District Living Docklands

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Arcadia has prepared a Landscape Architectural concept design for the District Living development in Docklands, Melbourne.  The development includes two residential towers and associated communal space, along with significant public realm on the ground plane, including streets, laneways and a central plaza.

The District Living concept creates a new village for Melbourne with all the uses, activities, spaces and places that support a healthy inner-city community, with a variety of engaging outdoor amenities for residents, and a destinational, high quality and activated public realm for Docklands and its community.

The design has been developed in collaboration with Warren and Mahoney to create an integrated architectural and landscape architectural outcome, which will continue to be developed through the design process.

The landscape architectural design seeks to interpret and reference the lost pre colonisation landscape of the area through form, materiality and planting to provide a unique public realm outcome. The Public Realm at ground is comprised of a variety of spaces to provide a diversity of active, passive and recreational pursuits to this growing community. The spaces include:

The Plaza facilitates general movement across the area and provides for events and community activities. An inground water feature will reference the Blue Lake, previously on found on the site. This water feature transitions to a nature based play space, providing destinational amenity to activate the plaza, supported with outdoor barbecue and dining areas.

The Lawn is an open flexible lawn with solar exposure, allowing for informal activity.

The Gardens will be an intimate vegetated area for passive seating, dining and socialising.

St Mangos Lane will be a laneway connection from Little Docklands Drive, activated by adjacent retail frontages and outdoor dining.

The Lane is the major pedestrian and vehicular route through the site, providing a new extension of the existing St Mangos Lane and connection into Little Docklands Drive. It will facilitate pedestrian and cyclist priority and connectivity between both buildings with small plazas containing planting, seating and canopy trees at the main building entrances.

The Way is an important east west pedestrian route, facilitating movement between the SUP and bus stop to the east and central plaza space in the east. The lane will be activated by the retail frontage of Tower One, with outdoor dining spilling out to a wide pedestrian thoroughfare.

The Boulevard provides a vegetated interface, contributing to the overall amenity of Footscray Road and the Capital City Trail.

The residential towers each contain a suite of outdoor amenity spaces that are available to all residents across both buildings. The spaces work as a collective offering, and providing a diversity of destinational amenities, designed to complement their adjacent internal amenities, while also ensuring key activities are provided locally for each building. Overall Building One has an entertainment focus, while Building Two targets a wellness offering.