Welcome Ground | Glas Architecture

The ‘Welcome Ground’ is a design for the new entry landscape into the University of Melbourne’s New Student Precinct.

Extensive engagement with Indigenous students and communities, led by Greenshoot Consulting, has informed the Glas Landscape Architecture design, which combines student access, connection to nature and the re-establishment of a lost creek to create a dramatic new entry to the University.

The landscape is designed as an urban parkland with a strong Indigenous character to contrast and complement the existing exotic landscape of Parkville. Key features are the materiality of the ground and planting, and the ‘chain of ponds’ along the west edge which provide space for native wetland planting into the Indigenous student services building, Murrup Barak.

To the east, lawn space within Indigenous planting incorporates the existing trees as a transition to the colonial façade of the historic University buildings.

As a signature project of the University’s elevate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 3, the New Student Precinct aims to achieve transformational change and deep cultural engagement by celebrating the multi-faceted aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, instilling a sense of belonging and affirming Traditional Owner’s connection to country.