Eddison Natural Play
City Centre. The street is not only a traffic corridor for cars and buses, and later for light rail/trackless tram; it is also the entry into the heart of the City Centre and an iconic space for Canning An innovative approach has been taken for the design of Cecil Avenue to ensure that it is a street with a character that prioritises city life over traffic movements, combining the traffic function with the pedestrian usage and two of the overarching identity themes; the Riverine Canning and Multicultural Canning.

The design was developed through an iterative co-design process with the local community. An ongoing series of workshops were held at schools, shopping centres, markets and on-site to give the community a platform to identify opportunities and prioritise works to take place within the park. The play journey developed by children through the place games was used as the basis of the concept design.
A range of play upgrades were identified based upon the themes of the native landscape and the farm heritage of the region. These included water play and play workshop within a sand pit, a wobbly rope bridge, a mound and tunnel, bird hides, a meeting tree, and a sensory garden with opportunities to explore touch, smell, eat, hide, crawl, squeeze, and taste.
Like in many of our projects, Eddison Park Nature Play demonstrates how community engagement is more than a product, but a critical component in defining the rational of our design and as a source of inspiration.

New parks

Photographer: Karleen Minney

AWARDS

2020 AILA ACT Landscape Architecture Award Category: Playspaces