SYDNEY PROJECT GETS INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Currently in its 22nd year, the American Architecture Prize (AAP) is America’s most respected architectural awards, recognising globally significant projects in architecture, interior design and landscape architecture.

Covering a total of 41 subcategories, the AAP is awarded to one winner in each discipline. This is a significant win for the Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project, and brings the total of wins for the project to 5 – having also received the Australian Good Design MAAS Award and the AILA NSW Award of Excellence earlier this year.  

The project’s director Mike Horne said, “This is an immense honour. To be awarded in the company of such outstanding international work demonstrates just how much Sydney Park resonates. Not only have we created an interwoven network of community infrastructures and ‘made’ systems, the City has taken another significant step in transforming this former brick pit and landfill site into a vibrant new urban parkland”.

“The project’s success lies in its unique fusion of design, art, science and ecology. Turpin + Crawford Studio, David Knights (formerly Alluvium) and Mia Dalby-Ball (formerly Dragonfly Environmental) brought incredible verve, skill and openness of spirit to the project - their contribution cannot be underestimated. The City of Sydney also deserves special recognition for their curatorial rigour and commitment to quality on behalf of the community.”

ABOUT THE PROJECT

This project forms the City’s largest environmental project to date, built in partnership with the Australian Government through the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan. It is an integral component of Sustainable Sydney 2030; targeting 10% of water demand to be met through local water capture and re-use in the park.

The City engaged a design team led by landscape architects Turf Design Studio and Environmental Partnership who orchestrated an intense and multi-disciplinary collaboration intersecting design, art, science and ecology – in a ‘roundtable’ of creatives shared between water experts Alluvium, artists Turpin + Crawford Studio, ecologists Dragonfly Environmental, engineers Partridge and the City’s own Landscape Architects. Design Landscapes constructed the project.

The result is an interwoven series of community infrastructures and ‘made’ systems – water re-use, recreation, biodiversity and habitat all integrated within the physical fabric of Sydney Park.

The $11.3 million stormwater harvesting system will capture and clean enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every day, providing a sustainable supply for the park and its wetlands and returning any remaining water to Alexandria Canal. The water recycling system will sustain the lawns and wetlands for generations of Sydneysiders to enjoy