Awards: High Commendation Award at the IPWEA Awards NSW 2022

Kings Park is a neighbourhood park, located on the site of the former Denistone EastBowling Club, which ceased operating in 2012. Following an extensive community consultation process to establish the best future use of the site, the City of Ryde determined that the bowling club building should be demolished, and the site should be returned to the community as “passive and active open space”.

In 2019 Umbaco prepared a masterplan for the site following a thorough analysis of the key outcomes of community consultation.We wanted a park where ‘everyone can play’, a space that engaged the whole community as a recreation space, while retaining a bit of legacy to the bowling club.

The site comprised the two former bowling greens with a 4-metre height difference between them and a massive clubhouse straddling that divide.This significant constraint required innovative solutions to achieve all our strategies. By locating the children’s play area in the fall between the two bowling greens we were able to create a transitional element linking the upper open space with the formal court play area at the lower end of the site. Using the site slope, we located the family shelter to ensure clear sight lines across the whole park for passive surveillance while guarding the entry to the park from the road along Salter Crescent boundary. In this way we were able to use the challenge of the site slope as an opportunity for strategic location of key elements of the park.

The play area is based on the ‘journey on the go’ concept. It includes a ‘wobbly’ bridge to reach the beautifully crafted custom wooden ‘Echidna’ where the children can hang upside down, climb, slide up and down, or swing on thick ropes hanging under the belly of the structure. Nearby commander-style vertical climbing ropes are hung from the majestic wooden ‘gates’ that flank the bridge and complete a challenge circuit for older children. All these elements encourage activities and innovative play without modern gadgets.

For younger children, chalk ‘score boards’ built into the play area fence are fun for scribbling away (and reference the past site history as a bowling club). The ‘journey’ continues throughJapanese inspired stone steps to the swings and multi-rocker area at the bottom of the double slide, where there are colourful cuddle balls, another reference to bowling. These steps were just another creative and playful way to resolve the site height differential.

There is plenty of accessible seating and table space for adults and children in the large custom-designed shelter, with easy access to a nearby unisex toilet cubicle. The shelter commands a higher position allowing parents and carers to picnic in comfort, while looking out and keeping an eye on the surrounding action around the park.

Generous plantings around the perimeter of the site, using predominately native species wills often the space and provide deeper shade. Vegetated swales planted with native grasses were used to slow down stormwater runoff on site through the natural filtering and slowing down the flows.

The project is the culmination of a two-year design process and creative partnerships with theCouncil, contractors and co-consultants, and suppliers particularly Timber Creations. We successfully converted the original steep terrain of a mono cultured bowling club into an inviting accessible community place where everyone can play and feel comfortable.