Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Located on Gadigal Country, The Drying Green Park by McGregor Coxall Australia and CHROFI is the 6,400 square-meter centrepiece of a network of green spaces servicing the local Green Square community of the City of Sydney.
The origami-inspired design delivers the world’s first ecological engine – an innovative urban wetland that harnesses green-and-blue living infrastructure.
The project has been recently awarded a 2024 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Each day, one-third of an Olympic pool of polluted water is drawn from a drain flowing deep beneath the site [the former Sheas Creek] and cycled through the wetland.
The water passes through the high-tech system multiple times and every 3 days is returned clean to Alexandria Canal.
The site location and urban framework were determined by the Green Square Town Centre Masterplan international design competition won by McGregor Coxall + Turner + Arets in 2006.
Design commenced in 2013 and McGregor Coxall worked over the next decade with the City of Sydney to deliver Australia’s most technologically advanced park.
Green Square is planned to have a population density higher than Hong Kong by 2030 with 22,000 people per square km.
With Green Square predicted to have a population density higher than Hong Kong by 2030 (22,000 people per square km), the brief dictated a green space offering to contribute to the City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney target of minimum overall green cover of 40 per cent across the city by 2050.
The name “The Drying Green” reflects the site’s European history as a wool-washing and drying area.
In pre-European times, Sheas Stream bisected the site and was part of an extensive wetland system located on Gadigal Country.
The fresh water was very attractive to industry and over time, industrial use and landfill of the wetlands led to widespread contamination and flooding.
The Drying Green’s design repairs and regenerates the former ecology, employing modern technology.
Project: The Drying Green Park
Architects: McGregor Coxall Australia Pty Ltd.
Associate Architects: CHROFI
General Contractor: Regal Innovations
Client: City of Sydney
Photographers: Simon Woods Photography and Maxwell Tooby Photography
