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Bowden Main Park

The Bowden Urban Precinct is the South Australian government’s flagship medium-density urban renewal project. It is intended as a model for future urban development and Bowden Park is its much-anticipated primary open space.

The design draws on the rich cultural history of the site, its industrial aesthetic, the form of the iconic sawtooth roofline of the adjacent Plant 4 factory, and a raw sense of wildness.
It creates a landscape in which sensory and textural planting break through cracks and a fragmented hardscape to expose underlying layers of history and meaning.
  • TRADITIONAL OWNERS & ONGOING CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND Kaurna
  • CLIENT Renewal SA
  • LOCATION Bowden, Adelaide, Australia
  • YEAR 2014–2016
Recycled red brick in the ground plane, the heavy wooden beams repurposed as bespoke play elements, and the steel construction of the angling shelters evoke the site’s industrial heritage while forming a contemporary landscape that keys into the broader urban design principles of this strategic reinvention.

Configured to take full advantage of the adjacent markets and the activity at the nearby Bowden Train Station, the park creates the vibrancy of a town square in tandem with tightly integrated play spaces that delight.

Sculptural water play areas, sand pits, the exciting challenge of balance beams, sensory plantings, a vine-covered arbour, together with a large communal lawn and a suite of other facilities work to make the park as a central social destination, a civic space for creative exchange, and a place that inspires prosperity.
  • TEAM FMG Engineering, Tonkin Consulting, Lucid Consulting, RLB, Hydroplan, ProAg Consulting
  • AWARDS AILA SA Award of Excellent – Civic Landscape category 2016
    Planning Institute of Australia Awards for Excellence 2017 South Australia Great Place - Commendation
  • PHOTOGRAPHY Dan Shultz
ASPECT ADE Bowden Park 07