F
or seventy years Melbourne’s Shrine of
Remembrance was entered by climbing up
its many steep steps. But, after walking to the
shrine through the broad surrounding reserve,
which opens your mind to the delight of strong trees
and green grass, the building can now also be entered
through a slightly sunken ground level at each of four
courtyards designed by ARM Architecture and Rush\
Wright Associates. Above, the historic building rears
up in a dramatic new juxtaposition.
Of course, you can still use those steep steps if
you wish. But the symmetrically set-out courtyards
are fascinating. Two were opened in 2003, the other
two in 2014; two are set out with fast-growing plants
from different parts of the world, while the other two
have no live planting, just a few artificial flowers; and
two provide major entries, while the two with plants
offer spaces to sit and think. The flavour of each is
different, with challenging spaces and thought-pro-
voking vistas, even though each shape is similar and
the external smooth-yet-jagged walling identical.
The Entry Courtyard (2003) is bare and empty,
encouraging visitors to focus on the ochre side walls
and texts relating to World War I – including the
inscription “Lest We Forget.” The Education
Courtyard (2014), through which students move into
the Shrine, is thought-provoking; it consists of a red
suspended shade canopy (an interpretation of a
poppy) that is see-through to the sky, a sloping ground
floor, and dark inner walls that display artificial red
poppies “planted” by visitors. The Garden Courtyard
(2003) invites contemplation under a multi-trunked
olive tree, which spreads out amid hedging rows of
clipped exotic trees, with varied paving and places to
sit – some welcoming, some angular, some shaded
and some with hard light. The Terrace Courtyard
(2014) bursts with fast-growing and colourful trees,
shrubs, creepers, ground plants and World War II
detail; you want to settle onto its range of seating to
look around, learn and relax.
Landscape architecture firm Rush\Wright
Associates worked on the project from the start of the
additions to the Shrine – since 2000 – with architec-
ture practice ARM Architecture. Rush\Wright devised
the Terrace and Garden Courtyards that speak so
magnificently of plants, and also contributed to the
Entry and Education Courtyards. Director Michael
Wright observes that they learned a lot in the decade
that elapsed between each of the dual courtyard
constructions (and that this was lucky, as the budget
allowed in 2003 was the same as that advised in 2012).
Early on, as the plants in the Garden Courtyard
began to grow, it became clear how design and
planting ideas would progress. Its sculptural, multi-
stemmed olive tree (the “Legacy Olive”) had been
growing some one hundred metres away before being
lifted in, its root ball measuring five metres by six
metres. It hasn’t missed a beat, and combines splen-
didly with a Chamaerops humilis (dwarf fan palm) and
clipped hedges of bay trees and oaks, plants that occur
Courtyards at
the Shrine of
Remembrance,
Melbourne,
Victoria
—
Rush\Wright
Associates,
ARM Architecture
2
3
- The Terrace Courtyard is
intended to be jungly, overgrown
and not maintained too strongly.
- Of the four sunken courtyards at
the Shrine of Remembrance, only
two contain planting.
- The Garden Courtyard invites
contemplation under a multi-
trunked olive tree, which spreads
out amid hedging rows of clipped
exotic trees.
- The centrally located and
fast-growing Ficus dammaropsis
(highland breadfruit) is native
to a rainforest in New Guinea.
50 MAY 2017 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA
