Landscape Architecture Australia
CONCRETE: CRAFTING RESILIENT URBAN AND COASTAL LANDSCAPES
Two exemplary projects demonstrate the versatility, robustness and visual dynamism of concrete.
The physical and aesthetic qualities of concrete make it a highly flexible construction material, ideally suited to Australia’s harsh climate. When combined with robust and imaginative design and construction practices, concrete can be used to sculpt visually pleasing and exceptionally durable landscapes in both urban and coastal environments.
Concrete is available in a wide range of colours and treatments and is suitable for a vast array of uses, ranging from bespoke interior artworks to expansive public infrastructure. The strength and malleability of concrete render it a popular choice among designers in search of a material with a reputation for durability, efficiency and architectural flexibility.
Port Coogee
Hassell designed the public domain for the Port Coogee marina and residential estate, an extensive coastal renewal project in a coastal and parkland setting, south of Perth’s CBD.
The harsh and corrosive coastal environment required the selection of an aesthetically pleasing, robust yet flexible building material. Concrete of varied colour, strength and finish has been strategically deployed in the project’s construction to form the estate’s beaches, foreshore, pocket parks and play areas.
The estate’s residential area features prefabricated concrete seating, reminiscent of wharf bollards, and a water playground with colourful, exposed-aggregate shell motifs sensitively set within a concrete splash pad area. Shared pedestrian-cycling paths made of concrete, etched with sea-grass motifs, reference the rhythm and tides of nearby Cockburn Sound.
At the marina, prefabricated undulating walls, raised planter beds and small seating elements demonstrate the flexibility and resilience of concrete. The colours and finishes of the area’s low seating walls, formed in situ, reflect the site’s maritime surrounds. They range from exposed aggregate to honed white walls.
The use of concrete at Port Coogee has enabled the delivery of a dynamic, functional public realm that requires little maintenance. Small-scale elements offer delight and intrigue, while the larger structural components provide a resilient urban fabric that responds to the site’s coastal environment, as well as the area’s industrial heritage, for the enjoyment of the growing community.
Hamer Hall
ARM Architecture’s design for the redevelopment of Melbourne’s iconic Hamer Hall has transformed a previously inwardlooking building into a more outward-facing venue, and has activated a critical riverside connection for the Melbourne CBD. The invigorated building, which features improved acoustics, seating, stage technology and back-of- house facilities, integrates new accessible public spaces and engages the public with the dynamic character of the adjacent Yarra River.
The project creates a new terrace over the existing riverbank promenade that includes a “civic stair” that connects the nearby river to St Kilda Road. The transformed Hall now includes a second entry that allows direct access from the lower Southbank Promenade to the building’s well-known circular foyer.
At the river’s edge, the face of the Hall has been transformed. A new terrace and podium with an entry into the Hall function as elegant counterpoints to the original architect Roy Grounds’ iconic geometry. Inspired by open-ended and dynamic spatial systems, the form plays on Grounds’ original concept of excavation through the act of carving.
A desire to retain designer John Truscott’s original interiors drove the design and planning of the Hamer Hall redevelopment. The reimagined Hall melds a deep understanding of the technical processes of concrete production with the textural and material qualities of concrete to create an evocative and iconic structure with poetic overtones. The Hall has become a landmark of the city and a destination for the whole community.
Both projects were award winners in the CCAA Public Domain awards of 2013.