Bondi - Sam Fiszman Park
city°
Sam Fiszman Park is located at Ben Buckler Head in Bondi Beach, Sydney. The project was commissioned by Waverley Council, and delivered in collaboration with public artists and architects, McGregor Westlake. The project was completed in 2007.
Size: insert project details here
Budget: $390,000
Scope: Design Competition, Masterplan, Concept Design, Detail Documentation, Site Remediation, WSUD, Construction
Sam Fiszman Park has been recognised with the following awards;
2008 AILA NSW Award for Excellence in Landscape Architecture
1. Interplay of sandstone and concrete to facilitate bio-retention (above left)
2. View back to Bondi Beach (below left)
3. Bio-retention terraces treat adjacent street stormwater (right)
Long seat directing views to Bondi Beach
Named for Polish migrant Sam Fiszman
Initial concept sketch
The execution from concept to constructed design is legible and uncompromised
- Award Citation
2008 AILA Award Citation
The jury are pleased to give this prestigious design award to 360° for Sam Fiszman Park. This delightful project designed by 360° in collaboration with McGregor Westlake Architects delivers a courageous and innovative response to the harsh but dramatic Ben Buckler headland at North Bondi and raises important issues of intervention in significant natural landscapes.
The site was formally a car park over contaminated fill. The brief was to create a park that enhance the panoramic views of the site and allow access to the coastal walk. The design components include a turfed entry area and a series of pre-cast and in-situ concrete elements, seats and colourful lookouts that cascade through the site skilfully juxtaposed between sandstone outcrops and boulders. The project adopts water management principles through bio-retention terraces and uses a strong coastal native palette of shrubs and ground covers that successfully withstand wind and ocean spray.
The execution from concept to constructed design is legible and uncompromised. Adopting a simple material palette, the design process has delivered a scheme that is robust, timeless and low maintenance. The project is an excellent example of landscape architecture/architecture collaboration on a small budget of $390,000. 360°, their collaborators and Waverley Council are congratulated for their confident urban contribution to the coastal experience at Bondi.
1. Two balconies and a seat focus on distinctive coastal and ocean views (above left)
2. The balconies offer a sense of protection from the southern elements (below left)
3. Brick inlay detail to balconies (right)
I am better than no
man, and no man is better than I
- Sam Fiszman
The park sits subtly on the coastal edge
Aerial view
Triptych of concrete, sandstone and water
Design Statement
The northern headland of Bondi Beach, known as Ben Buckler, is a small lookout space that absorbs one of Australia’s most iconic landmarks.
This project focuses on edges and views. Here at the city’s edge looking over the windswept, vast and panoramic ocean, it is possible to contemplate the sublime. The small scale of the project belied the dynamic of the surrounds.
The program required that an existing above ground carpark be replaced with a pedestrian space that also linked to the beach and the coastal cliff walk.
The design strategy was to work as much as possible with the topography and the layout of the existing rock shelves and floaters. The level changes were to be met by a series of terraces, steps, seats and walls to afford passage down the site and to create a range of interlocking spaces from which to enjoy the panoramic views. A kind of convex amphitheatre to the water was imagined. Concrete was used as it is part of the Bondi public vernacular and because it forms a neutral foil to the existing sandstone. Many of the terraces contain planting beds with indigenous plants such as pig face. These plants create a soft compliment to the hard scape of concrete and sandstone. The series of planted terraces links the place to the greater areas of lawn and native grasses around the greater site.
At the top of the site, 2 room-like lookouts crown the rock floaters, like concrete tiaras, one orientated towards the horizon, the other to the city’s coast. Each is richly lined with glazed bricks, which capture and condense the blue of the view. Whilst both lookouts have a generous public scale, the lookout to the horizon necks and narrows to create a more singular space allowing a more personal reflection. The 2 lookouts are little monuments to the view recalling the graveyard and military architectures scattered along Sydney’s ocean edges.
The entry to the park is marked by a long walled element, containing the park title, in a “honey combed” weathered relief. On the lee side is a long seat, which when lain on, provides a pointer back to Bondi and the city. Together, the lookouts and seat are organised as a triptych of tighter spaces, providing shelter from the incessant winds and making a place here at the edge of the city.
