Fun and games … A win for playtime at the Ardeer Community Playground. 56599
By Natalie Gallenti
ARDEER residents can now say they have one of the best playgrounds in the municipality – thanks to the dedicated work of community members.
The Ardeer Community Playground was recently awarded an Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture Award for design in landscape architecture.
President of the Ardeer Community Playground Committee, Geraldine Brooks, said the award was a testimony to the hard work the group had put in over countless years.
The AILA jury commended the playground design as “an exemplar of community and professionals working together to achieve a celebrated outcome.”
“The Ardeer Playground reaffirms the connection between past, play and social engagement, and demonstrates the important anchor position playgrounds can occupy in forming community,” it continued.
Ms Brooks said the area, which was once very uninviting, was now the “most beautiful green space” where families spent hours enjoying the playground equipment, relaxing or even exercising.
“We now have a place where we can get together,” Ms Brooks added.
“It’s a real credit to the hard work and persistence of community members.”
Brimbank City Council’s chair of administrators, Peter Lewinsky, said the award was something everyone who worked on the project should be proud of.
“This project involved an extraordinary level of engagement with Ardeer residents and the development of an innovative approach to a ‘community build’ project. The success of the project demonstrates the degree to which the landscape architects, the Ardeer Community Playground Committee, Brimbank City Council and the contractors collaborated, alongside the rest of the community,” Mr Lewinsky said.
“The outcome is a playground that can be described as the ‘heart of the neighbourhood’. There is a strong sense of community ownership of it and the work the community put into the project has helped engender a strong sense of community in Ardeer.”
