The Gold Coast’s biggest urban renewal project, which will be used as accommodation for athletes during the 2018 Commonwealth Games, has won the top award at the 2017 Gold Coast Urban Design Awards.

Urban Design Award 2017

The Awards recognise the best of Gold Coast’s built environment and have become the city’s most prestigious platform to celebrate design, liveability and sustainability.

Parklands is a master planned, designed and delivered site by Archipelago, Arkhefield, ARM Architecture and LAT27 for the developer, Grocon. It’s a perfect example of a project that sets a high national and international benchmark for outstanding achievement in the integration of architecture and public realm. The complexity of designing for a single event and legacy simultaneously has been navigated with great care and design skill. They also considered abstraction and interpretation of the wider city and landscape context through colour, sculpture and landscape.

‘The new community at Parklands is the Gold Coast’s biggest ever urban-renewal project, and delivers a lifestyle-oriented, transit-facilitated space for living, working and learning. The Parklands Project balances an abundant seven hectares of green space with another seven hectares occupied by a 5840 square metre retail precinct centred around a village heart, as well as 1252 new apartment and townhouse dwellings.’

(Source: http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/planning-and-building/celebrating-2017-urban-design-awards-42900.html)

Team work between the developers, designers and involved state and local authorities as well as their persistence and commitment of quality over time has been warmly congratulated. The Urban Award Jury recognised the excellence of this project at every level of urbanism and from planning to execution.

Usage of Parklands

Later this year, Parklands will be leased to the organizers of the 2018 Commonwealth Games (GOLDOC), and will accommodate 6,500 athletes and officials. After the games, Parklands will host both a mixed-use community and a “health and knowledge precinct” involving Griffith University and Gold Coast University Hospital. Furthermore, it is also a very environmentally friendly development, achieving a six-star rating for Green Star Communities rating tool and a six-leaf rating under the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) Enviro Development rating system.

Future – Connectivity of Amenities

The Parklands will be interconnected, both internally to its constituent parts, to its surrounding commercial, industrial and residential communities and to other knowledge hubs in South East Queensland. The master plan anticipates future connections aligning streets and open space linkages with neighbouring land uses. G:link light rail provides major public transport connectivity to local and regional centres.

 

Sources:

http://www.dilgp.qld.gov.au/infrastructure/economic-development-queensland/urban-development/parklands-health-and-knowledge-precinct.html

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/planning-and-building/celebrating-2017-urban-design-awards-42900.html)