ASPECT Studios: The Bondi to Bronte coast walk is a part of the nationally significant 9km coastal walk from Sydney’s South Head to Maroubra. The project resolves complex geotechnical, structural and heritage conditions to retain the significant cliff top heath community and the remarkable hanging swamps along the exposed sandstone platforms. A set of lookouts strung together by a light thread of walkway along the cliff tops of Sydney’s east captures the sublime of the headlands, the sandstone outcrops and the vastness at the continent’s edge. Sensitivity to site is embodied in the simple materials and understated lightness of the walkway’s design as it shifts and slides along the movement path to reveal the story of the cliff top landscape. Each of the five lookout points takes on its own distinctive form as the walkway cranks and fractures in response to the crystalline geology of the site and angular structure of Hawkesbury sandstone. Over remnant vegetation, the walkway’s timber switches to a gridded fiberglass mesh to allow light and water to penetrate. Materials are selected for design quality, durability and sustainability. A limited use of balustrades balances risk with experience.
Site conditions were complex, and rigorous geotechnical planning was required to work with the rock outcrops and dyke intrusions of the site. In many areas piling was required to breech unstable fill slopes, and environmental sensitivities meant construction access was limited to a four metre corridor. The project originally arose from the need to preserve the historic Waverley Cemetrey, one of Sydney’s most culturally sensitive and spectacular cemeteries, from ongoing damage by the walk’s annual 700,000 visitors.
Landscape Architects Firm: ASPECT Studios
Project Location: Calga Reserve & Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Client/Owner: Waverley Council
Size: 515 m2
Completion Date: 2010
Awards: 2010 Australian Timber Design Awards – Outdoor Timber/Central Region Highly Commended
2010 Institute of Public Works Engineering Excellence Award
DESIGN / PROJECT TEAM
Landscape Architects Firm: ASPECT Studios
Design Team: ASPECT Studios (lead consultant)
Consultants: Ducros Design, Jeffery and Katauskas, Biodesign, Wilde & Woollard, Access Australia
Main Contractor: Civil Constructions
Photography: Florian Groehn
Designers: ASPECT Studios /
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