Victoria park
& City of Sydney Council
Design innovation project
September 2024
Innovation
and Management
of Victoria Park
In the heart of Sydney, Victoria Park stands as a convergence of nature, history, and everyday life. As a member of the team The Gauntlet, the project began with the goal of bringing innovative value to public spaces and exploring the future of urban green areas.
Guided by four key value dimensions — social, environmental, cultural, and managerial — the research combined contextual inquiry, field observation, and user interviews to re-examine the park’s potential issues, including night lighting, water ecology, cultural heritage, and sustainable landscape management. By studying the Victoria Park Management Plan (2022) and referencing international precedents such as New York’s High Line Park, the project raised a central question:
How can public parks regain vitality amid urban renewal, balancing tradition and innovation?
Ultimately, the study focused on the redefinition of value — exploring how urban parks can evolve into hybrid spaces that connect nature and city, technology and culture in the future......
ABOUT OUR BRANDING
the Gauntlet
“Logos have long transcended simple functional symbols to become complex strategic tools that communicate identity and values ​​(Kim & Lim, 2019; Solomon et al., 2020).”
Inspirations
Our team’s brand identity was inspired by the Infinity Gauntlet from the Avengers, symbolizing collaboration and unlimited potential for design innovation. A single Infinity Stone can only have a limited impact, but when all stones are combined, the possibilities are endless.
About
We're a passionate group filled with different characteristic individuals
Our logo went through multiple iterations (Figure 3) before it was finally presented as simple, memorable, and representative of our core values ​​(Adîr et al., 2014; Kim & Lim, 2019; Meron, 2020).
The complex hand-drawn pattern was attractive, but we felt it was not cohesive enough. And the arrangement of five stones (Figure 4), while neatly structured, was not simple enough, but this sketch inspired us to form our current logo, which combines the Infinity Gauntlet with the infinity symbol(∞), which is both simple and complex and symbolizes the power of teamwork.
Sorrabhad Dolsukkul – Space Stone (Adaptability and Versatility) symbolizes the team’s flexibility and creative agility in responding to evolving design challenges.
Ruisi Zeng – Reality Stone (Practical Problem Solving)
emphasizes turning innovative ideas into practical, executable solutions with real-world impact.
Zhuoran Li – Time Stone (Time Management) represents the team’s ability to balance creativity with deadlines, ensuring a well-coordinated and timely design process.
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Chaoji Ye – Soul Stone (Emotional Intelligence & Teamwork)
embodies empathy, communication, and mutual understanding, fostering a collaborative environment that values each member’s strengths.
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Krish Recinto - Mindstones(Innovative Thinking)
represents the team’s forward-thinking mindset and creative drive to challenge conventions and inspire new ideas.
INTRODUCTION
Victoria Park is located in the center of Sydney, next to the University of Sydney, close to Broadway shopping centre. The park is surrounded by shade trees, playgrounds, swimming pools and cafes, as well as historical buildings (Victoria Park Sydney - City of Sydney, n.d.). Victoria Park provides accessible green spaces for students, neighborhood residents, workers and visitors to relax, exercise and socialize. Since 1911, The park is maintained and managed by the City of Sydney Council (Victoria Park Sydney - City of Sydney, n.d.). At the same time, to consider promoting the sustainability and social value of the park, we will conduct a multi-faceted study of the City of Sydney Council and the Victoria Park.
WHY THEY EXIST
CITY OF SYDNEY
In 1911, the Sydney City Council took over the management of Victoria Park in order to maintain and plan the parks to ensure that they meet the needs of the public and maintain the sustainability of the city and enhance Sydney's public spaces (City of Sydney, 2022). The Crown reservation purposes of Victoria Park will be used for exclusive or original purposes, and public purposes include public park, public recreation and community purposes (City of Sydney, 2022). Their responsibilities include maintaining Victoria Park and surrounding facilities to meet urban planning and community development goals and create social value.
WHAT THEY DO
Victoria park provides recreational space and promotes community well-being.
