By Barber Design
Location: Epsom Road, Flemington
Client: VRC / Bates Smart
Scope: Public Realm, Grandstand
Landscape, Members Betting Ring
Completed: 2017
Now widely recognised as one of the most prodigious racing and entertainment venues in the world, we were privileged to be awarded the landscape architectural commission for the recently completed Grandstand and Betting Ring for the VRC at Flemington Racecourse.
In close collaboration with the architect team and the client, we strove to establish the most fluid of transitions between the interior and the landscape as well as primary outer landscape zones and amenities.
Informed by the petal-like shapes of the building, our landscape, furniture and fence design response subtly reflects the same. Soft lines, a carefully selected understated materiality and a restrained planting palette provide a gentle transition from the public arena, acknowledge the heritage of the place and provide a simple and contemporary venue for all to celebrate, congregate and integrate.
Photography: Courtesy of Bates Smart Architects
Barber is a Melbourne-based Landscape Architecture Practice. Founded in 2002 by Sam Barber, the studio is renowned for its thoughtful, gentle and pragmatic approach to landscape design.
Refined yet congenial, Sam and his multi-disciplinary team connect clients and the architecture they inhabit to the natural world through crafted experiences grounded in wellbeing, balance and ease.
Barber’s spaces are characterised by a commitment to provenance, proportion and cohesion, where architecture and landscaping are a seamless and symbiotic expression. By listening and learning deeply, to both the site and the client, Barber creates intuitive and connective spaces, that balance rigour with joy and evolve naturally rather than forcefully.
Barber works with both private clients and architects and is well-versed in large, multi-residential and public realm projects, as well as private residences large and small.
We see every project as an opportunity to contribute positively and generously to our client’s way of life.