Paddington Reservoir, Sydney

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: JMD Design (Anton James is a director) collaborated with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects and City of Sydney to create Paddington Reservoir Gardens in Oxford Street, Sydney. The gardens are on the site of a ruined water reservoir that was decommissioned in 1899 and had been a council depot, petrol station and grassed public park in the years since. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The architects, landscape architects and City of Sydney collaborated to keep a sense of the ruined Reservoir while also making the place safe. A sunken garden and pond, surrounded by a raised precast concrete boardwalk, has been inserted within the conserved ruin of the western chamber of the former reservoir. The edges of the ruin are contained by concrete upstands. The eastern chamber has been conserved and a new waterproof concrete structure inserted over it complete with landscaping to create an accessible public park and a new multipurpose space for community and cultural activities. The history of the site is interpreted along the Oxford Street wall. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The beauty, sensitivity and significance of Paddington Reservoir has been recognised by two major international awards: the ULI Asia Pacific Award for Excellence (2011) and the Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies International Architecture Award (2010). Australian awards for Paddington Reservoir include: Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture (AILA) Australian Medal for Landscape Architecture (2010); NSW Australian Institute of Architecture Greenway award for Heritage and Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design (2010); National Trust Heritage Awards Adaptive Re-Use Category (2010). From September 2016 to January 2017, the project was exhibited at 'Planting Dreams: Shaping Australian Gardens' at the State Library of New South Wales (Sydney), curated by garden historian Richard Aitken.