Alumni Park, University of New South Wales

Spackman Mossop Michaels and McGregor Westlake Architecture

Aboriginal Nation

Eora

Location

Kensington, New

South Wales

Client

UNSW Sydney

Jury comment

Stepping into tertiary studies presents different educational and social challenges for students. Being able to connect with other students and experience the university as a place, redolent of history and opportunity, is significant to how students meet those challenges.

Alumni Park at UNSW Sydney, on the “cultural spine” of the Kensington Campus, affords students a myriad of chances to connect to place, peers and history. The space is diverse, richly detailed and carefully planted. The design seamlessly marks the site’s origins as part of the coastal dunes, provides for its function as a place for programmed events and ceremonies, and invites students to contemplate the success of past generations and their own aspirations for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a large amount of teaching to be delivered online, dissociating students from the campus. Alumni Park will become a rallying point in space and time, heralding the significance of connection – to people, to place, to history and to shared values.

Landscape architect, project lead designer and manager Spackman Mossop Michaels Architectural sub-consultant and community art facilitator McGregor Westlake Architecture Builder Regal Innovations Indigenous design consultant WSP (Indigenous Specialist Services) Collaborative artwork Uncle Greg Simms(Gadigal/Dharug) with guidance by Aunty Marjorie Dixon (Bidjigal) and Uncle Assen Timbery (Bidjigal) and interpretations by Danièle Hromek (Budawang/Yuin), Djinjama and Samantha Rich (Wiradjuri), Wonder See Discover Engineer Taylor Thomson Whitting Lighting and electrical consultant JHA Consulting Engineers Photographer UNSW Sydney (top left and bottom), Tom Ferguson (top right)