THE AUSTRALIAN GARDEN

Cranbourne, Australia
TCL

The Australian Garden sits on the edge of a sand quarry in Melbourne, Victoria, and was designed in two stages, the first opening in 2005 and the second in 2012. As a botanical garden, the project explores Australia’s natural history from the interior desert landscapes to the coastal habitats of the country, and was designed to shift the conception of the botanical garden from an imperialist research focus to landscape conservation and visitor engagement. The project focuses on place-making and the identity of Australian landscapes, highlighting the tensions between the hardships of Australia’s landscape, including extraction landscapes like the former sand quarry, and its sublime beauty. Exhibition gardens, research plots, forestry arrays and displays are concentrated on the eastern side of the project, while the western side includes less formal gardens and irregular forms with water running through and connecting the landscape. The focus on choreographing the walk through the landscape led TCL to design a path that morphs based on the landscape narrative, with the materials and dimensions of the path shifting in each habitat. The species that were selected for the project needed to be able to survive on the degraded soils of the quarry with low organic matter, and also required low water utilization and high drought tolerance. The project uses a variety of scales, using oversized boulders with sparse vegetation in some areas, a large plain filled with red sand, and a eucalyptus forest, to present a tour of Australia’s landscapes within 25 hectares.

2008 - ongoing
62 acres
165 feet above sea level

References:

Links: