Melbourne has been at the forefront of creating linear parks under newly elevated rail. How does the community benefit from these new spaces and how were they designed?

This talk examines three level crossing removal projects which have delivered linear parks across Melbourne – the Caulfield to Dandenong LXRP in the east, the Carrum LXRP in the south, and the Moreland LXRP in the north. The seminar will bring together landscape architects, government representatives, and academics to discuss the ‘Sky Rail’ (and their underlines) and the public realm outcomes. The event is curated and hosted by Kirsten Bauer of ASPECT Studios alongside Timothy Moore, curator of contemporary design and architecture at the NGV.

This event takes place at Community Hall, a space to gather, connect and celebrate Melbourne’s diverse and creative communities, located in the heart of the Melbourne Now exhibition on the ground floor.

Participants

Michael Wright and Cath Rush
Michael Wright is a Director of Rush/Wright Associate. He has a wide-ranging track record in landscape design and construction, having worked on projects at every scale from small private courtyards to entire new city plans. He has worked on a range of urban landscape projects including major public domain commissions around Melbourne and interstate. RWA designed and delivered the Carrum and Kananook LXRP with Cox Architects.

Tara Bell
Dr Jillian Wallis
Jillian has over twenty-year experience as a landscape architecture academic and critic in Australia and New Zealand. She has led major collaborative research projects involving international institutions and prominent design and engineering practices. The research project Landscape Architecture and Digital Technologies: reconceptualising design and making involved eleven international design practices and academics from the GSD (Harvard), the University of Toronto, ETH Zurich, the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania. The subsequent book, co-authored with Dr Heike Rahmann has been critically acclaimed by practice and academia. In 2019 Jillian was appointed co-creative director of the International Festival of Landscape Architecture to be held in Melbourne in October. As part of this role, she has been instrumental in developing the Future Park Design Ideas competition which explores new open space futures for Melbourne 2050.

Kevin Van Boxtel
Adam Kiekebosch
As the Regional Director of ASPECT Studios, Adam brings over two decades of experience and a history of leading large interdisciplinary design studios and project teams across the globe. More recently, his focus has been upon significant integrated transport projects such as Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Program, where he has driven landscape-led approaches to the delivery of these transformational, city-shaping projects

Deiter Lim
As the landscape and urban design director, Deiter has a great deal of experience in large scale masterplanning, urban, landscape and infrastructure projects. He has overseen the integrated environmental, landscape and urban design aspects for projects across a diverse field of typologies including green and brownfield residential development, activity centres, public facilities, campuses, transport and infrastructure corridors. TRACT has been a key leader in the field of elevated rail and public realm through their work at the Moreland to Bell LXRP, Mernda Line LXRP at Preston, and also further north the Mernda elevated rail extension.

Kirsten Bauer
Kirsten is a Director of ASPECT Studios. Her design leadership across city shaping public projects has created profoundly visioned, benchmark projects across Australia and internationally. She has led the ASPECT Studios team across multiple elevated rail projects, most significantly the Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal and the more recent projects of Toorak Road LXRP and the planned elevated rail and Station at Croydon.

Richard Tolliday
Representatives from the Level Crossing Removal Project LXRP and the Office of Victorian Government Architect OVGA