Cockatoo Island Clifftop Walk

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: JMD design (of which Anton James is a director) was engaged by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to design and document Stage 1 of the Clifftop Walk on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. The walkway was part of a major redevelopment of the island and the site is now extensively used for events such as the Biennale of Sydney. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The walk spans from the top of the Northern Apron stair, along the sandstone cliff top in the East, through the former Brass Foundry, over the Granary Silos and to a landing that serves as the take-off to the future Turbine Shed elevated walk. This project continues Anton James' use of innovative design solutions that are sympathetic to the character and cultural significance of individual sites. The Walk allows increasing numbers of visitors to move more safely through the site and reveal both the layers of history and the physical character of the site. James has used simple, robust utilitarian materials in keeping with the island's mixed past as a prison and as a shipbuilding yard. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: 'Cocktaoo Island Clifftop Walk' was reviewed in 'Scape (based in Basel), one of the world's leading magazines for landscape architecture and urbanism. Julian Raxworthy's review, 'An impressive walkway for Cockatoo Island', praised how the walkway weaved in and out of found objects on the island, so the structure acted as a kind of 'interpretation machine' that adds value to things that may have been seen as worthless. The design was both subtle and dramatic, Raxworthy wrote.