2013 Queensland Landscape Architecture Awards

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Queensland chapter announced its awards at St Lucia Golf Links in Brisbane on Friday, 24 May.

On the jury were: Catherine Brouwer (Catherine Brouwer Landscape Architects), Ashley Byrnes (Project Services), Claudia Taborda (QUT), James Birrell (Conlon Birrell Landscape Architects) and Liesl Malan (Liesl Malan Landscape Architect).

2013 Queenland Landscape Architecture Awards

Queensland Medal for Landscape Architecture (Research & Communication)

Flood of Ideas – Lat27

A way to gather diverse and creative ideas from the community on how we can better plan for and respond to future floods.

Jury citation

This is a wonderful example of not waiting for a brief. In this highly commendable project, the landscape architect responded to the widespread community trauma of the Queensland floods by proposing positive avenues for the healing to begin and solutions to future floods to be creatively explored. It’s an important speculative work because it demonstrates that from within the practice of landscape architecture, professionals and researchers potentially have significant roles over a wider than usual range of practice.

The multifaceted and flexible strategies of communication and exchange of ideas, with a diverse participating community, and open-ended exchanges, was an innovative program in Queensland. It was a process or work that anticipated and experimented with the potential of even small changes to transform landscape, and which produced visions that then also evoked further openness and creativity. With such a process, solutions which arise can be perceived as eventual catalysts to effect place transformations with socio-economic benefits.

Award of Excellence for Design in Landscape Architecture

River Quay – Cardno S.P.L.A.T.

Design Awards

River Quay – Cardno S.P.L.A.T.

Jury citation

A clear and simple response that anchors the park onto the riverbank, allowing for a new experience and perspective of “The River City”. The jury was impressed by how the design created grounds for collective recreational experience without pre-determining behaviours, while celebrating both the river and this particular place. In a place with high levels of activity throughout, River Quay contributes a wonderful sense of quiet reflection to the Southbank Parklands. The direct and uncluttered connection to the Brisbane River is the highlight of the project and re-establishes a link with the tidal nature of the River which has, up until now, been largely lost in Brisbane. The jury was unanimous in awarding this project.

Hinze Dam Waterside Parklands AECOM

Jury citation

This project demonstrates a strong design relationship between the site, the architecture and the distant landscape. The sculpting of the landform dissected by strong generating design lines was complemented with sensitive materials. The resultant strong yet restrained design outcome reinforces the Hinze Dam’s role as an important element of Queensland infrastructure.

Urban Design Award

Cross River Rail Detailed Feasibility Study – Hassell in collaboration with AECOM

Jury citation

Cross River Rail is a considerable public and freight transport project proposal for inner-city Brisbane, incorporating the city’s first underground rail system. The award recognizes the project’s exciting urban design visions for the nodes surrounding the stations, including Yeerongpilly, Wolloongabba, Albert Street City and the Exhibition Grounds. The project team have exceeded the original client expectations to serve good urban design principles. These urban design strategies establish an expectation that quality design should be paramount for all users, the inner-city fabric and neighbourhood identity. They would give confidence to the city’s planners and residents that the rail nodes should serve as well planned and attractive hubs which integrate with and enhance the existing social and urban fabric.

Land Management Award

Radius Industrial Estate Rehabilitation – PLACE Design Group

Jury citation

This large industrial estate lies close to and in the catchment of Oxley Creek. The project encompassed considerable site assessment, revealing earlier unknown environmental values, restorative practices on the rubbish- and weed-affected bushland, and the design of vegetated berms, diversion swales and basins, to address the estate’s stormwater runoff. The award recognizes not only the design and establishment of the land restoration processes and their successful implementation, but importantly, the team’s unusual long-term engagement with the site, covering post-implementation monitoring and care. The jury was unanimous in awarding this project.

Planning Awards

Place + Beerwah – Sunshine Coast Council

Jury citation

Beerwah has become an outer commuter township. Tremendous change and growth over the past ten years has removed much of it’s original quaint Glass House Mountains country feel, and there are many new residents. How do you create a sense of place in such a location? The Sunshine Coast Council undertook an exemplary approach to place-making, consultation and planning – the consultation process has been a catalyst for new residents getting to know each other, and working together to set the direction for the future of their town, and to maintain ongoing involvement in the plan’s implementation. It would be very easy, in a place like Beerwah, to undertake a cursory approach to planning and place-making, but the level of sophistication, staff commitment, and quality of execution that Sunshine Coast Council has undertaken here is remarkable in any context. It further demonstrates the positive contribution that can be made by landscape architects in leadership roles within the planning process. The jury was unanimous in awarding this project.

An Approach to Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems in Australian Landscapes – AECOM

Jury citation

This was an entry of two related projects - the ‘Scoping Study for Local Food Production for the Gold Coast’ and the ‘Redlands Rural Futures Strategy’. The award recognizes the calibre of both investigations and the positive role of the landscape architects (in collaborative multidisciplinary teams), in achieving integrated solutions to complex regional planning issues and in bringing together a range of often conflicting values. The studies addressed the emerging global trends of urban agriculture, and how local sustainable food principles can be applied to the local context of the Gold Coast, and enacted through policy guidelines in the project for Redlands City Council. The emerging field following from these projects provides a rich context for landscape architecture.

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