located at the only place where the South Gippsland Highway meets the waters of Western Port. The Village is located 65 kilometres south east of central Melbourne.

The tremendous population growth potential of Melbourne’s south eastern corridor will provide new opportunities for Tooradin to perform a unique niche role as a place for day trips for the nearby suburban population. The Tooradin Village strategy seeks to capitalise on this by the careful planning of new activities including a waterfront promenade, a regional tourism information and interpretation centre; and eco-tourism ventures focused around walking and bridle trails.

The Strategy aims to re-position the development approach to Tooradin as a model for the whole of Casey City The re-positioning has emerged in response to the involvement and visioning of the local community who helped shape the Strategy. Above all else, the Tooradin people are passionate about improving the area’s natural environmental qualities.

Traditionally, Tooradin’s development has pushed out indiscriminantly into the surrounding rural landscape. As a result, local ecologies have been compromised and natural systems disrupted. The Strategy reverses this past development model and aims to actively rehabilitate the local ecology and promote sustainable development. The design philosophy is one of the local environment filtering through into Tooradin Village, instead of the Village pushing out endlessly. For example, the Strategy proposes a series of new linked wildlife corridors within the Village to help bring back Tooradin’s natural qualities, and has also defined an ecological limit for expansion by creating strong regulatory edges. Above all else, the starting point for all new development in Tooradin will be the importance of improving the environment.

Faced with the imminent need for a sewerage system, Tooradin could easily triple its population in a short-time. How was this change to be managed to prevent destruction of village life? JMLA worked with Council and a project managed team of consultants covering ecology, infrastructure, cultural heritage, safety and access, geology and agriculture and community planning. Detailed studies were carried out over a year-long period.

JMLA worked with Council to modify zonings, land-uses and provide future lot-structures to ensure a sustainable future village. Developers are following these templates, creating village lanes in the traditional village grid, and incorporating water sensitive swale drainage and wildlife corridors

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Pittendrigh Shinkfield Bruce

Project: Wilson Brothers Community Centre

The need to engender trust and cohesion through careful community consultation can be of crucial importance to the outcome of any development process. 

No project demonstrates PSB’s capacity in this regard more vividly than our handling of the politically sensitive Wilson Bros site in Sydney’s Redfern. This 3,000 square meter area of factories rezoned as ‘open space’, for the community, sits adjacent to an area known as The Block – the heartland of urban Aboriginal people and an important focus for Aboriginal Redfern.

We have since gone on to document the results, and to design and develop the park and community centre. The final design integrates space for outdoor performance, community markets and festivals, for gathering and storytelling, informal sports and children’s play. An accompanying management plan, with staged reviews, is designed to ensure continued equitable access to the Centre by all members of the community.
It contains a strategy for performance review and reassessment of all community needs in an appropriate timeframe: internal reviews should occur in the first five years, plus a major external review of the community’s needs.

The landscape architect’s solution for an equitable and workable urban park in an area often sensationalised in the media as a dangerous place troubled by drugs, unemployment and poverty, honoured an open and inclusive consultative process.

The high fences and “secure”, segregated spaces that were advocated by a small but vocal minority are absent. Both the consultation process and the resultant masterplan are open, legible and readily surveyed. They are non-prescriptive, overlaid with opportunities for creating a yet to be discovered ‘United Nations for Australian Aborigines’ and a place for a meeting of the disparate communities of Redfern.

In this bold attempt to provide an open, equitable facility for the people of Redfern to stamp as their own, our role in the process was central and defining. The ultimate success of any proposal at the site is impossible to predict. But as a result of the opportunities created for expression and interaction, a process of community building and healing has occurred and a feeling of good faith generated. A positive start has been made.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Brisbane City Council - City Design in association with HASSELL

Project: Rocks Riverside Park

Like all great landscapes, theRegional Riverside Parkat Seventeen Miles Rock embodies the major pre-occupations of its time.

Progressively, it remakes a polluted, post-industrial site on the Brisbane River as a landscape where the community explores what issues of cultural and environmental sustainability mean in practice. These issues are manifest in the park’s distinctive contemporary forms, its program and its management. While specific to this place, they provide models for sustainable practice in sub-tropical cities and regions elsewhere. At Riverside, concepts of sustainability are made tangible.

