K2K: Kensington to Kingsford Town Centres

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Arcadia  was part of a team, including Ethos Urban (formerly JBA), Stewart Hollenstein Architecture, The Transport Planning People and Jess Scully, who were shortlisted in the Kensington to Kingsford: K2K Urban Design Competition. The competition was run by the Randwick City Council to seek ideas for strategic direction, sustainable growth and creative transformation of the town centres as they head into a period of significant urban development.

The Arcadia team concept envisages a sequence of organic and linked opportunities to create meeting places, breakout squares and moments for gathering along a more pedestrianised Anzac Parade. With development  intensified around light rail stops, east-west connections traversing the main road are to be improved. A network of commons in Kensington “restores the balance between hydrological systems and urban development,” reducing the need for stormwater management. Kingsford becomes an exchange, with the nine ways road intersection transformed into a public junction, with new public square and civic building. Side streets and laneways become malls for outdoor dining.

Using Anzac Parade as “the zipper” that will re-connect the neighbourhoods, the concept focuses on the many opportunities to encourage human interaction and celebrate cultural identity. By creating new precincts, new character can be shaped around the light rail and the diversity of the community can be reflected in unique identities and local stories infused in each precinct.

A green belt will connect the site with the parkland and open space planting in the Moore Park / Centennial Park area to provide continuous vegetative cover for the precinct with the species previously found in the Botany wetlands and coastal dunes.