Grey nomads are consistently ‘blown away’ by the stunning scenery they see as they drive the highways and byways of Australia. And, while the stunning mountains, rocks, rivers, gorges, waterfalls and beaches are rightly the heroes of the story, the genius and vision of the people who put the roads where they put them is often overlooked.
As the value of tourism to the economy is more fully appreciated, so too is the importance of landscape architecture or ‘experience infrastructure’. While geography and geology dictate the route of some roads, more effort is consistently being applied to how motorists will experience the route.
The Vice President of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Angus Bruce, says landscape architects play a critical role in the planning and design of road infrastructure that connects people to places.
“These designed roadway corridors not only guide us from A to B but can assist us in understanding and knowing our local landscapes,” he said. “Be this through the considered and meaningful exposure of sedimentary rock to connect journey and landscape, the targeted provision of views and vistas to punctuate the driver’s experience or the timed positioning of lookouts and rest areas to offer respite, the well-designed infrastructure connects us to the environment and the land through which we traverse.”
Writing in Architecture News, Mr Bruce said a journey brings us not only to the destination but also to the special moments along the way. He says landscape architects are increasingly able to blur the lines between civil and structural infrastructure and the environment and natural landscapes, to elevate the engineering outcome from asset to experience. And it’s not just roads.
He points to the work recently completed for the Department of Parks and Wildlife in Western Australia as an example of what he is talking about. There, a small team of landscape architects and architectural draftsmen worked with local construction teams from regional and remote areas to design and construct unique and site-specific pieces of infrastructure. In particular he references the Gap-Natural Bridge project in Torndirrup National Park on the outskirts of Albany, which he says ‘creates a profound experience for visitors who are cantilevered out over the granite rock formation and surging Southern Ocean below’.
“Likewise, the award-winning project, Mackenzie Falls Gorge Trail within the Grampians National Park offers a unique connection with nature and the environment through the construction of new trails through the river valley that touch the ground lightly, delivering a site-specific response for visitors,” he said. “Further, The Shipwreck Coast Master Plan for Parks Victoria along the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles is a highly-anticipated project for international visitors and residents of south-western regional Victoria and, once complete, it will significantly improve the visitor experience and the conservation of natural and cultural assets along this part of the Victorian coastline.”
Other examples of experience-focused road infrastructure, Mr Bruce says include the Craigieburn Bypass that circumnavigates the western part of Melbourne’s CBD, port and inner west suburbs, as the surrounding city views are framed by magnificent sculptures that capture the pace and vistas only able to be experienced through vehicular travel.
“The growing scope of landscape architectural work within Australia’s regional and remote areas supports an increasing number of people ‘delaying time’ – to visit and experience these landscapes more intimately and mindfully,” he said. “These design interventions are critical in supporting human connections to Australia’s wider landscape – by enabling people to immerse themselves, to slow down and to begin to really know the natural environment and experience the places beyond where they live.”
Ruth and I just drove out to Ross River resort and back today, only 80 klm east of Alice Springs, but the views going out and back were absolutely stunning. What a beautiful part of the world this is.