Hassell were engaged by Environment and Parks (Urban management Division) to prepare initial concepts and Master Plan Documentation for the Rocks Riverdale Park. The first Mater Plan was completed in 2000.

A change in design direction, land acquisitions and the refinement of the budget post March 2000 indicated that the initial master plan document would require major review prior to proceeding to design development and project implementation. City Design – Landscape Architecture was engaged to undertake this work.

The commission required re-design of the major areas, ensuring the creation of an innovative and sustainable contemporary park tat reflected planning constraints and opportunities.

City Design – Landscape Architecture in conjunction with Hassell, developed the revise Master Plan and supporting planning strategies to guide the detailed design of the project.

Rocks Riverdale Park covers an area of 26 hectares with 800 meters of river frontage within the Seventeen Mile Rocks reach of the Brisbane River. The site provides green linkages to the west along the river, and to the south and east over the bushland escarpment. Ten hectares have been intensively developed as the contemporary park setting. Major site elements include the Brisbane River, the natural bushland escarpment, industrial artifacts, remnant coral stockpiles and open space areas.

A project of this size and complexity provides significant opportunities for innovation in open space planning. From the outset, the integration of responsive environmental design provided a framework on which the Master Plan was developed.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Aspect Sydney

Project:Woollondilyl Vision 2025

Wollondilly Vision 2025 establishes nine key visions statements, encompassing vegetation and ecological protection, healthy waterways, protection of rural environments, and towns, maintaining rural activities, establishing green recreational corridors and social aspects. 

These vision statements are then divided into three categories, - major outcomes, key strategies and risks. The first two categories establish clear results and ways to achieve these. The risk categories establishes likely results if these strategies are not undertaken.

Community consultation was undertaken in tandem with analysis to establish what the community valued in Wollondilly. The result was a community response that coincided with the preliminary vision statements devised by the project team. The community focused on protection of rural character, protecting and building on existing town structures and protection of native vegetation communities and waterways. Subsequently the 9 vision statements were presented back to the local community as part of the consultation process. This Risk category was particularly effective during the consultation period in identifying to the local community the results if the strategies are not undertaken.The 9 Vision Statements are supported by a series of town visions and strategies, for the principal towns in Wollondilly shire. Whilst the visions provide clear shire-wide outcomes and strategies, the town visions provide a pictorial approach to how these strategies can be translated on a local, detailed level.

The town plans identify town limits and boundaries, opportunities for consolidated residential development, environmentally sensitive areas for protection and opportunities for recreational links and corridors. They translate written proposals into clearly legible, understandable proposals that can be implemented on a town level. The town plans were supported by a series of individual town visions, strategies, and risks. These plans were recognised as guiding documents only, and would require further detailed studies to explore and test the proposals.

The town plans provide a physical plan, with which Council and the community can refer and respond to proposals and changes. The final stage of the consultation process allowed for community review and input into the individual town strategies.

Wollondilly Vision 2025 is unique in that the client had the initiative to instigate a thorough guiding strategic approach, that would provide the basis for protection and sustainable development in there area. To date, councils have struggled with the incremental decisions of other authorities, groups and stakeholders, with an unsupportive, ambiguous planning framework that is reactive rather than proactive. The vision enables communities and council to employ effective tools to guide the future of their towns and lands.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Tract Consultants

Project: Commonwealth Games Village 2006

In 2001, The Village Park Consortium (comprising Australand and Citta Property Group Pty Ltd) appointed Tract as project landscape architects and urban designers for their 2006 Commonwealth Games Village tender submission to the Victorian State Government. In October 2002, the Consortium’s proposal was selected by the Government as the plan which best delivered the critical functional requirements of the Village while meeting a wide range of financial, environmental and social design criteria. 

To select the preferred site and developer for the Games Village, the Victorian State Government called for ‘Expressions of Interest, followed by a ‘Request for proposals’ from the ensuing shortlist of proponents. Following their review of entries, the Government selected the proposal prepared by the Village Park Consortium to develop the Games Village in Parkville on the site of the former Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital.
Following their selection, the Village Park Consortium design team entered into a period of Master Plan refinement culminating in a comprehensive submission to the Commonwealth Games Planning Advisory Committee. At the time of this submission, the State Government initiated a formal consultation process providing the opportunity for the Community to respond to the design. Melbourne City Council and Moreland City Council were important participants in this process. During their review, the Advisory Committee called upon team members to present various components of the design and provide supplementary information as requested. In August 2003, after considering the Advisory Committee’s recommendations, the Minister for Commonwealth Games advised the Village Park Consortium of his determination.

