The design vision for the RSA was to create a new quality sheltered courtyard that would allow for seamless indoor/outdoor movement, attract new clientele and provide an exciting welcoming entry from the street.
The layout allows for spatial diversity, with raised planters, bespoke seating, and paving. Areas of timber decking provide textural interest and colour. Key elements include the feature lighting red poppy panels, cube seats featuring contemporary NZ Navy photographs, and a water feature dedicated to Passchendaele.
To celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the church we were asked to prepare a landscape design solution that provided for a welcoming public open space.
The design was influenced by its Gothic architectural heritage. The integration of creative lighting ideas into the street furniture, handrails and signage were a special feature of the project.
Unfortunately, the church was substantially damaged in the earthquake and the new building refurbishment removed most of the bespoke furniture.
Percasky Park is a functional and interesting space for local residents to walk through enroute to the shops and for visitors to sit and relax. The former site-office space was donated to the community in 2002 and planted as a temporal gesture by the developer and has matured very well as shown in these pictures.
The simple bold geometric layout is planted with plane trees to assist with screening of the shopping centre for adjacent residents. Evergreen, white-flowering agapanthus, provides the understorey planting which contrast with the compacted limechip surface.
Although the original design was amended following the Christchurch earthquake, all the key design considerations including good spatial variety and a high degree of visual oversight from surrounding streets were met.
Raised beds with lush planting provide colour and horticultural interest and a well vegetated surround to the building. Carpark and pedestrian areas provide textural interest and at-grade accessibility. Bespoke seating and tree pits introduced timber and stainless-steel elements.
