Riverside Green in Brisbane — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Completed in 2021, Hassell’s Riverside Green forms 6,816 square-metres of tranquil, plant-filled public space for central Brisbane, and has won two AILA 2021 Landscape Architecture Awards.

Acting as the new ‘green heart’ of the South Bank Parklands, the development offers leisure and recreation opportunities while inner-city population growth puts pressure on Brisbane’s parks and public zones.

Hassell’s Riverside Green in Brisbane has won two AILA 2021 Landscape Architecture Awards.

The 14 million annual visitors to the area can now enjoy the new green waterfront space, the River Lawn, as well as views of the river and Parklands and a space to relax, picnic, play, and host events.

A lush, shaded rainforest deck was created for Brisbane’s subtropical climate, and includes moveable furniture that makes it adaptable for both events and everyday life. The pavilion’s copper skin is durable and timeless, and moveable furniture and communal BBQs mean, “these democratic spaces adapt from everyday use to events mode, transformed into a dining room or stage.”

Riverside Green acts as the new ‘green heart’ of the South Bank Parklands in Brisbane.

The promenade includes rest and lookout areas, as well as plenty of seating beside the river. It forms a direct movement route previously claimed by restaurants, offering new connections between the pedestrian spines of Arbour and Clem Jones Promenade, increasing access for pedestrians and cyclists in the precinct.

Riverside Green’s grotto, a “sunken retreat immersed in nature”, boasts a vine-covered pergola for shade and 80 hanging plants that change with the seasons, showcasing Brisbane’s endemic species.

The development offers leisure and recreation opportunities for the growing Brisbane inner-city population.

The existing parkland rainforest has been extended by 650 square-metres, becoming a stunning backdrop for Riverside Green. Coupled with more than 50 new trees, the extension boosts the Parkland’s urban tree canopy, and all planting is irrigated from non-potable water sources.

“Water is Life”, the featured artwork by contemporary Ngugi artist Elisa Jane Carmichael, recalls the site’s history and honours the significance of water to First Nations people. Marking the former creek that ran to the Brisbane River, it invites interaction, reflection and play.

Riverside Green provides 6,816 square-metres of tranquil, plant-filled public space.

Riverside Green won both the AILA Queensland Landscape Architecture Award for Parks and Open Space and the AILA National Award for Excellence for Parks and Open Space last year.

“The designers have succeeded in creating an elegant, coherent project that is greater than the sum of its parts,” say the AILA jury. “Riverside Green provides a completely new offering within an iconic destination- the project sits within South Bank’s highly trafficked waterfront area, but does not compete with or overshadow surrounding attractions. It is a stunningly elegant approach to re-imagining the site that demonstrates a clever spatial resolution.”