Client
Lendlease
Overview
Parks and GardensUrban Residential
Collaborators
Denton Corker Marshall
Carr Design Group
Koichi Takada Architects
Disciplines
Landscape Architecture
Location
Armadale, VIC
Date
2017
Imagery
Robyn Oliver
With over a third of the development transformed into leafy open space and parkland, the Toorak Park team addressed public concern to deliver a thoughtful and integrated development that gives back to the community.
Toorak Park is designed as an urban village, with a mix of apartments and townhouses in a highly sought-after pocket of Melbourne. Located adjacent to Armadale station, residents were worried that the apartment towers would overshadow sports fields and bring increased traffic flow to the area.
They also saw some ambiguity between public and private land within the development area, and potential devaluation of the highly desirable ‘Armadale brand’ in the prestigious neighbourhood.
The challenge for the project team was to address these concerns and prepare a landscape concept that would integrate the development with the leafy surrounding suburbs of Toorak, Armadale, and Prahran.
The team worked to provide significant open space and garden environments within the design, for use and enjoyment by both residents and visitors to the site. Spaces such as the public plaza and central green connect pedestrian access to the train station and provide a meeting place, with pocket gardens providing further spaces to be enjoyed.
The team designed a landscape that would grow old gracefully, in line with the existing Armadale neighbourhood character, and used the spaces between all the buildings to bring further greenery and permeability to the site. The design acknowledges existing landscapes, particularly the adjoining Toorak Park and Victory Square, and wide, clear, and well-signed paths provide safe pedestrian access and connection to the surrounding neighbourhood, with separation between foot and traffic areas.
Toorak Park’s extensive greenery has helped connect the development to its surrounding neighbourhoods and parkland and give the feel of a village within a village. After nearly a decade of community debate the landscape design has helped bring acceptance of the development, with improved connections to Toorak station via a tree-lined boulevard and new green spaces welcome additions to the neighbourhood.
