Winner: Landscape Architecture
Clapham Landscape Architecture, The Enchanted Garden
The brief for this project by Clapham Landscape Architecture was to provide an entry garden to gently invite visitors into the new display building for the Yarra Bend development in Alphington.
The concept was to create a vibrant, welcoming and sustainable precinct that communicates the layered heritage of the site, and fosters an exciting space for diverse communities to live and visit.
The design of the garden is informed by the surrounding bushland corridor, the flowing Yarra River, and local engagement with the walking and bicycle paths that weave through the landscape. The running water course in the garden echoes the Yarra, while the vertical elements are clad in reflective polished aluminum.
While the garden takes many cues from the surrounding natural landscape, the designers have also introduced many contemporary elements to highlight the modern intents of the Yarra Bend development. The trees are all planted in a grid pattern, amidst a material palette of polished aluminium, concrete and rough cut porphyry stone.
The landscape designers have also introduced a soundscape, that plays the sounds of local fauna activities recorded along the local river banks. This layering of frogs, insects and birds have welcomed local birdlife to the garden.