Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project

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maas

  • 2016

  • Built Environment
    Place Design

Designed By:

Commissioned By:

City of Sydney

Designed In:

Australia

This project is a key component of Sustainable Sydney 2030, harvesting stormwater from the Newtown catchment; the measure of 850 million litres/year. Water is captured, made good and returned viable through a dynamic, new waterscape; at all times connecting park users to the water narrative of capture, movement and cleansing.


  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT

  • The bioretention wetlands provide significant value to the park as both an environmental & landscape resource. The design builds upon the existing water bodies; strengthening the connection between them, visually & functionally. Park users engage with processes of the water treatment system through a series of new pathways, nodes & open spaces that punctuate the wetlands at strategic locations. The landscape is intrinsically linked with the new wetlands & teaches visitors how water is captured from the Munni Channel, cleansed & made good again for reuse. Strategically the wetlands have improved the landscape setting, environmental amenity, habitat value & provided opportunities for interactive play & education.

  • The landscape design is intrinsically linked with the water treatment processes. This integrated & embedded approach serves to reveal the functional system of water management & provides a richly layered landscape of multiple functions, characters & views.Central to the design are access spines which articulate a sequence of movement pause & rest points, with views across the wetland system & into the parklands. This is supported by a secondary hierarchy of access, proving a more intimate experience with habitat & water.Habitats for animals & plants are enhanced at Sydney Park as part of the project, through new tracks & trails, landscape remediation & also a direct benefit from the new bioretention wetlands.

  • The interpretation strategy for the project seeks to uncover and express the park's water story and the healing nature of the new bio-retention systems. The series of inlets and outlets craftfully deliver water flows through the site via steel culverts, cantilevered terracotta half-pipe fingers, waterfalls, and water spouts; a series of elements that combine to reveal the often-hidden processes of water.These features are fully integrated components within the fabric and structure of the park's hydraulic systems, with a materiality the references the site's industrial past.