The Drying Green in Sydney is completed
Work‘s been completed on McGregor Coxall’s new 6,400-square-metre wetland park in Zetland’s Green Square, Sydney.
Named The Drying Green, it is the centrepiece of a network of new public green spaces servicing the area’s growing population and offers a new public backyard for Green Square that functions as a high-performance open space for locals and visitors.
McGregor Coxall’s innovative urban wetland uses green-and-blue living infrastructure to purify stormwater. Image credit - McGregor Coxall Media.
Located in Gadigal Country, the Drying Green sits at the heart of Green Square’s urban regeneration zone which is forecast to have highest population density in Australia. It forms part of a sequence of new public spaces linking the Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre and Green Square Library and plaza.
The park design was inspired by origami, with folded gardens, sculpted lawns, and amenities within a forest of native trees. Angular berms provide both visual and acoustic separation from busy surrounding streets by utilising green facade technology.
Aerial shot of The Drying Green. Image credit - McGregor Coxall Media.
A large, inclined lawn is raised to maximise winter sun and is linked to a BBQ pavilion for shade in the summer months. Stepped, precast concrete steps on the southern urban edge of the park form an urban space overlooking the Green Square library.
The project has involved considerable ecological repair and regeneration. Its site was a significant wetland in pre-European times, made up of sandy Botany swamps.
The 6,400-square-metre wetland park is in Zetland’s Green Square, Sydney. Image credit - McGregor Coxall Media.
The land was eventually filled after heavy industries that relied upon fresh water migrated to the area, and when these car industries and fell-mongering works departed, the site was left contaminated. Following its clean up, wildlife are already returning to The Drying Green with insects and birds foraging in the new wetlands.
Technology has been concealed within the origami green structure and houses the ecological engine infrastructure.
Image credit - McGregor Coxall Media. The park design was inspired by origami.
“A hidden electrical substation concealed within the sculptural amenities building (designed by CHROFI Architects) powers the library and plaza, connected by electrical infrastructure within The Drying Green’s berms,” said McGregor. “Energy amenities complement a comprehensive underground water management system that irrigates the berms and lawns from below, also cleaning dirty water that washes downhill from Sydney’s CBD.”
Stream, the featured artwork by Kerri Poliness, is inspired by the site’s shifting relationship to water, having transformed from a wetland into a dam for industry, and its current use as a storm water culvert and return to a wetland.
McGregor Coxall’s innovative urban wetland uses green-and-blue living infrastructure to purify stormwater taken from a concrete channel deep beneath the site, which was formerly Sheas Creek. The polluted water is cycled through the wetland and cleaned, then returned to Alexandria Canal and the harbour downstream.
Image credit - McGregor Coxall Media.