This project demonstrates the key role of the architect in reshaping urban space and activity.
A philosophy of environmental and social sustainability underpinned the redevelopment of the former Fitzroy Gardens Depot site.
Faced with an increasing residential population and visitor numbers and the effects of climate change on the historic public gardens, the rationalisation of the former Depot released 4,500m² of previously publicly inaccessible land back to the public realm.
The redesigned space included a new Depot, the addition of a new Visitor Centre and Cafe, a 5 megalitre underground stormwater tank to provide a reliable alternative water source for irrigation of the heritage gardens and substantial new landscaped public space.
This process of transforming the former Depot site has been a design-led program to ensure the new public space and new facilities are integrated with the existing public realm of the Fitzroy Gardens.
Project Team
Architecture
City of Melbourne’s City Design Studio
City of Melbourne has oversight of many of the major infrastructure projects transforming the city such as Metro Tunnel and the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal Program.
Photography
Nils Koenning
Understanding the built environment as a natural instrument for social and cultural investigation and an instigator for change, Nil’s work explores everyday environments, landscapes and circumstances transformed by human intervention, often concerned with questions of place and identity, memory and belonging.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 City of Melbourne’s City Design Studio. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Nils Koenning. All Rights Reserved.
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