Macquarie Park Innovation Precinct

The Macquarie Park Innovation Precinct project is a State-led rezoning of a nationally significant economic hub; Australia’s first innovation district. On behalf of the NSW Department of Planning, AJC led a wide subconsultant team including urban design collaboration with landscape lead Tract Consultants and Connecting with Country consultant WSP Indigenous Design Unit. The team applied international scholarship on innovation districts to evolve a suburban technology park into a contemporary CBD by introducing major public open spaces, an expanded street network, and new building uses.

The master plan introduces a mix of residential and new non-residential uses and advocates for incorporating new social infrastructure including open spaces, a walkable street network and dedicated cycling routes. Buildings were positioned around open spaces with a project intention to create the level of critical mass necessary to support 18-hour vibrancy and vitality equivalent to a central business district.

Led by a wide landscape strategy, the master plan identified optimal locations for open space in relation to Country – structuring public open space around creeks (both above and below ground), which then became the areas of greatest future activity.  A movement strategy was developed to dismantle the suburban office park’s mega-blocks with new streets of multiple typologies, defining requirements for intermediate through-site links, and designing a dedicated cycleway interconnecting all properties within the precinct. In the new planning framework for both streets and public open spaces, the team integrated planting palettes, key open space designs emphasizing WSUD, street sections, ambitious tree canopy targets, and solar protections for all open areas.

The project was shortlisted in the 2024 Australian Urban Design Awards (AUDA), Future Projects Category, which recognises Leadership, Advocacy and Research at a City and Regional Scale.