The Commonwealth Games Village is a highly visible project, which has and will continue to be subject to intensive review on multiple fronts. As a result, the project has the capacity to demonstrate to a large audience the ability of the landscape architect to establish the overall Master plan “vision” and then guide that vision through a multitude of obstacles to realisation. As a high profile project, which is also committed to setting design, environmental and social benchmarks, the Games Village provides an important professional example and a vehicle for learning on many levels. Tract Consultants were appointed as landscape architects and urban designers in 2001 at the project’s inception and will continue in this capacity until its completion in approximately 2012.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Pittendrigh Shinkfield Bruce

Project: Terrigal Town Centre

Visual quality is a key component of the character of most coastal towns in New South Wales. Communities value access to views and are increasingly demanding planning controls that protect visual resources. Yet, the visual environment is a resource that is often given scant regard by the planning profession.
The NSW coastal town of Terrigal, (which is set in a natural amphitheatre known as the Terrigal Bowl) is no exception to this and is growing rapidly. The attraction for tourists and new residents is its relaxed, casual atmosphere and natural beauty, but this has been increasingly compromised by traffic congestion, deteriorating buildings and a tired public domain.

Initially appointed to improve the beachfront, by masterplanning and detailing a new public domain, the landscape architects recognised the inadequacy of existing planning controls to guide future development, not only along the foreshore but throughout the whole town. In subsequently preparing a Strategic Plan for Terrigal Town Centre and the surrounding bowl that defines its character visually, we have massively increased our role and responsibility in reshaping Terrigal’s future, both at the large scale and in the fine detail, where we were engaged to provide guidelines and define limits for development for the Terrigal town centre and its residential hinterland.

Wide-ranging recommendations were developed to promote scenic quality and amenity in the town centre and maintain its “village style”. Problems relating to occasional flooding, old public facilities, the uncoordinated form and design of buildings, car parking and traffic movements and congestion were also addressed.

Other strategies were designed to enhance the unique character of the beachfront and retail precinct, to encourage pedestrian ownership of it, and to connect them both physically and visually as the town centre. The foreshore and other public areas were considered in terms of developing a new and interpretive public domain where materiality and form are representative of Terrigal’s histories and the unique qualities of its natural coastal formations, in particular the tessellated patterns of the ocean rockshelf.

The Plan itself tested a series of building height scenarios for their impacts on ocean and forest views. An economic analysis was then carried out to allow Council to make an informed decision as to what development scenario would protect local visual quality yet provide sufficient economic incentive for development.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR PLANNING

Recipient: Christine Murphy Landscape Architects

Project: Rouse Hill Regional Centre

Caddies Creek Landscape Management Strategy
The proposed Town Centre occurs in an area rich in biological and cultural diversity including endangered ecological communities and Aboriginal Heritage with varied landscape character.

The proposed Caddies Creek Corridor will integrate the future development of the Town Centre with regional Trunk Drainage whilst protecting these identified environmental assets. The aim of the study was to provide a strategic framework and management guidelines for future land managers, developers and designers.

Significance of the project/special factors:

1. Early involvement of the landscape architect in the planning process.
2. The landscape architect’s methodology which included”
3. review of all previous studies and recommended conservation management strategies.
4. analysis of site values
5. assessment of development constraints.
6. major issues identified through consultation with stakeholders.
7. principals and strategies developed in response to these key issues
8. the landscape structure plan illustrates how the principals and strategies can be applied to the development control process.
9. the visual presentation of biological, ecological and heritage legislative requirements summarized on the constraints plan. This assisted the stakeholders to recognize the implications of their specific requirements on this integrated development.
10. The process, culminating in the structure plan and associated report, enabled the client to incorporate best practice environmental management principals into the development control plan.

This landscape strategy has been used by the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning in the preparation of the Rouse Hill Regional Centre Development Control Plan. It will assist the client in meeting the expectations and responsibilities of all stakeholders and the broader community. The report acknowledges the inter-relationship between development, drainage, ecological and recreational requirements and will be a valuable reference document for Landscape Architects and others involved in the development process.

