Active recreational programs and facilities have traditionally been designed as independent and isolated volumes set within broader landscapes. Our proposal inverts this strategy by using the geometries, rules and overlays of active programmatic elements such as tracks, courts, and fields to form a continuous recreational circuit and pathway that frames and structures both the active programs and broader landscapes of Gunyama Park.

Lawns, gardens and plantings emerge as found spaces between these prescribed elements and form a series of parks of various characters and atmospheres within the circuit and pathway. This strategy forms a new type of integrated and participatory park, foregrounding active forms of recreation and leisure, and differentiating Gunyama Park from the Drying Green and the Green Square Town Centre.

By raising the synthetic playing field as the roof of the aquatic centre, the number of recreational programs to be offered can be substantially increased to include running and cycle tracks, basketball, tennis, volleyball, table tennis, cricket nets, boot camp, a dog run, workout stations and a climbing wall. The children’s playground can be expanded to include a distributed array of play equipment promoting physical activity and exercise. Interactive sculptures and environmental infrastructure punctuates the circuit to activate the park for people of all interests, ages and abilities. The amount of soft landscaped areas can also be significantly increased creating more diversified, permeable and sustainable parklands.

The recreational circuit is designed to not only support a wide range of programs, events and rhythms but to also encourage broader interaction between participants of different activities, whether active or passive, and lead to a richer community environment for all residents of Green Square.