CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF COLOUR COLLABORATIONS

Prince Alfred Park Swimming Pool, Sydney

Returning to Australia from the UK, my first job came after talking to friends Nick Murcutt and Rachel Neeson about my plans to work for myself as a colour specialist collaborating with architects.

They needed a solution for integrating the plant room chimneys of the Prince Alfred Park Pool into the meadow-like green roof of the pool.  Nick’s instinct was a colour-focussed approach - I was invited onto the team.

We presented the scheme to the City of Sydney Design Review Panel, I sat around the biggest table I’ve ever seen, with 20 luminaries of Sydney’s design and cultural sector, and Clover Moore, the Mayor herself. I started to sweat profusely.  Rachel, unfazed and in her element, gave the presentation.  

‘So, it’s just a green roof with green chimneys?’ asked Clover. There was a frosty silence.  Richard Johnston AO, MBE, FRAIA gave his unreserved support for the concept, he said he could not imagine the pool without these chimneys.  Others joined in and approval was granted.

I learned to wear loose patterned clothes for big presentations in case I started sweating like a cornered animal!  And, to find out beforehand who will be there and what the set up will be like.  I am indebted to Richard Johnston for his understanding and eloquence.  I am forever grateful to Nick and Rachel for giving me that wonderful opportunity.

Sadly, only 6 of the family of 12 chimneys were realised, the Stage 2 tri-gen energy plant didn’t eventuate.

It’s nice to reflect that the preliminary design for these chimneys had them enclosed in 3 massive boxes, and the first idea was to get an artist to tart them up with a painting.  

My concept, which created a gathering of individual chimneys, painted in colours found in the park’s mature trees, allowed the landscape and the infrastructure to co-exist in a more pleasing relationship. In good design, there should never be a ‘back of house’ so unappealing that nobody wants to use or look at, or more importantly, look after, should there?

Since that first project I’ve worked with Neeson Murcutt on the Bronte House Pool Mural, Barker College Sports Pavilion, and currently on a public art piece for a new Preschool in Rosebery. 

Why was it successful?  Firstly, it was a visionary project by @cityofsydney for the people of Sydney.  

Rachel and Nick had a very clear starting point for my involvement, they trusted me to bring something to the table, they gave clear feedback as to which options and ideas they preferred.  The City of Sydney project manager Elizabeth Sandoval was a complete dynamo and design champion, always keeping the grand vision in sight.  

I was working respectfully in the context of an almost completed design, a project which had numerous iterations by the time I started, worked on by so many talents.  (Amelia Holliday, Isabel Toland of @aileen_sage, Sean Choo of UpArchitects, to name just a few. Look where they are now!) I spent time and effort to understand the architectural intent, as well as the landscape concept, so beautifully designed by Sue Barnsley.  Colour is the great connector, and it was my absolutely privilege to demonstrate it on my first public commission.

In 2011 I wrote: 

“The art here is the art of the double act - of mimicry and diversion, of appearing and disappearing, of being part of a building and part of a landscape, of being part machine and part plant, or part chimney and part sky.” 

Prince Alfred Park Swimming Pool, Sydney