Bourke St, Waterloo

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On the edge of Green Square, this significant urban design and landscape project, which Arcadia has collaborated with many architects for Dahua Group will deliver a project that is not only a great place to live, but also contribute to the thriving social fabric of its immediate surroundings, forming a new social heart for the inhabitants and the wider community.

The Gadigal and Gameygal people are the traditional custodians of the Waterloo area, known as Nadunga Guard (Sand dune country) and for its abundant nattai (sweetwater/ freshwater) wetlands. It sits on the edge of the Botany aquifer and once was scattered with freshwater springs.

With its connections to water, industrial history, and the opportunity to regenerate the native vegetation, Arcadia has designed a landscape master plan for a destinational mixed-use precinct in Waterloo that unveils the layered Indigenous and non-Indigenous history of the site while providing a vibrant place for urban dwellers to live gather and recreate.

With no civic plaza in close proximity to the site, the project will deliver significant open space, including plazas, water play, linear parks, retail laneways, sensory gardens and pedestrian links. The generous offering of public domain on site is largely informed by the existing heritage buildings. These buildings are celebrated, either via activation or the grounds around them.

Central Water Plaza: A sunken plaza with in-ground water spouts, edged by vibrant retail and large canopy trees. A perfect event space.

Entry Plaza: A welcoming frontage to Young St, gently guiding people into the site. Stepped edges but an open centre create a focal point and allow for gathering and events.

Urban Bosque: A more sheltered space to the back of the Valve House, the bosque provides a vibrant retail and outdoor dining space under a grove of trees.

Pumping Station Garden: Centring and celebrating the Pumping Station through interesting broken up ground treatment and dynamic planting.

Pumping Station Forecourt: A water feature and planting express the story of water through the site and create an arrival sequence into the site from McEvoy St.

Western Lawn: A Linear lawn space with new trees to Young St that provides a more tranquil and intimate piece of public domain.

Sensory Linear Park: A linear space between ground level residential apartments with abundant planting and a pocket park lawn at the northern end.

Northern Plaza: The link between the Central Water Plaza and the future park to the north, edged by cafe space and phytoremediation and play in the heart.

Retail Laneway: The other end of the pedestrian link between Young and Bourke St, edged by retail and welcoming people into the site.

Detailed WSUD, signage & wayfinding, lighting, public art, planting and materiality strategies have been developed to address all public domain.

Arcadia has also collaborated with architects, Bates Smart, MHNDU, Fieldwork and Richards & Spence, to design a series of rooftop spaces for the residential buildings within the Bourke St precinct. With unique character to complement the architecture, the rooftops will celebrate views and borrow landscape amenity, providing a balance of social and ecological canopy which respond to environment and climate by creating a variety of experiences and flexible space for programmes.