Alumni Park

Alumni Park like many Public Space Projects, has a complex history of stakeholder groups, “Vision Documents”, Strategies and Masterplans. It is identified as a key open space of the lower campus.

The new light rail stop increased it’s strategic importance as a ‘Cultural Spine’ of the Kensington Campus. Recently completed building and future projects have and will further redefine and develop the space.

Along the north side of the park, paperbark tree plantings form a screen to the Buildings. The trees recall the historic swamps and landscapes. By contrast the Grimshaw buildings to the south provides a strongly ordered colonnade, along almost the entire park edge. This architecture emerges again as the roof to the below ground Timbery theatre, to form a shallow amphitheatre, known as the “tribune”.

This tribune, central to the project, was transformed into the “Meeting Place”, a place for seating, ceremony and performance. A timber blanket is folded up and over the tiled tiers to create a community seat of terraces and bleachers. Extensive indigenous consultation and a key workshop led to the development of an artwork, in counter relief, routed into the risers to create a rich elevated whole. Planters on either side, extend the Alumni landscape and with the timber bleachers, connect the space to the western landscape beyond.

To the south the grand Grimshaw order was playfully echoed and amplified with a new tree colonnade punctuated by an installation of hammocks suspended from columns at colonnade scale. Students bear witness to the park and the walk.To the north, the outdoor gym, seating and games are laid-out informally, responding to the siting of the existing paperbark plantings.

The site, originally part of an extensive system of sand dunes has a deep aquifer running beneath. Handling of water was a priority. Exploiting the sandy soil profile, all surface water was kept on the site to be discharged back to the aquifer.