Client:Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, Land Management Branch.
Stakeholders/consent authorities:
Sydney Water Corporation
Department of Land and Water Conservation
Baulkham Hills Shire Council
National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Consultant Landscape Architect:
The Landscape Architect’s role was critical in collating and formatting the ecological and environmental controls as a basis for planning and development of the new town centre.

Base documents supplied by:
Aboriginal Heritage Management Plan
Flora and Fauna Management Plan

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: Tract Consultants Pty Ltd

Project:12 Apostles Visitor Centre

Tract Consultants were commissioned by Parks Victoria as principal consultants for the site selection and concept planning of a tourist amenity facility at the Twelve Apostles site near Port Campbell, Victoria.

The Twelve Apostles has become one of the three most significant tourist attractions in Victoria (it is actually third behind Melbourne and the Penguins) with current visitor numbers growing at the rate of 9% per year.

Tract input was in two parts; the first detailed identification and evaluation of three sites including schematic options and detailed design, documentation and construction supervision of preferred option in 1999/2000.

The Twelve Apostles within the Port Campbell National Park are one of the three most internationally recognized natural features of the Australian landscape (alongside Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef).
Receiving 1.2 million visitors in 1999 the Twelve Apostles daily visitation varies from 1,700 to 4,500 visitors per day, and is estimated to grow at a rate of 5.9% per year over the next 10 years.

As principal consultants, Tract was responsible for delivering a wild coast experience and associated facility to match the highest expectations of international tourism. Careful attention was paid to the site selection, the style and configuration of buildings, roads, car and bus parks and wetland to minimize the visual intrusion of a relatively major facility into this important environment.
Creative application of ESD principals in respect of stormwater management, greywater retention, rainwater harvesting and recreation of natural wetlands as final water polishing also played a critical role in the detailed configuration of the masterplan.

Client:
Parks Victoria
Geoff Bray
Mal Poulter
Lauren Templeman
Rob Sanders

Principal Consultants:Tract Consultants
Ecologists:Ecology Australia
Landscape Architect:Tract Consultants
Architect:Greg Burgess Architects
Structural/Civil:Grogan Richards
Interpretation:David Lancashire
Quantity Surveyor:Slattery Australia
Environmental Engineers 11)AGC Woodward Clyde
Environmental Engineers 12)Gutteridge Haskins and Davey

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: mcgregor+partners

Project: Eco 1+2

Growing at a rate of 50,000 people per year, or a new Canberra every five years, Sydney is being pushed at its’ boundaries to accommodate new population.

Like many other Australian and international cities, Sydney has few options available to accommodate this growth, either sprawl or consolidation, or a combination of both. The debate over whether one model is more sustainable and affordable than the other continues to create passionate debate among theorists of contemporary urbanism.

One thing that all Sydney could agree on was that the city was being maligned by a disease of new apartment buildings, which are destined to become the modern urban ghettos of our time. It was as if nobody had learned anything from the modernists and the failed archi-social experiments of the post war era. Under pressure from professionals and the community, state government recognised that Sydney must become more compact and less wasteful of both space and resources. This pressure found its way to the premier who, disturbed by the poor quality, developer driven outcomes spreading over the city stepped in to introduce SEPP65, a prescriptive model code to improve the design of modern flat buildings and the soon to be adopted BASIX, a code for improving the environmental performance of development projects.

BASIX was initiated by PNSW as a means for improving the quality of development projects to help create more sustainable neighbourhoods. ECO set out to define new parameters for environmental integration and was used by PNSW as a model for how to design sustainable residential flat buildings. The storm water diagram we prepared was then used in the UDAS publication as an example of best practice.

The two stage project is located on the Victoria Park area in Green Square, Zetland, on two sites; one a 4330m2 site with 67 apartments in four separate buildings arranged around a large common courtyard, and the other on a 4250m2 site, consisting of 74 apartments in three separate buildings arranged around a large common courtyard.

