Redfern Park & Oval development saw the complete regeneration of an existing historic park and deteriorated football field and facilities located within the inner-city residential Sydney suburb of Redfern. BVN was engaged as lead consultant by City of Sydney to regenerate the park and deliver a scheme which provided the required training facilities to the South Sydney Rugby League Football Club balanced with the needs of local community and relevant stakeholders. A community and stakeholder consultation process was undertaken in the first stage to establish a masterplan. This masterplan was presented back to all stakeholders for endorsement prior to proceeding with the development of the design.

A key design approach was the integration of the football field and grandstand back into the overall landscape strategy of the regenerated park. This was achieved by embedding the oval and new grandstand within the park, allowing the landscape to wrap around the built forms. The football field itself has been sunken in reference to a university library lawn or quadrangle, which both formalises it as part of the landscape and connects it to the historic formal Victorian landscape of the original park design. The oval and grandstand are surrounded by a perimeter planting of figs which over time will grow taller than the grandstand, allowing the landscape to dominate and presenting a ‘green’ face to the surrounding context.

The grandstand houses tier-seating for 2,500 spectators, with public facilities and grounds stores below. Team change rooms, support rooms and a 600m2 training facility for the South Sydney Football Club is contained in a basement below ground-level with direct separated access to the sunken playing field. Housed in an element separated from the tier-seating but still contained under a single unifying roof is a Kiosk and commercially operated Café with a Community Meeting Room above, all with views of the park and playing field. The separation of this element is symbolic of its multi-use activity which is not dominated solely by activity associated with the sports field and creates a visual and physical relationship with the whole park.

Awards

2010 RAIA NSW Urban Design Award