The Heights Community Park, Pimpama

The Heights Community Park Pimpama.


Client	Sunland Group
Design Partners	Form Landscape Architects
State	Queensland

An architectural statement creating harmony with the surrounding hinterland.

Sunland’s overall vision for The Heights was to create architecturally-designed homes and landscaped parks that were intimately connected, both to each other and to the surrounding hinterlands.

Fleetwood was chosen to design and construct a series of custom public shelters that extended this vision, creating an architectural statement that added genuine character to the visionary new estate.

Our involvement.

Using our collaborative proprietary project methodology, step one was a Discovery session where the preliminary drawings were reviewed with the design team at Form Landscape Architects.

While the original design was a pre-cast concept, we proposed a steel alternative to help reduce the overall cost and timeline, developing an accurate and reliable construction budget to allow the client to make a direct comparison.

Our recommendation was agreed, and engineering drawings were then prepared to confirm the most suitable beam sizes, weights and connection techniques.

From here the shelter structures were manufactured off-site in two parts, before being connected and finished by our on-site construction crews.

How does this project inspire people to love the outdoors?

The shelters and adjoining parklands provide inspiring outdoor spaces for local families and residents to enjoy, seven days a week. All just moments from their front door.

Design Challenge

Created by Form Landscape Architects, the design philosophy for the shelters was inspired by harmony and continuity. Their vision called for an elegant form that would complement the contemporary architecture of the surrounding homes, connecting them seamlessly to the local parklands and hinterland setting beyond.
Construction Challenge

Each shelter had an incredibly thin form with smooth finishes and no visible fixings. With continuous linking completely shrouding the internal mechanisms, none of the structures could be seen. They also needed to be entirely waterproofed and sealed, requiring manufacturing and assembly to be very precise.

Achieving all this called for more than a little creative genius from our technical, design and engineering teams.
Innovations

The shelters were originally designed from concrete. However this was cost prohibitive and the Architects challenged Fleetwood to find a more cost effective way to create the ‘look’ of concrete.

Our innovative solution was to use steel sheeting with joints that were so neat that the finished product looked like it could have been concrete.
Features
- Ultra-thin, full-sealed seamless structures matching the architect’s vision
- Precast concrete appearance at an affordable price