Mount Street Park, Heidelberg, Banyule City Council, 2002/03

Site Office completed the design and installation of this VicHealth sponsored project to enhance a small park in front of Heidelberg Station. The purpose of the project was to improve the park through the design of art and landscape works that reflect the local character of the area and engage with this community.  A low, sinuous concrete seating wall wraps its way around the park, in between existing mature trees.  Embedded within the wall are a series of led message boards that include oral histories, poems and prose. The messages scroll through the park, providing movement and animation to the space at night. This project recieved a Commendation Award in Design at the 2004 AILA Victorian Chapter Awards.

Photography :Trevor Mein

Raglan Street Parkland, Port Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, 2005-7

Located on the Ingles Street truck route, Site Office has designed a small park that incorporates an acoustic noise wall, shade structure and furniture elements.  The purpose of commission was to create a neighbourhood park with high amenity, while being shielded from the visual and acoustic pollution generated by adjacent truck route.  A timber noise wall weaves along one edge of the site, responding to the dynamic movement of the traffic, while protecting indigenous plantings on the other side.  The project received a National Landscape Architecture Award at the 2008 AILA National awards, and a Commendation Award in Design at the 2007 AILA Victorian Awards.

Photography : Ben Wrigley

Future Garden - A Garden of Dilemmas, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, 2005

The history of horticulture is characterised by the continual investigation into the artificial manipulation of plants. Techniques such as cultivars, grafting, hybrids and plant genomics all seek to alter the naturally occurring form of a plant in some fundamental, synthetic way. In Australia, there are now many varieties of native plants that have undergone different levels of manipulation, resulting in ‘native’ plants never actually found in the wild. Yet such manipulation is also fraught with moral dilemmas, representing both the possibility of enormous advancement and the fear of irreversible genetic pollution and loss of plant provenance. The Future Garden is an exploration of the reality and dilemmas posed by this investigation into synthetic plant production, dispelling the notion of ‘bush’ garden. It becomes a synthetic, cellular landscape comprising of Australian plants that are the direct result of science not nature. This project recieved a Merit Award in Design at the 2007AILA Victorian Chapter Awards.

Photography : Site Office

Diversity Garden - A Botanical Transect, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, 2005

Historically, white Australians have tended to characterise the land as empty rather than full. Yet, interestingly, we have some of the most botanically diverse areas on the entire planet. This diversity is largely based on the ancient, nutrient deficient soils which have forced plants to become highly specialised, forging tight symbiotic relationships with surrounding plants, fauna and terrain. The Diversity Garden is a botanical transect through the 85 bioregions of Australia, representing the enormous diversity of geography, climate, flora and fauna. Each bioregion is defined by a thin strip of material composed from plant and mineral matter representative of that bioregion. The garden draws attention to notions of native and indigenous plants, making important connections between plant type and geographic origin. This project was shortlisted for the 2006 Premier's Design Awards.

Photography : Site Office

St Kilda Foreshore Promenade, City of Port Phillip, 2004 -09

Site Office and Jackson Clements Burrows have redesigned 700 metres of the main promenade along the St Kilda foreshore from St Kilda Pier down to Brookes Jetty.  The design involves the widening and topographic articulation of the edge of the promenade to encourage a greater range of uses to occur along the foreshore promenade. This project recently won an Award in Urban Design at the 2009 Victorian Architecture Awards (Australian Institute of Architects).

Photography : John Golings, Site Office & JCB

Britannia Mall, City of Whitehorse, 2005

Site Office has recently completed a major upgrade to this external shopping mall in Mitcham.  The design consisted of replacing the central brick paved portion of the mall with a series of floating timber seating deck modules.  The floating decks allow for greater water permeability, encouraging vastly improved growing conditions for the existing under performing trees situated in the mall.

Photography : Ben Wrigley

RSPCA Headquarters, Burwood, 2005/7

In 2005 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals embarked on a $10 million redevelopment of their headquarters in Burwood.  Since then, Site Office working in conjunction with NH Architecture, have been working on the landscape design for the project, developing a landscape that is a physical expression of the goals of the RSPCA and the positive relationship between humans and animals. The landscape is both highly symbolic (in what it says about our relationship with animals), as well as highly experiential (in how animals and humans interact bodily with their environment). This project won an Award in Design at the 2008 AILA Victorian Chapter awards, as well as an Architecture Award in the Sustainable Architecture category at the 2008 RAIA Victorian Architecture Awards.

Photography : Peter Bennetts, Site Office

Barkley / Hopkins Street Planters, Footscray, City of Maribyrnong, 2008

For more than 100 years, the Kinnears rope factory on Ballarat Road was one of the largest employers within the Footscray area. In 2002, the Kinnears rope factory closed its doors for the last time, ending exactly 100 years of continuous operation in Footscray.  The design of the tree planters along Barkley Street pays respect to the Kinnears legacy by returning rope to the main street in Footscray. The planters take the form of bundles of rope woven together to form a protective basket supporting the trees.

Photography : Ben Wrigley

Pakington Laneway Wayfinding, St Kilda, City of Port Phillip, 2009

Pakington Lane is a classic 19th century, inner urban, bluestone cobbled laneway struggling to come to terms with its 21st century identity. The last thirty years has seen the laneway used for a variety of nefarious and illicit activities, including graffiti, street prostitution, homeless hangout and general rubbish dump, with most activities occurring after dark. The project explores ways to regenerate the laneway, creating a high amenity pedestrian laneway space, without erasing the colourful and interesting history.

Photography : Andrew Lloyd

Preston Library, City of Darebin, 2009-10

This project explores different strategies for integrating a variety of youth relates spaced into the redesign of the library forecourt, itself an important civic space. Through the creation of a number of garden spaces and rooms, different activities can occur safely and independently of one another, while also allowing opportunities for integration.

Photography : Andrew Lloyd

Debney Park, Flemington, City of Moonee Valley, 2008-09

Debney Park is a legacy of the urban planning mistakes of the previous century; excessive focus on vehicular traffic, ‘control’ of natural forces and the social ideal of hous¬ing large numbers of people in tall towers, resulting in a landscape with little activation or purpose. The design of the park must create a 21st century landscape that attempts to make sense of this legacy. How can Debney’s Park rebuild the relationship between the buildings, the park and the creek? This project explores how to create engaging and active youth spaces adjacent to the Flemington Housing Commission estate, where the scale of the surrounding towers and freeway infrastructure threatens to overwhelm the landscape. The project called for the creation of active youth focused spaces that promote social interaction and responsibility.

Photography : Andrew Lloyd