Blacktown Exercise, Sports and Technology Hub

Blacktown Exercise, Sports and Technology Hub (BEST)


Client	Blacktown City Council
Project Partners	Buildcorp (Lead Contractor), Savills (Project Manager), and Architectus (Landscape Architect)
State	New South Wales

A beacon for 'Physical Literacy' in Western Sydney.

Located within Blacktown International Sportspark, the Blacktown Exercise Sports and Technology Hub (BEST) represents a multi-million-dollar strategic investment by Blacktown City Council. Driven by the wider ambition to transform Blacktown into an internationally-recognised region of excellence for sports, training and technology, Fleetwood Urban was engaged in 2020 to deliver a series of towering, fully interactive Shade and Play structures — each designed to harness the emerging concept of ‘Physical Literacy’.

Appointed under the lead contractor, Buildcorp, we collaborated extensively with award-winning landscape architects Architectus to explore and develop their ground-breaking creative vision, before seamlessly transitioning into the manufacture and installation stages to deliver the approved design. From start to finish, our involvement spanned almost three years with construction completed mid-2023.

Our involvement.

Fleetwood Urban was appointed to the project in 2020 under lead contractor Buildcorp through the project manager, Savills. Our initial involvement came during the early design development stages, where we worked closely with Blacktown City Council and the design team at Architectus to develop their Play Literacy concept (and associated construction costing) using our proprietary project methodology.

After an extended period of design detailing, material testing and methodology development, we were entrusted to take the ambitious structures to final completion, leading the manufacturing, pre-assembly and installation stages. Construction engagement was managed directly through Buildcorp and was completed in mid-2023.

How does this project inspire people to love the outdoors?

These visionary one-off structures are exciting to look at and highly interactive. They lure you in and then challenge you, mentally and physically, enhancing your skills and confidence along the way. Visitors young and old can’t wait to get outdoors to test their skills on the various play elements.

Design Challenge

Developed by landscape architects Architectus, the vision for the BEST structure was shaped by the desire to enhance the physical literacy skills of all who used it. It was a considerable creative challenge to design a one-of-a-kind Play experience where every element helped to promote cognitive and co-ordination development for community members, young and old. At a more technical level, ensuring the cantilever forces of the steel frames worked safely—and practically—with the dynamic loading from the basket swings was also far from straightforward, requiring rigorous planning and testing.
Construction Challenge

Whilst interconnected, each of the main curved steel frames featured its own unique geometry — reaching up to 28 metres in length and soaring up to four metres high. The bespoke designs and imposing scales made them hugely challenging to deliver with literally hundreds of hours invested during the manufacturing, painting and installation stages. Each element needed to be carefully hand-welded in smaller manageable sections before full-size test assemblies were conducted in our workshop to ensure every connection point was perfectly detailed, long before reaching the final site at Blacktown.
Innovations

The unique nature of the project required all manner of design and construction innovations. As just one example, the dexterity panelling in the Junior Play section required us to create an entirely new Play product from shaped steel tubing and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The inspiration for this panelling came from Scott Carver and was then embellished by Fleetwood Urban’s expert inhouse design technicians. Past knowledge and IP gathered from delivering major outdoor structures at Aurora Adevneture Park and Gramercy Boulevard Playground was also adapted to help us create innovative connection and footing systems.
Features
- Integrated shade
- Monkey grips
- High density polyethylene (HDPE) pommels
- Basket and rope swings
- Custom dexterity panelling
- Climbing ropes
- Rebound net
- Pyramid climb
- Inground trampolines
- Jungle rope
Materials
- Painted structural steel tubing
- High density polyethylene (HDPE)
- Concrete foundations
- Dual tone shade sail infills
- Wire cored play rope
Safety & Risk Considerations

Safety in Design (SiD) principles were central to the design development process, with particular attention given to managing the fall heights and levels of the structures. Third-party play compliance reviews were also conducted at key project milestones, with final sign-off completed post construction.
Sustainability Considerations

Large structures often come with equally-large carbon footprints. Our detailed pre-construction process was critical to ensure the engineering for the design concept worked—safely and practically—whilst using the smallest diameter steel tubing possible.