Client
City of Victor Harbor
Alexandrina Council
Overview
Collaborators
Hames Sharley
Disciplines
Landscape Architecture
Location
Hayborough, SA
Date
2015
Imagery
Robyn Oliver
The Fleurieu Aquatic Centre draws inspiration from the local Indigenous story of Kondili the whale, with the building and landscape designed to reflect the story’s cultural significance while blending with the natural coastal environment.
The result is a cohesive architectural and landscape design that maximises play opportunities for children, with both structured and natural play areas.
The team decided to blur the boundaries between the internal splash play and children’s pool and the external landscape by incorporating a large ‘splat’ motif. This motif makes a continuous edge to the play areas and turns into a small rock-lined creek.
The play space extends the development’s environmental theme, featuring a small rocky creek that fills with roof runoff when it rains, and can also be filled using hand-pumped water spouts and troughs during dry spells.
The play space uses topography and level changes to offer diverse experiences in a small area. Picnic shelters and grassy mounds provide spaces for adults and older children to relax and spend a day at the centre.
The playground includes logs, decks and various surface textures, along with traditional play equipment, chosen to suit a wide range of ages.
In the public reserve east of the pool building, a large creek flows through the landscape. The creek features carefully arranged boulders to enable exploration, and varied rock sizes provide different levels of surface stability for a challenging adventure.
By integrating these outdoor spaces, Fleurieu Regional Aquatic Centre becomes a place of discovery that celebrates the region’s unique natural and cultural landscape.