The City of Sydney has unveiled a new wetland park in Zetland’s Green Square.
Designed by a team led by McGregor Coxall with architecture by Chrofi, the 6,400m-square-metre space forms part of a sequence of new public spaces that link the Green Square Library and plaza and Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre. The name of the park, The Drying Green, refers to the site’s history as a place where wool was once washed and dried.
The designers created a series of sculpted lawns, folded gardens and public amenities set within a forest of native trees. Angular berms with green facades separate the park from surrounding streets. A large, inclined lawn angled to maximise sun exposure during the winter forms the centrepiece of the space. A major feature of the park is a “cascading” wetland that traces the route of the area’s historic Sheas Creek and captures and treats local stormwater. This infrastructure cleanses approximately 875 kilolitres of water (one third of an Olympic-sized pool) daily and returns it to the Alexandria Canal and Sydney Harbour downstream.
The Drying Green by McGregor Coxall
The Drying Green by McGregor Coxall
A substation concealed with the amenities building on site powers the library and plaza and is connected by electrical infrastructure hidden within the berms. The shelter receives photovoltaic energy before it is fed back into the site’s grid, offsetting the energy used for the artwork, Stream, by artist, Kerri Poliness. Stream was inspired by the site’s changing relationshiph to water, including its transformation from a wetland to a dam for industry, its current use as a storm water culvert and return to wetland.
McGregor Coxall, Turner and Arest won the international design competition for the Green Square Town Centre Masterplan in 2006. Design for the park commenced in 2013, with construction completed in October this year.
