Gosford Leagues Club Park, Gosford, New South Wales
Built on the land of the Darkinjung people
Turf Design Studio
Mike Horne, director at Turf Design Studio, spoke with Landscape Architecture Australia about how the designers worked with the area’s Traditional Owners, water management consultants, engineers and artists to create a park, gathering place and community hub that honours the site’s cultural histories and foregrounds the shifting, dynamic landscapes of its coastal location.
Michael Polifrone – What was the brief and how did Turf Design Studio’s engagement with the site’s Traditional Owners come about?
Mike Horne – When we started the project there were four fundamental requirements – a street connection, a community node, a playground and a village green – and so we thought, what do you do with that? What is a community node? It was such fertile ground for exploration and negotiation.
Indigenous engagement wasn’t specifically part of the brief,