The landscape design philosophy was founded on a desire by our team to create an affordable, contemporary living environment that maximised the environmental and spatial potential of the courtyard for residents. The design process began through studying shadow and microclimate and beginning a dialogue with the architects on the integration of the buildings with the external areas. Our overriding objective was to deliver a project that integrated ecologically sustainable design throughout all facets of the buildings and landscape within a tightly budgeted, construction oriented, delivery process. Of key importance were the spatial, water and planting aspects of the design.

Client:Waltcorp/Walter Construction Group
Location:Victoria Park, Zetland, Sydney
Design and Completion Date:Design date 1998, Completion date 2002
Budget:$250,000
Eco 1 Hardscape Cost:$75,000.00Softscape Cost:$120,000.00
Eco 2 Hardscape Cost:$45,000.00Softscape Cost:$75,000.00
Project team:mcgregor+partners (landscape architects)
Turner+Associates (architects)

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: Kiah Infranet

Project: Eastcom City

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: HASSELL, Landcom and the NSW Department of Commerce

Project: Victoria Park

Victoria Park is a 24-hectare mixed-use development that has been undertaken by Landcom. It will incorporate medium and high-density housing, commercial and retail facilities for a population of 5,000. 
Prior to European development the site was part of the Botany Swamp – a large wetland and lagoon ecological system that extended from Centennial Park to Botany Bay. Watkins Tench described it in 1789 as “the finest meadows in the world”. The site has been developed since the late 1800s, firstly as a racecourse and then for heavy industry.

Brief
Landcom set a clear agenda for excellence and innovation on this difficult and degraded brown field site. The brief for the renewal of the site included a requirement for a high quality landscape within a benchmark development for inner city urban redevelopment.
The project exceeded these expectations by virtue of its innovative water management system and the integration of the system into the high quality external living environment. In this respect the project has become a benchmark for water sensitive urban design in an urban context.

Scope
The scope of work undertaken within the consultancy included master planning refinement for the development site, and design of the public domain, which included the public streets, and three new public parks.

Concept
The concept for the design of the public domain embodies four key principles that relate to its place. These include the following.
— Environmental strategy – incorporating a site-wide approach to ecological systems, particularly water management.
— Interpretation of the natural heritage – showcasing wetland systems similar to those that once dominated the site.
— Site connectivity – providing a simple legible typology of streets, with a small palette of strong landscape materials and urban elements that unify the site’s complex built form.
— Community development - creating a variety of settings in the public domain to meet the needs of the new residential and working community.

The consistency of the design approach is evident throughout the public domain. East-west streets feature median bio-retention swales or wetlands that are a focus of the water management system. North-south streets mimic more traditional avenues. The parks have a deliberate richness in spatial form and materials, unified by the common thread of indigenous planting of wetland species, structural form of buildings, and a landform that is moulded to accommodate water detention requirements. Public artworks express and celebrate improved water quality achievements, and plant selection and habitat creation consistently support the local ecosystem and promote biodiversity.

The success of the project is the direct result of strong collaboration between the design team and Landcom who supported the design through all stages of the delivery of the project.
The master planning, design and documentation of the public domain was undertaken collaboratively by the Government Architects Office (formerly Department of Public Works and Services) and Hassell.
The scope of consultancy undertaken jointly included the refinement of the master plan to integrate a water sensitive urban design strategy, design of the public domain, including streets and parks, and documentation and construction phase services.
Landscape architects from both offices were commissioned to undertake and manage the whole public domain process. It involved engagement of a number of consultants including engineers and ecologists, and coordination of public art.
Significantly the public domain design commission proceeded simultaneously with the design and documentation of infrastructure, ensuring that the water management system was coordinated with the roads and services design.
The success of the project also demonstrates the importance of the client’s involvement and commitment to the overall design strategy

The project budget for the public domain was $12,000,000. This represents a cost rate in the vicinity of $200 per square metre. The reuse of site materials for the bio-retention swales ensured that the environmental initiatives were not a financial cost burden for the project, enabling more expenditure on community facilities and park amenities.
The project budget for the public domain does not highlight savings that were achieved in the stormwater pipe system design as a direct result of the adoption of the bio-retention infiltration process, nor the long term and off-site financial savings associated with improved storm water quality and control for the local area.

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: John Mongard Landscape Architects

Project: Ecovillage at Currumbin

After undertaking an Australia Council funded research project for finding alternatives to suburban sprawl, JMLA printed a brochure which was distributed by Gold Coast City Council to developers. One such developer, Landmatters Pty. Ltd. was searching for a team to produce what they hoped would become the world’s best ecologically sustainable village. They adopted the ecological principles of the brochure and hired JMLA to help in this visioning process. 

