Reservoir Station has been honoured with the Special Prize Exterior for Passenger Stations at the 2021 Prix Versailles. Our practice is sincerely humbled to receive this prestigious award, crucially highlighting civic infrastructure’s capacity to act as a catalyst for change and enrich the public realm.
The Prix Versailles pays tribute to the qualities of innovation, creativity, reflection of local, natural and cultural heritage, and ecological efficiency, as well as the values of social interaction and participation which the United Nations holds in high regard. These, too, are the qualities and values we seek to emulate at Genton, inspiring our design intent, practice, and approach to each project.
For Reservoir Station, we aimed to create a design that was about Reservoir, and for Reservoir. Inspired by the suburb’s history as the key water infrastructure, the station’s exterior is wrapped in a translucent canopy, forming an iconic civic landmark that mimics the rippling of water as it interacts with light.
The design creates transformative dialogue between the two suburb’s previously disconnected high streets, providing an urban design solution that links the central community and retail spine, catalyses pedestrian activation, enhances accessibility and public safety, and provides a newly landscaped public space to bring the community together.
A very special thank you to our client, the North West Program Alliance, for embracing our design vision, and to the local community of Reservoir for their support throughout the project and continued positive feedback.
We are proud to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the Country in which Reservoir Station is located. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.
Photography: Peter Clarke
