Summer game provides inspiration for public park
Perth landscape architect Peta-Maree Ashford has her cricket-loving son to thank for the design concept for Pegasus Park. When her client, Australian property group Mirvac told her to build whatever she wanted to so long as it coaxed people outside to enjoy the space, she was slightly stumped.
“They said ‘what have you never built before? Let’s build that’” says Ashford, a director at consultancy, Emerge Associates. “I actually didn’t have anything in my back catalogue that might be appropriate.”
The backyard cricket pitch at the park.
But inspiration came along quickly when her son played backyard cricket in front of her precious bay windows at their home. She realised that with sections getting smaller many people didn’t have the space to play traditional family games comfortably at their homes (hence the risk to her windows).
From there her germ of an idea spread to include basketball and netball hoops, tennis hit up walls, a smart bench with wifi, a obstacle course inspired by ninja warrior for younger kids, an undulating 100 m track, as well as a long jump into tunnels and monkey bars.
“I feel whilst I corralled a lot of ideas, a lot of people who aren’t landscape architects helped me develop the concept plan. And what I loved was every time I went to present an idea to my client Mirvac it generated excitement within the company. They really bought into it and they’d give me ideas as well. It was really collaborative.”
The park caters to a range of ages.
The park services a land development project in West Swan, about 20 minutes north of Perth’s city centre. The demographic is multicultural - Pakistani, Indian, South African, English and Australian. Ashford’s design had to foster a real community feeling, a place where everyone could connect and share experiences.
To that end a lot of thought went into areas like picnic settings.
“In restaurants now you can have long tables where there’ll be two families that don’t know each other sitting next door to each other. When I sit down in those scenarios, I actually turn to them, say hello, and then you continue on with your meal. And you’re encouraging that engagement with people that you don’t actually know.
“So whenever we were thinking of any element in this particular park, we were thinking about ‘how can we trigger that connection through community? Because when you build a community in a place that’s starting from Ground Zero - that’s the strength of the area.
“You know, that's when people are going to be on the street. That's when you're going to have passive surveillance. That's when you're going to feel safer. And you know, a lot more people in your area.
“So to get back to my original point, a lot of the picnic settings we provided actually could cater for 10. So that one you can have two families join each other. Or you can have two people that don't know each other sitting at the same table and hopefully turn to say hello and start a conversation.”
The park is one of a sequence of three. About 150 metres away there’s another that’s heavily stylised as a public open space for community markets and events. And then 150 metres on from that park is another that is softer with lots of trees. “So you’re moving from an area that’s been planned and fully designed to eventually being in a more natural environment where it’s about getting your hands dirty, being amongst trees. So each of the string of three have a completely different feel to them.”