Landmatters Pty Ltd set out to `build a project that inspires and sets a world’s best standard for the future community of Australia’. The proposal is to develop an alternative approach to sprawl by using ecologically sustainable principles. With this came the challenge to prove to the local community that suburban sprawl was not just about to begin on their sensitive doorstep. The Landmatters ecovillage would be one of the largest new living areas in the Valley and this created a potentially explosive political context.

The community design process that JMLA practise – called `Set-Up Shop,’ shows that working with people and listening to their dreams is a potent tool for placemaking. In the end, there were very few people in the Valley who had attended the workshops who disagreed with the final concept plan.

The brief was strongly influenced by the community design process instigated by JMLA with the visions, concerns and ideas of the valley’s residents actively harnessed through a weeklong onsite brainstorming. Over four hundred people attended these brainstorms which were run from the old diary shed on the property. This proved that co-design is just as relevant on a greenfields site as in the middle of an urban area.

The subdivision process at heart has remained unchallenged in the suburbs in the last thirty years. Landscape architects rarely get to draw up boundaries and parcels unencumbered by surveyors, or to create living places which are led by, not followed by, ecological development principles. The layout of the ecovillage truly follows landform and landcover, creating eco-hamlet footprints which were all created on cleared land with no environmental constraints.

Location:639 Currumbin Road, Currumbin, Queensland
Client:Landmatters (Currumbin Valley) Pty Ltd
Landscape Architect:John Mongard Landscape Architects (JMLA)
Project:Landscape/Environmental Planning
and Co-design for a 220 home ecovillage
in the Gold Coast hinterland’s most scenic valley.
Collaborators:A team of 12 consultants, 200 local residents
Budget:$10 million dollars

NATIONAL COMMENDATION AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENT

Recipient: VicRoads Design - Landscape Section

Project: VicRoads Calder Freeway

The Calder Freeway Black Forestproject involved the design and construction of 7 kilometres of freeway near Macedon township. The alignment runs through a mostly rural environment, which varies from open cleared pastures to the dense stands of Eucalypt bushland that form the Black Forest. 

The freeway has a major impact upon the landscape and surrounding environment. The landscape design built on the broad planning concept produced at the earlier EES planning stage by Gerner Consulting. The principal landscape objective was to create a landscape that reflects the surrounding environment and acknowledges the various natural and cultural features.

VicRoads Design prepared a detailed concept and contract documentation for the Black Forest Section. Liaison with the broader community was an integral component of this process to ensure we understood the local and wider community’s needs and expectations of the road corridor.

The landscape design process addressed the impact of the road on adjacent environs and significant remnant ecosystems, including a nationally significant Yarra Gum population and Black Forest bushland, Slaty Creek, the catchment of Rosslynne Reservoir and other associated waterways. Minimisation of visual impacts on the surrounding environment was an important consideration.

The landscape concept continues the predominately indigenous landscape theme developed along the Calder Freeway between Melbourne and Bendigo, highlighting interchanges and sites of historical and cultural significance. Through the agricultural zone, landscape planting has been introduced to minimise the visual impact of high fill batters, noise walls and the koala fence for local residents viewing into the road corridor. The planting design also recognises unique views to and from nearby Mt.Macedon, remnant avenue plantings to local homesteads and extensive windrows. Corridor planting along the roadside functions as shelterbelt planting and links local habitat road reserves with the Black Forest bushland.

Revegetation through the Black Forest bushland responded to the surrounding Messmate – Peppermint association with Swamp Gum and Manna Gum riparian plant communities concentrated along creek corridors. The Landscape Section collaborated closely with geo-technical engineers to best determine the stability of the cut batters and appropriate treatments. Although the steep cuttings resulted in a number of batter slips (steep batters minimised the footprint of the works), specific planting mixes have been developed to successfully stabilise the soil profile.

VicRoads Design - Landscape Section developed the landscape concept and detailed design for the project through a collaborative design process and played a crucial role in integrating multi-disciplinary input. The team liaised with VicRoads Design bridge and road engineers in the manipulation of engineering elements to achieve better environmental outcomes. Biosis Ecologists, Ove Arup Engineers, the CRC for Catchment Hydrology and Daryl Jackson Architects were involved in the design of site specific mitigation measures.

