Moncrieff Community Recreation Park
Project details
Location
Canberra, ACT
Client
ACT Government – Suburban Land Agency
01 / Challenge
Challenge
The Suburban Land Agency and Sport and Recreation Services needed a park where Moncrieff residents could play sport, exercise, take their children and meet with family and friends. The proposed site was too small to accommodate the facilities.
The park also needed to connect with public open space along the Moncrieff ridgeline and towards Taylor. Steep slopes and shallow, rocky soils complicated the layout of courts, paths and play areas, and the establishment of trees and grass.
Yellow climbing structures and patterned play surfaces at Moncrieff Community Recreation Park.
02 / Response
Response
Redbox Design Group proposed the recreation park during planning for Moncrieff East. We identified a site along the ridgeline and worked with the client to increase its size. The Suburban Land Agency supported rezoning land allocated for multi-unit housing to provide the space the park needed.
We led the landscape design and coordinated the design team. Terraces, mounds and retaining walls accommodate the slope, with level areas for ball sports and changes in height incorporated into the play spaces. The layout combines climbing equipment, a learn-to-ride circuit and fitness facilities with irrigated lawns, shaded seating, barbecues and public restrooms.
The design draws on singer Gladys Moncrieff, the suburb’s namesake, and artist Rosalie Gascoigne. Musical patterns repeat through the furniture, paving and structures, while Gascoigne’s use of colour and assembled forms influenced the vertical play elements, wall art and painted table-tennis tables.
To support planting in the rocky ground, we designed for improved soil conditions and passive watering. Topsoil was stripped, sieved, improved and reused in the dryland grass areas.
Aerial view of Moncrieff’s recreation park, showing ball courts, play areas and open lawns.
03 / Outcome
Outcome
Completed in 2017, the park brings several recreation facilities together on one site. Children can climb or practise riding, teenagers can use the ball courts, and families have lawns, seating and barbecues for longer visits. Paths connect the facilities across the terraced hilltop.
The project received the 2018 AILA ACT Landscape Architecture Award in the Play Space category. The larger site allowed the client to deliver the planned mix of sport, play and recreation within Moncrieff’s open-space network.
Play structures, paths and shade sails across the terraced recreation park.
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