HOTA Outdoor Stage landscape wins
AMENDED 16 OCTOBER: this venue continues to clean up! Last week it won the National Landscape Award for Tourism, awarded at the AILA’s 2018 International Festival of Landscape Architecture.
“It successfully demonstrates how open space can foster public life…The outdoor stage makes a valuable contribution to the community and is a significant drawcard for local, national and international visitors.”
—Jury report, 2018 AILA National Awards
2 July: Our HOTA Outdoor Stage has been warmly received at the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Queensland awards. The Gold Coast venue is the first completed project in our HOTA (Home of the Arts) masterplan.
ARM and our landscape architecture partners TOPOTEK1 and CUSP won the AILA Landscape Architecture Award (Civic landscape) and Tourism Award of Excellence on 20 June.
“Instead of a structure with an active front and a blank back, the Outdoor Stage is wrapped in a landscape that can be explored and experienced up close…the resolution of the materials and the details and the planting demonstrated that the landscape architects were key partners in the design process.”
—Amalie Wright, Jury Chair, AILA Qld Awards 2018
The Outdoor Stage opened in March. It’s a black-box theatre that opens onto an amphitheatre with lawn space for 5000. The building is nestled under a garden mound.
It’s a place that welcomes people 24/7. If there’s no performance, function or other activity on, the stage and its steps are still open for buskers, for children’s role plays, for impromptu shows.
The green roof is an adventure-based place of discovery to be climbed on, explored, sat on, picnicked on. The lawn is big and useful. There are no gates, and the landscape is accessible for people of all mobilities.
Photos by John Gollings and ARM’s Aaron Poupard.
The landscape is set up for temporary things like food trucks, merchandise kiosks and portable toilets. It’s durable, versatile and bespoke—tailored to its place and for maximum activity.
It has hosted artists including Tim Minchin, Neil Finn and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.