NATIONAL AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR RESEARCH & COMMUNICATION

Recipient: Dr Catherin Bull

Publication: New Conversations with an Old Landscape: Landscape Architecture in Contemporary Australia

New Conversations with an Old Landscape addresses a fundamental need in the landscape architectural profession; that of communicating its activities and intentions to a wide audience. 

The first audience lies beyond its own confines – co-professionals, including architects, engineers and planners; decision-makers, and clients, including various levels of government and development companies; and non-technical people with an interest in the quality of our landscapes, but without professional knowledge of the institutional processes that shape it. The second audience is the profession itself. For this audience the book aims (as the first book dedicated to the work of landscape architects in Australia) to provide:

a conceptual framework or theoretical “starting point” for the profession;

a basic introductory text for incoming students; and

an introduction to the issues and pre-occupations that shape the profession in Australia for landscape architects from other countries.

Fundamental (although not immediately apparent) differences between the Australian landscape and the home landscapes of its immigrant settlers, have resulted in many environmental problems over the two centuries of its nationhood. Pre-conceived and idealised notions of what the landscape should become have been imposed on the land, and with time, many have been unsuccessful and destructive. Progressive adaptation to the rigours and realities of the environment has been both assisted and inhibited by landscape design, and over the last four decades landscape architects have contributed a new dimension to the process of adaptation. It is this contribution that this book addresses and discusses, within the framework of major environmental and cultural issues. These issues provide the themes for the chapters and include: living with “the bush”; the challenge of a de-populated “Outback” (the “black stump”); living on the driest continent; the landscape of movement (often over enormous distances and empty spaces); landscape as habitat; and the landscapes of an intensely urban but outdoor culture. Finally, the concluding chapter suggests future trends.

The very invisibility and naturalism of these contributions often belie the skill that goes into their making and although the places that result are valued highly by the community at large, they are not often aware of the work that has made them that way. The work involved is of a range of scales, from the regional to local, and spans time frames from decades to years. It also involves many communities. Nearly all of it is in the communal or public domain, a characteristic of the profession in Australia, and a challenge in terms of meaning. Projects also range from the local and everyday to the iconic sites of national symbolism.

By such a process of discussion and description, the landscape of landscape architecture in Australia is “mapped” for the first time. What is emphasised in the text and the commissioned photographs is the intimate relationship between these landscapes and the people and animals that use them. This, in itself, promotes the notion of value and of meaning.

The book aims, in simple and accessible language, to place the work of landscape architects within the cultural and environmental context of Australia, presenting their designs as cultural products that can be analysed and assessed in parallel with other cultural products. It uses the established rhetorical device of “landscape as text” to do this, suggesting that landscape architects converse with the land in order to propose new landscapes, and that the quality of those new landscapes is a manifestation of those conversations.

New Conversations with an Old Landscapeis published and distributed internationally. The book has been sold into the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and Korea, with a Chinese edition of 2,000 copies.

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR RESEARCH & COMMUNICATION

Recipient: Linda Corkery AAILA, Bruce Judd and Susan Thompson, Faculty of the Built Environment UNSW, Susan Bartolomei, Faculty of Arts and Sciences UNSW

Project: A Bountiful Harvest: Community Gardens and Neighbourhood Renewal in Waterloo

The Gardens provide many positive opportunities for cross-cultural interactions. Indeed, the Gardens are a multicultural place where participants develop better understandings of cultural difference through the sharing of recipes and plants.

There were many stories of how participating in the Gardens has helped to diminish cultural boundaries and negative racial stereotypes. The Gardens also provide an important cultural continuation of the home that has been left behind. This assists with developing feelings of belonging and worth for many gardeners born outside Australia.

The Gardens are an important source of improved health and well-being. There are opportunities for physical exercise, and many gardeners find peace and relaxation in their activities. The garden produce can help to reduce food costs as well as provide a source of fresh food and medicinal herbs. There is much pleasure taken in watching plants grow and enjoying contact with nature in a beautiful setting. There are challenges facing the Gardens and those who participate in them. These centre on internal and external sources of conflicts. The former include leadership roles, allotment sizes, boundary disputes and neglected lots, and some cultural conflict and misunderstanding. External sources ofconflict mainly involve conflict with some children and youth who are perceived as disrespectful of the gardeners and their activities.

