2015 National Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize

Gallagher Studio is proud to recognise the achievement of Allison Sainty, with the recent announcement that Allison has been awarded with the National Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize* for 2015. 
 

The jury was unanimous in selecting Allison's project, 'Forgotten Industry, Future Form' as the 2015 National prize winner, stating that the "...project is built upon a clearly articulated enquiry and presents a sophisticated response to an industrial heritage setting." As part of the prize, Allison’s work has been published in the February 2016 issue of Landscape Architecture Australia magazine. A link to the announcement and online article can be found here: http://architectureau.com/articles/2015-landscape-student-prize/

* The Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize recognises the finest graduating projects being produced in Australian Landscape Architecture education. One student is nominated from each university based on their graduating project and end-of-year presentation, with the projects then facing a blind jury process in order to select one student to be awarded with the National prize.

Project Statement:

Industrial structures are often seen as less worthy of heritage status. For Glebe Island in particular, industry was critical for the development of Sydney and Australia's thriving wheat trade of the 1900's. ‘Forgotten Industry, Future Form’ is a project enriched by its industrial past, incorporating buildings and structures into the design of a new urban centre. Taking cues from the full range of Glebe Island’s history, this project aims to answer the question: “How can a site’s past inform a new future for a place?”

The adaptation of the existing silos into a gallery and library takes centrestage, and its landmark status is used to reinforce the importance of this place in the wider landscape. A light rail stop, a new theatre, plazas and event spaces all work together to create a vibrant urban hub.

A large waterfront park encourages appreciation of the monolithic industrial remnants, particularly the remaining overhead structures. Interaction with the harbour, play spaces, park amenities and a civic link connecting the light rail stop to the waterfront are all provided in this area of the site.

Finally, a reinterpreted and structured landscape whose design is based on the location of the much larger former silos provides spaces for both passive and active uses. This space would lead from the main road up toward the reopened Glebe Island Bridge, allowing visitors to take in expansive views of the masterplan’s urban cut park toward the city and Harbour Bridge along the way.

‘Forgotten Industry, Future Form’ is a project that not only looks to the past for inspiration, but also builds on its heritage to take this landscape into the future – providing an integrated, vibrant and dynamic urban hub for tomorrow.

Landscape Architecture Australia (Feb 2016, Issue 149) published the details of the wining student projects.

Federal Government Embraces Cool Streets

It’s encouraging to see that governments at all levels are embracing the use of street tree planting to cool our cities. The Sydney Morning Herald has an article on February 22nd discussing how councils in the western suburbs of Sydney are increasing tree canopy cover to cool the city and refers to a pilot project Gallagher Studio have undertaken called Cool Streets for Blacktown City Council.(http://www.smh.com.au/environment/urban-heat-island-effect-encompassing-western-sydney-20160119-gm97ps.html)

The Cool Streets Blacktown pilot project was developed from my PHD research “Beyond “Green Streets – Mitigating Climate Change through Residential Street Design”. My research found that street trees can not only cool neighbourhoods but have significant economic benefits. For example shade from a mature street tree could save an adjacent household over $400 per year in reduced residential air conditioning costs.

My research found that one of the biggest challenges to adopting more street tree canopy cover is implementation – how do you increase street tree planting in highly contested street environments where authorities, service providers and residents can conflict? Do we need to overcome a “not in my backyard” mentality within the wider community? Our pilot project has tackled this by exploring ways to encourage greater community participation in street tree planting and we have conducted on site consultation events in Blacktown to test these methods. Despite the perception that residents are averse to more street trees on their streets we found communities keen to adopt cool streets in their neighbourhoods.

Above: a participant evaluating options for Cool Streets - Street Tree Research project for Blacktown City Council by Gallagher Studio and CRED