dima
  • Re-Public Park

    marks on a redundant quarry  An international competition was held to explore ideas for the Brickpit, adjacent to Sydney’s Olympics site. 'The Indigenous moves through the land, dwells and records with little modification. The coloniser tames the landscape, imposing pattern.' Can these be reconciled? The CEA concept places a ring of casurina trees at the site edge to make the Olympics development invisible. A major ramp leads down to the brickpit and rises again into the Bi-Centennial mangrove swamps. A bridge leads across the wetlands to a square platform of grass. Further wanderings lead to a grassy mound, to industrial ruins, a lake. Wetlands are extended, and a forest of native species expands. Three main constructed elements - ramp, timber platforms and lookouts and mound - are connected by paths of pit materials - white line (from white shale), black line (black shale), brick line, stepping stones. They intersect and blend into rubble-paved areas, blurring the lines between the constructed and the extant. The former industrial sheds are retained as shelter and slowly allowed to decay.
    Client: Undisclosed Location: Homebush Bay Brickpit, Sydney, Australia Status: International Ideas Competition, 3rd Prize, 1998