The Waterloo Public Housing Estate is located approximately 2.5 km south of the Sydney central business district (CBD) between the main western railway line and South Dowling Street. It is the largest of the inner Sydney public housing estates with around 2,500 dwellings housing over 5,000 tenants and accounting for 82 per cent of all dwellings in the suburb of Waterloo Public housing in this area dates from the early 1950s due to a slum clearance program which made a substantial amount of land available to the then Housing Commission of NSW for redevelopment. The earliest public housing types constructed in this area were austere three-storey walk-up flats built in the late 1950s and early1960s. These remain today in the area bounded by George, Raglan, Cope and McEvoy Streets. These were followed later in the 1960s with 3-5 storey, balcony access flats and in the 1970s, with high rise housing blocks of 17 to 30 storeys. Considering the garden’s role as an expression of ‘ action’ reminds us that to garden requires commitment and physical exertion and cannot be undertaken without getting one’s hands dirty. As a result, many people report the experience of gardening as one that relieves stress and provides a connectedness to the earth, engenders personal creativity or a sense of participation in natural processes, as well as a sense of control or stewardship for the land.

In the public housing context, community gardens are not, however, a panacea to solve the complex array of social and cultural problems evident on public housing estates. Community gardens mustbe part of an integrated social, economic and environmental strategic approach. Our research has confirmed that community gardens have great potential for personal development, socia interaction and community renewal on public housing estates. They must, however, be initiated,developed and managed in concert with the community. Done in this way, their success is ensured and a bountiful harvest reaped!

NATIONAL MERIT AWARD FOR RESEARCH & COMMUNICATION

Recipient: Pittendrigh Shinkfield Bruce, Damien Pericles and the Green Wall Team

Project: The Green Wall Experiment

The city is an awe-inspiring creation. It represents the dominating knowledge and application of human invention. The city can also be seen as denatured, abstract, unsustainable and highly polluting of the air, aesthetics and spirit. Sensuality is restricted to the artificially contrived shopping environments, whose existence is to the neglect of streetscapes above.

As cities have grown, commodification of space has proliferated. Increased property values have brought forth ever-increased building heights. A symptom of an unfortunate architectural trend, this has persisted and may continue to persist. Development, particularly since the 1960’s, has led to windowless walls flanking numerous buildings that present a blank façade to the streetscape below.

Upon identifying these blank forgotten walls flanking many city buildings, the idea for a creative ecological intervention was born. In an attempt to shift the current pessimistic ecological paradigm, the walls identified could become large-scale growing surfaces.

Challenging the view of urban areas as a mosaic of individually owned properties, the proposal assumes collective ownership of the surface of the city. Plants and organisms can therefore be liberated to inhabit a new democratic terrain. This would lead to the possibility of the surface of the city being declared ‘res publica’ (public property).

The application of the vision to a realistic set of constraints would initially necessitate some deviation from the vertical scale of the concept images. As an initial reduction of the vision, the primary opportunity, is to develop a green wall system that can be incorporated into new buildings, with the future possibility of retro-fitting older buildings. The product could become an off-the-shelf system that is 'cut to measure' and incorporated into buildings and landscapes or applied to existing buildings as architect’s see fit.

The re-integration of landscape into architecture is an identifiable field currently being explored by many in design professions at both a conceptual (theoretical) and practical level. As well as the opportunities available to practicing design professionals, possibilities exist for educational institutions to become involved in not only the theoretical, academic side of the project but also in the practical modelling and trialing of conceptual designs.

Among many theoretical possibilities, the project is similarly highly relevant in terms of debate regarding sustainability. It is expected that the project will contribute to, and tap into, theoretical discussions - making contacts with key theoreticians in sustainability.

Although premature, early applications for Green Wall Technologies could include but are not limited to:
Empty walls (Skyscrapers to residential)
Noise walls flanking freeways
Construction site fencing (Good noise buffering)
Retaining walls
Abutments to bridges and overpasses
Rooftops (lightweight alternative)
Manufacturing facilities (Large scale surfaces)