Located in inner-city Sydney, the multi-award-winning Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project has transformed a post-industrial wasteland into vital green infrastructure for a rapidly expanding city.
Led by Turf Design Studio and Environmental Partnership, the project fused design, art, science, and ecology to create a dynamic city parkland, integrating landfill remediation, recreation, enhanced biodiversity, and civil infrastructure, with advanced urban water reuse systems.
The project:
- Is the City of Sydney’s largest stormwater harvesting and re-use facility
- Harvests 840 million litres of stormwater annually
- Is designed to reduce the City of Sydney’s potable water demand by 10% before 2030
- Revitalised 40 hectares of former landfill site into wetlands, playgrounds, wildlife habitat, and recreational areas
Watch Video [8:52]
The Sydney Park Water Re-Use Project addresses the enduring tension between population growth and liveability, with Sydney’s population anticipated to swell to eight million people by the middle of the century.
With conservation, sustainability, and functionality in mind, the Turf Design Studio and Environmental Partnership-led design team created a new prototype for urban parklands.
As Sydney’s inner-city population and industry continue to expand, the City of Sydney was confronted with the issue of how to increase and improve green amenity and biodiversity in a rapidly densifying built environment.
Comprising 44 hectares, Sydney Park covers more than 10 percent of the coveted inner-city suburb of Alexandria.
A former brickworks, then landfill site, the park acts as a partial buffer between industry and encroaching residential development.
The Sydney Park Water Re-Use project was built in partnership with the Australian Government through the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan.
The project is integral to Sustainable Sydney 2030 which aims to meet 10 percent of the city’s water demand through local water capture and reuse.
The City of Sydney engaged a team of designers, engineers, water technologists, ecologists, and artists to deliver a complex solution in response to Sustainable Sydney 2030.
Given the site’s magnitude, the team focused on water harvesting and reuse to ensure waterway health and to future-proof water supply for the site.
The project has enhanced the circulation of water through the ponds and wetlands, diverting 840 million litres per annum of local stormwater for treatment and reuse, renewing ecosystems, and creating greener and more functional public amenity.
A key feature of the park is Turpin + Crawford’s ‘Water Falls’ installation which helps highlight the function and processes of water harvesting, creating immersive opportunities for interactive play and education.
The water ‘exhaust fans’ celebrate the transfer of water from bio-remediation ‘paddies’ to the lagoons, playing on the spirit of water and its interactions with topography, form, surfaces, and plant life.
A new network of tracks and trails directs users to junctions and open spaces along with bio-retention zones, bringing people closer to nature and wildlife while conveying the park’s water story.
As Sydney’s largest water harvesting project to date, the project has successfully reduced drinkable water use, through the capacity to capture and clean the equivalent of 340 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water per year.
The park’s flora and fauna are flourishing, with improved recreation options, visual appeal, and enhanced biodiversity.
A landmark test case for large-scale future-proofing of our urban landscapes, the project demonstrates the potential of sustainable water use.
Thirty million litres a year of harvested water is now recycled for improved pond and wetlands circulation, irrigation of grassed areas and to supply the park’s nursery operations.
The impact of water harvesting and reuse already extends beyond the limits of Sydney Park, with non-drinkable water supplied to truck washing at the neighbouring City of Sydney Depot.
The project intends to expand this function further, with plans to supply recycled water to neighbouring industries and to large-scale neighbouring urban redevelopment projects now in planning.
Project Awards
This widely-lauded project has won multiple national and international awards including:
- Civic Trust Award 2018
- Special Award for Sustainability 2018, Civic Trust
- The American Architecture Prize Landscape Architecture of the Year Award (Platinum) 2016
- Australia Prize in Urban Design Award for Major Built Infrastructure 2016
- AILA (National Awards) Infrastructure Award 2016
- AILA (NSW Awards) Excellence Award 2016
- Sydney Design Awards 2015
- Good Design Awards 2016
- Sustainability Awards 2016 – Outdoor Structure
Project Details
Site Area – 400,000 m2
Completion Date – 2015
Project Team
Landscape Architecture
Turf Design Studio
Turf Design Studio offers a rare depth in thinking for major developments and the public domain; weaving together planning, design and ecology into a vibrant tapestry – creating places that are functional, fit for living, and where the hand of the designer remains largely unseen.
Environmental Partnership
Environmental Partnership NSW is the third generation of the pioneering landscape architectural practice Environmental Landscapes, established in the early 1980s in Sydney.
Structural Engineering
Partridge Engineers
With over 35 years of experience, Partridge is a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy, providing services in the field of structural, civil, hydraulic, stormwater, remedial, forensic, and event engineering.
Water and Environment Consultants
Alluvium
Alluvium supports governments and businesses to solve complex issues associated with the natural and built environment.
Ecology Consultants
Dragonfly Environmental
Dragonfly Environmental specializes in the ecological restoration of wetlands, riparian zones, and saltmarshes together with the environmental management of a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems.
Irrigation Consultants
HydroPlan
Established in 1985, HydroPlan is Australia’s largest independent irrigation and water resource consultancy.
Public Art
Turpin + Crawford Studio
Studio TCS is a public art practice and cultural consultancy led by Michaelie Crawford and Jennifer Turpin.
Their collaborative art practice explores the energetic relationship between things, and within active systems – acknowledging and revealing our inextricable interconnectedness with each other and the natural world.
www.turpincrawfordstudio.com.au
Lead Construction Contractor
Design Landscapes
Shored by more than two decades of experience, the company has grown to become internationally respected, servicing projects in Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and China.
Photography
Ethan Rohloff
Ethan Rohloff is a sought-after commercial photographer noted for his commissioned aerial and architectural photography.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge it.
Design © 2022 Turf Design Studio | Environmental Partnership. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2022 Ethan Rohloff. All Rights Reserved.
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