Victorian Desalination & Ecological Reserve
The Victorian Desalination Project is a large-scale infrastructure project capable of delivering up to 150 billion litres of water to Melbourne. ASPECT Studios pioneered new technologies, techniques and ways of thinking about major infrastructure in this project, which includes a 225-hectare ecological reserve that remains one of the largest ecological restoration projects ever undertaken in Victoria.
At the heart of the project is the 26,000m² green roof that covers the main building and integrates it with the ecological reserve. No comparable green roof project of this scale had been undertaken in Australia at completion, or in the years since.
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- TRADITIONAL OWNERS & ONGOING CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND Bunurong Country
- Client AquaSure consortium (Degremont, Thiess, Macquarie Capital Group)
- Location Wonthaggi, Victoria, Australia
- Year 2007–2013
The green roof is planted with more than 100,000 plants, drawn from a palette of 25 species of indigenous succulents, ground covers, tussocks and low-lying shrubs. The roof is the product of site-specific ecological design principles, and uses a purpose-designed, lightweight, high water retention planting media. The systems necessary to support plant growth are integrated into the structure of the roof itself.
One of the central objectives of the project is to minimise the desalination plant’s visual impact on the coastline. The ecological reserve and green roof play an important role in the design response, blending the infrastructure into the landscape through the interpretation of the existing dune formations and restoring the ecological value of the site.
- TEAM ARM architects with peckvonhartel, Practical Ecology, Beca
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AWARDS
2017 10th IFLA Asia-Pac Landscape Architecture Awards – Infrastructure Category Award of Excellence
2017 The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre – Green GOOD DESIGN Award Winner
2016 AILA National Landscape Architecture Awards – Infrastructure Award
2016 AILA VIC Awards – Infrastructure Award of Excellence - PHOTOGRAPHY Peter Bennetts, John Gollings, VUAS
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