Victoria park provides recreational space and promotes community well-being. For Victoria park, the council has formulated a management plan to maintain the park, activate community use and create social value (City of Sydney, 2022). The council protects the cultural heritage of the park, and regularly organizes events such as parades and activities to connect the city's past with the present, such as the Mardi Gras Fair Day and Yabun Festival (Australasian Parks & Leisure, 2006). In addition, according to the state government's management plan for Victoria Park, the council is also required to participate in urban development projects, manage land and development, create commercial value for the park to provide maintenance funds, conduct environmental sustainability planning, and regularly improve and maintain public facilities (City of Sydney, 2022).
ARE THEY SUCCESSFUL at WHAT THEY DO, or NOT?
We believe that Victoria Park has been very successful in achieving the intended recreational, community and cultural heritage purposes. The council's basic maintenance has successfully met the needs of daily activities (The University of Sydney, University Colleges and Victoria Park, n.d.). However, in terms of infrastructure, the night lighting still causes trouble for Sydney university students. From an environmental perspective, even if the council has corresponding maintenance measures and development plans for the park, it still needs to continue to pay attention to ecological environment maintenance and sustainable innovation. For example, in 2023, due to water quality content in Lake Northam, 25 birds died (Bowring, 2023). Even though there are subsequent daily water quality testing and the removal of existing sediments, as well as the installation of new recycling systems, pumps and weirs to improve water quality (Decision - Victoria Park Wetlands Remediation | City of Sydney, n.d.). But we found in field research that some people still report that the lake water is smelly.
ISSUES, PROBLEM, FAILINGS, FAULTS
From the Victoria Park Management Plan released by the City of Sydney in 2022, the problem faced by the council is that the future innovative development of the park is relatively vague (City of Sydney, 2022).
SOCIAL VALUE
In terms of social value, we learned from the interviews that the park's space utilization is insufficient. As a transition buffer, the park needs a dynamic space to enhance the social value of the park. The council has set up basketball courts and playground (Victoria Park Improvements - City of Sydney, n.d.), but excessive activity facilities will also affect the quiet atmosphere of the park, which makes it difficult to strike a balance.
MANAGEMNT
VALUE
From the management level of the council, the park is used for general community use (City of Sydney, 2022), it cannot attract a wider range of users. The interaction with stakeholders is traditional and passive, and the council cannot interact effectively and immediately.
SUSTAINABLE
VALUE
From a sustainable perspective, the council tried to improve the water quality of Lake Northam (Victoria Park Improvements - City of Sydney, n.d.), but due to technical reasons, the existing rainwater management cannot store, reuse and other water cycle processes (Kim, 2020). In addition, lake water pollution and plant decay will affect biodiversity and fail to create a healthy habitat (Soit et al., 2022).
CULTURE
VALUE
Cultural values also face challenges. The City of Sydney is committed to building a relationship with the history and culture of the land (City of Sydney, 2022), but tourists have few opportunities to learn about cultural heritage. At the same time holding cultural activities requires the consensus of multiple stakeholders.
​THE CAUSE OF THE EXISTING PROBLEM
The existence of these problems may stem from the council's preference to focus major resources on larger scale project developments rather than smaller Victorian parks(City of Sydney, n.d.) . Lack of funding will hinder the innovation of new sustainable technologies. As a transitional area, the park ensures foot traffic, but it relies heavily on its location rather than providing innovative attractions. It meets the needs of surrounding residents, but only serves as a transition and gathering point for traditional park. Its rich historical value stabilizes the park's status, but it is difficult to cater to future urban development. Overall, Victoria Park is relatively traditional and less innovative. In the future, it is necessary to enhance innovation, the social value and commercial value of the park to promote sustainable development.
MAKE ORGANIZATION and VICTOTIA PARK MORE INNOVATIVE
In terms of cultural value, councils can also enhance public engagement through mobile technology (Gardner, 2017), enabling parks and communities to form strong links, such as mobile apps that provide schedules of events and notifications of park activities.
In terms of social value, research shows that adding recreational facilities, outdoor fitness areas, and regular facility renovations to parks can optimize people's active activities in parks (Veitch et al., 2018).
In terms of management, the council that manages the park can distribute management power to other stakeholders, such as surrounding resident organizations, private enterprises, and the University of Sydney (Parks in Transition, n.d.).