79693

Garden creator, Future Village, has installed floating gardens in Centenary and Parramatta Squares as part of a heat reduction experiment to help keep the City of Parramatta cool over summer. The floating garden installations are expected to be on site until April and after the trial period, the plants will be reused for other projects.

Future Village has origins in Strathayr, an Australian leader in sports turf technology that has over the last 20 years developed portable sports surface products such as portable sports fields and drop-in cricket wickets that sister brand Portagrass manages. This background has installed a passion for precision and quality componentry and design in manufacturing products that can last in the Australian public environment.

This year’s Parramatta project follows the success of last summer’s trial in Parramatta Square and has been expanded to cover 58 square metres in the heart of Parramatta with 600 plants as well as 60 additional trays outside Accor Stadium.   

The project explores the impacts and scalability of moveable garden trays in public spaces to help make these areas more comfortable on hot days.

City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter said the project proved to be a big community win last year with people rating the project four and a half out of five stars.

Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter noted “Residents and visitors told us the floating garden improved the look and feel of our public spaces in the initial trial, so it was a no brainer for us to bring the program back to the City.  

“While it’s still early days, the plants are proven to cool down our public spaces and create a mini urban oasis for our community.

“We’re proud to lead the way in sustainable initiatives like this one – we’ve been recognised globally for excellence in sustainable design for PHIVE and were the first to achieve Australian carbon neutral certification service in a public domain for Parramatta Square.”

Future Village received funding from the NSW Government for this project through the Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer’s Small Business Innovation & Research (SBIR) Program and is collaborating with the University of Technology Sydney on the trial.

Future Village Director, Ben Perry said it made sense to expand the project further in Parramatta after a successful first trial round last year adding "our initial results confirm that a floating garden can effectively cool public spaces.

“Conducting a larger trial allowed us to validate these findings. We now aim to determine the green space required to maintain temperatures below 36°C during extreme heat.”

The NSW Government’s Chief Scientist & Engineer, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte said the SBIR Program is designed to support innovative small businesses to develop their technology to solve problems posed by NSW Government agencies, in this case the Urban Heat Island Challenge.  

“Future Village’s floating garden solution is both an aesthetically pleasing and highly effective way to make our city centres more liveable in hot weather;” Professor Durrant-Whyte added.

“I congratulate the company and City of Parramatta for their forward thinking in achieving this outstanding result.”  

The floating garden installations are expected to be on site until April and after the trial period, the plants will be reused for other projects.

Other Future Village successful projects include:​

• Floating Garden: Implemented in Wollongong, NSW, this project introduced a sustainable floating garden to enhance urban biodiversity.​
• Street Parklets: In Sutherland, NSW, we transformed street spaces into vibrant parklets, boosting local business engagement.​
• Floating Roof Top Garden: Our Bondi Junction, NSW project showcases a rooftop garden that improves building insulation and provides communal space.​
• Trial Road Closure: In Maroubra, NSW, we tested the impact of road closures by installing modular parklets, enhancing pedestrian areas.​
• Modular Urban Space Parklet: Our Blacktown, NSW initiative created flexible urban spaces for community gatherings.​
• Hanging Baskets: Implemented in Bondi Junction, NSW, these baskets added greenery to urban settings.

More information on Future Village

More information on Strathayr

Image. Credit: City of Parramatta

Related Articles

13th September 2011 - StrathAyr turf to be installed as part of redeveloped Mackay Ooralea Racecourse

10th August 2023 - Mornington Peninsula Shire unveils Parklet Policy for Permanent Outdoor Activation

23rd March 2022 - Wellington businesses encouraged to create parklets in CBD

27th July 2021 - Boroondara parklets to remain until 30th September

20th December 2020 - Lismore installs colourful parklets to attract visitors back to CBD

1st December 2020 - Port Phillip transforms parking bays into recreational parklets

30th March 2025 - Unused Melbourne spaces revamped into Vibrant Parks

20th November 2024 - 500,000 trees to shade parks and enhance wildlife habitats in Melbourne’s West

27th September 2024 - Research finds Melbourne needs up 200,000 new trees to avoid affecting quality of life

23rd November 2023 - Greater Wellington Regional Council plants a million trees

6th July 2022 - Blue Mountains Council plants trees to combat urban heat

25th April 2022 - Over 200,000 trees planned for western Melbourne

18th May 2021 - Victorian Government commits to planting half a million trees in Melbourne’s west

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.

Click here to view our subscription options.