Skip to content

Audio Version

See more about

More info

Landscape Architecture / Lead Consultant: Turf Design Studio & Environmental Partnership.

Water & Environment: Alluvium.

Public Art: Turpin + Crawford Studio.

Ecology: Dragonfly Environmental.

Location: Sydney Park Road, St Peters, NSW, 2044.

Client: City of Sydney.

Photographs: Adam Hunter, City of Sydney, Ethan Rohloff and Simon Wood.

Contractor: Design Landscapes.

Plant Suppliers: Andreasens Green and Toolijha.

Technical team: Structural Engineer: Partridge; Lighting and Electrical: Lighting Art and Science; Irrigation: HydroPlan; Soils: SESL Australia, Environmental Management: A.D. Envirotech Australia.

Project Cost: $11.3 million.

Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project

Much has been achieved over the past two decades to transform the Sydney Park site from its former post-industrial history and waste disposal into 44 hectares of parkland and a vital asset for the growing communities of Sydney’s southern suburbs.

aerial_02_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_03_ethan-rohloff-photography

This project forms the City of Sydney’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 reuse in the park. The City also seized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use what was essentially an infrastructure project to breathe new life into the park – as a vibrant recreation and environmental asset for Sydney.

sydney-park-water-re-use-project-masterplan-by-tdep

Plan

The City engaged a design team led by landscape architects Turf Design Studio & 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.

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

aerial_04_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_06_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_07_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_08_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_010_ethan-rohloff-photographyaerial_12_ethan-rohloff-photography

Sydney Park now offers an enhanced recreational experience to the Sydney community, going beyond the picturesque and creating instead a revitalised, multi-faceted waterscape that celebrates the connection between people and place.

sydney-park-water-re-use-project_simon-wood-photography

After an intensive process of ‘easing in’, the water reuse project is now fully operational and intrinsically linked with its park setting. The bioretention wetlands not only capture and clean the equivalent measure of 340 Olympic-sized swimming pools per annum, they also successfully improve local water quality and habitat and reduce potable water consumption in the area. The park’s fauna and flora is thriving, with new habitats created, and existing ones protected and enhanced throughout the park.

The function and processes of water harvesting and cleansing are enhanced through the visible ebbs and flows through the landscape. New pathways intersect the wetlands, allowing park users to explore and discover ‘moments’ in the landscape that can be at times playful, dramatic and peaceful, but are always connected to the water narrative of capture, movement, and cleansing.

sydney-park-water-re-use-project_photography-by-adam-hunter_01sydney-park-water-re-use-project_photography-by-city-of-sydney

Highlighting these processes was an important part of the project, as they emphasise the intrinsic relationship between water, people, topography, flora and fauna. Public art is also interwoven: Turpin + Crawford Studio’s ‘Water Falls’ celebrates clean water release while also working with TDEP’s cascades to aerate water in the last link in the bioremediation treatment train. Turpin + Crawford Studio also devised the water ‘exhaust fans’ that celebrate the transfer of water from bioremediation ‘paddies’ to the lagoons, playing on the spirit of water and its interactions with the landscape.

aerial_01_ethan-rohloff-photography

Landscape Architecture / Lead Consultant: Turf Design Studio & Environmental Partnership.

Water & Environment: Alluvium.

Public Art: Turpin + Crawford Studio.

Ecology: Dragonfly Environmental.

Location: Sydney Park Road, St Peters, NSW, 2044.

Client: City of Sydney.

Photographs: Adam Hunter, City of Sydney, Ethan Rohloff and Simon Wood.

urbanNext (October 7, 2024) Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project. Retrieved from https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/.
Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project.” urbanNext – October 7, 2024, https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/
urbanNext March 27, 2017 Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project., viewed October 7, 2024,<https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/>
urbanNext – Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project. [Internet]. [Accessed October 7, 2024]. Available from: https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/
Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project.” urbanNext – Accessed October 7, 2024. https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/
Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project.” urbanNext [Online]. Available: https://urbannext.net/sydney-park-water-re-use-project/. [Accessed: October 7, 2024]

urbanNext | expanding architecture to rethink cities and territories

Newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter

Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in excerpt
Formats
Audio&visual
Concept
Data
Essay
Forum
Lecture
Podcast
Project
Talk
Survey
Statement
Selfthink
High Density
Middle Density
Low Density
No Density

talk

essay

project

product

survey

data

all formats