Parklands Wins!

UPDATED 1 MAY 2019: Our Parklands development (now called Smith Collective) has won the Karl Langer Award for Urban Design from the Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter.

ARM Architecture shares this accolade with our Queensland joint venture partners Archipelago and Arkhefield and client Grocon. Together, we masterplanned the development and designed the six residential lots.

Now that Smith Collective has finished its first career as the 2018 Commonwealth Games athletes’ village, it is has reverted to the community we envisioned.

Smith Collective’s first life was as the 2018 Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

It will be one of Australia’s first build-to-rent communities, and is part of a larger knowledge and innovation precinct that also includes the Gold Coast University Hospital, the new Gold Coast Private Hospital and Griffith University.

The AIA award jury recognised our core focus on the long term, rather than on the Games:

“The masterplan started by analysing the urban setting in legacy mode, post-Commonwealth Games, and anticipated future urban connections to the neighbouring University, Hospital and light rail infrastructure. Working on the model of living, working and learning, this will transform the Parklands development into a vibrant urban community.”

—AIA Award Jury

There are 1,252 apartments and townhouses and a shopping precinct with cafés and restaurants lining the village’s garden heart. There are seven hectares of outdoor space, which the City of Gold coast will manage for the public.

“The urban planning model was conceived around pedestrian links within a five-minute walking radius, reinforcing a closely connected community.”

—AIA Award Jury

The project has already won the 2018 Minister’s Awards for Urban Design (QLD). In 2017 it was also awarded the Excellence in Urban Design Award and the Helen Josephson Award for Urban Design Leadership (both Gold Coast Urban Design Awards).

Properties are now available to rent.