Drying Green wins 2024 Green Good Design Award for excellence in sustainability

McGregor Coxall have won the 2024 Green GOOD DESIGN Sustainability Award for The Drying Green, in recognition of exceptional forward-thinking designs and greater progress towards more sustainable environments.

Located on Gadigal Country, The Drying Green Park is the 6,400m2 centrepiece of a network of green spaces servicing the local Green Square community. The origami-inspired design, created by McGregor Coxall following an international competition win, delivers the world’s first ecological engine – an innovative urban wetland that harnesses green-and-blue living infrastructure.

Each day, one-third of an Olympic pool of polluted water is drawn from a drain flowing deep beneath the site [the former Shea’s Creek] and cycled through the wetland. The water passes through the high-tech system multiple times and every 3 days is returned clean to Alexandria Canal.

The Drying Green’s design repairs and regenerates the former ecology, employing modern technology. Utilising the principles of origami, the park design delivers sculpted lawns, folded gardens, and public amenities set in a forest of native trees.

Once again positively contributing to the liveability of Green Square, the Drying Green’s regenerative landscape and concurrent waterways bring new meaning in pursuit of resilience within Sydney’s urban environments.

Awarded by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design – the Green GOOD DESIGN Awards celebrate the world’s most important examples of sustainable design; we congratulate all other entrants and winners.

Design was led by McGregor Coxall with CHROFI and Regal Innovations, for City of Sydney. The design team also included Alluvium Group, TTW Engineers, Mott Macdonald, Steensen Varming, Vectorworks, and Kerrie Poliness (Public Art).