by Niki Kalms
Landscape Architecture Australia
No. 125, February 2010
pp. 36-39
The Harbour Family and Children's Centre in Melbourne's Docklands inspired commentary on "the shift back to traditions of playing nature and learning through imagination rather than through a plastic reality" in the February 2010 edition of Landscape Architecture Australia.
The Centre is located on the rooftop of the largest supermarket in the Melbourne Docklands and aims to establish a benchmark in showcasing Lady Gowrie's vision for outdoor play as a fundamental aspect of early childhood development.
The courtyard is a diverse and tactile series of nature-based play spaces that provide a backdrop for the facility's learning programs. Incorporating two sandpits, digging patch, water play zone, kitchen garden and a flexible-use softfall area, the gardens vary in theme to showcase the diversity of the natural world.
This unique learning environment is an important addition to community infrastructure within a fast-growing high-density commercial and residential precinct.
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