Linking Docklands

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The Linking Docklands project provides critical connections and improves the urban design quality and physical environment of Melbourne. It includes the Jim Stynes Bridge, carrying cyclists and pedestrians safely between the central city, Southbank and Docklands, extending the Capital City Trail from the eastern suburbs to the west. Ron Jones, in his capacity as a landscape architect and urban designer for the Office of the Victorian Government Architect, worked with the City of Melbourne, Cox Architecture, Aurecon and Oculus to deliver the project. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project involves a negotiation of physical and regulatory constraints to deliver an efficient low impact solution that provides access, amenity and an opportunity to discover a neglected section of the Yarra River. According to the AILA jury, it 'exemplifies how small, strategically placed and well-designed landscape architectural interventions in the urban fabric can have a transformative effect well beyond what might be expected of a project of this size.' Jones has played a leading role in developing landscape and streetscape designs as well as urban design strategies and guidelines for Docklands. This project extends his ongoing innovation in creating public spaces that engage with the context, materiality and urban condition. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The project is a design outcome of the Docklands Public Realm and the North Wharf Precinct Plans, developed by the City of Melbourne in conjunction with the State Government. This project was jointly funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (previously DPCD), the City of Melbourne and Places Victoria. It received the prestigious 2015 Urban Design Award by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, and was a Finalist at the 2015 Premier's Design Awards (Victoria) - Architectural Design category. It is published online by AILA and Premier's Design Awards.