Manatj Park Perth City Link Project

BACKGROUND: Manatj Park is a public space project by Iredale Pedersen Hook (where Martyn Hook is a director). IPH collaborated with Lyons Architects (Carey Lyon), Plan E (landscape architects), Arup and Paul Carter to deliver the project for the Western Australian Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (MRA). Manatj Park is a crossing of culture and place, from the Swan River in the south to remnant lakes in the north at Hyde Park and Yagan Square in the east to the Perth Arena in the west. CONTRIBUTION: Manatj Park (meaning black cockatoo in Whadjuk language) was designed to express the legendary place of the former meeting of two Kings - the first engagement between the Whadjuk people and the European settlers. IPH's design intention was for it to be a 'place of meeting without meeting, a place to discuss without discussing, a place of friction without fighting. A temporary place to visit and rest, to look up, across and down.' The presence of the former lakes is evident in the coloured concrete - a mix of browns to express 'a surface disappearing in time.' This project demonstrates Hook's ongoing research into architectural responses to Indigenous history that are sensitive and culturally informed, and which nurture social integration and kinship. SIGNIFICANCE: Manatj Park is part of a $1.2 billion project to deliver world-class public infrastructure and create a transit oriented community in Perth CBD. 'The delivery of the Manatj Park project is essential in attracting more private investment in the CBD and creating future jobs in construction and hospitality.' At the Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) 2018 (formerly the American Architecture Prize), the project won the award for Landscape Architecture - Installations and Structures. Nationally, the project won the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture - Commendation at the 2018 WA (Western Australia) Architecture Awards organised by the Australian Institute of Architects.