Did you know that the University of New South Wales (UNSW) could soon have SkyParks, a new urban garden that is expected to provide additional learning spaces and ‘living labs’ for research at its Kensington campus?
The project is expected to improve the balcony spaces of the UNSW SquareHouse building and will provide research opportunities on the impact of the cooling and greening of under-utilised areas. It will also pave the way for the development of adaptable, flexible, and energy-saving improvements in urban sites.
UNSW will also be setting up monitoring equipment to study the environmental conditions at the SkyParks to complement its research.
The plan is in line with the “Greening our City” initiative, which will be funded by the NSW Government. One of the goals of this project is to plant a million trees all over Sydney by the end of 2022.
Paula Masselos, the mayor of Waverley, calls the SkyParks the “living labs” that will help with the innovation of goals for a sustainable and climate-resilient Sydney. Waverley and Randwick Councils are also supporting the SkyParks initiative.
“[The garden] will also help us achieve our community target of net zero emission by 2035, as this cooling would hopefully mean less reliance on air conditioning,” Ms Masselos said.
The students and staff at UNSW look forward to discovering the positive outcome of the SkyParks.
“Through a series of pilot sites, we hope to identify the barriers, benefits, and ultimately best practice solutions to adapting our existing buildings, Although many of these forgotten spaces are currently under-utilised, they have the ability to create a more climate-resilient and socially equitable city,” said Alexander Georgouras from UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture.