Project: A Healthy Landscape for Canberra

Recipient: Brooke Toovey Program: The University of Canberra

Recipient

Brooke Toovey

Program

Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours), The University of Canberra

Project Statement

Located within the National Triangle, the Australian Capital Territory’s symbolic heart, this project reimagines the entryway to Canberra’s Commonwealth Park as a series of experiences that create emotional and physical connections with the landscape. A healthy landscape benefits not only a site’s ecology and longterm plant health but promotes the health and wellbeing of those who visit. Exposure to natural elements can reduce stress, enhance immunity, boost productivity and foster healing, leading to a happier and more resilient community that is better able to experience the park’s qualities.

The design reimagines and celebrates the Griffins’ original plans for an ideal city. The proposal accentuates vistas, engages and links cultural institutions and creates active public spaces. A Healthy Landscape for Canberra aims to promote design concepts that support the evolution of landscapes that are environmentally sustainable, cost-effective and offer new potentials for long-term urban park management strategies.

01 – Interventions along the entryway to Commonwealth Park foster emotional and physical connections with the site’s history and ecology.

02 — Visitors walk out among the wetlands, which cleanse site run-off and encourage biodiversity – a healthy landscape for all inhabitants.