Bungarribee Park Master Plan

BACKGROUND: Through his practice JMD Design, Anton James led a multidisciplinary team of engineers, architects, artists, heritage and community consultants to prepare a master plan for the future of the 250ha Bungarribee Precinct in Western Sydney. The $15 million development incorporates new entry roads, parking, regional play and picnic grounds and trails. Commissioned by the Western Sydney Parklands Trust, the new park is comparable in size to eastern Sydney's Centennial Park (220 hectares). According to Premier Mike Baird, it is expected to 'become as iconic for Western Sydney as New York's Central Park and London's Hyde Park.' CONTRIBUTION: The design carefully and logically inserts program and circulation to preserve and heighten the unique site qualities of scale, sky and ecology. The 'heart' preserves the delicate ecology of the grasslands, the 'loop' provides circulation throughout the site, the 'redgum runway, a thousand trees' gives scale and signals the former military runway, and the 'urban forest' as plantation provides an ongoing source of material for the Parklands. SIGNIFICANCE: Bungarribee Park Master Plan won the 2014 New South Wales Australian Institute of Architects Award (AILA) for Planning in Landscape Architecture. AILA is the peak industry body for landscape architects and architecture.​ According to the jury, the Master Plan is 'imaginative, exciting and vividly brought to life by Anton James's evocative sketches.' The project was published in Architecture Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, and Architecture and Design.