Construction of the Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain is underway, thanks to joint work from CHROFI with JMD Design. A ceremony was held on 28 November with the project expected to be finished in mid-2023. 

Designed by CHROFI with JMD Design, the project is the first significant public investment in the area in several years. 

The Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain is the first step in a series of projects planned to provide spaces for the community of Mount Druitt and the Blacktown area. 

The Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain provide a community space that reflects and encourages the passion and diversity of Mount Druitt by creating a playful, friendly, vibrant structure with varied and inclusive new spaces at the centre of the town square. 

Mount Druitt has a rich social history, with Mount Druitt town centre originally designed in the 1970s as the state’s first entirely new town centre. 

The centre was created to support high concertation of social housing yet failed to provide the social infrastructure needed, ignoring the needs of the community during a time of intense suburbanisation and failing to realise its initial vision of a modern utopia with pleasantly landscaped pedestrian open space surrounded by shops, offices and community buildings. 

To this day the town centre itself suffers from a lack of amenities, ill-defined and inactive edges, poor passive surveillance and rundown community infrastructure, perpetuating the negative reputation represented in the media. 

Yet, although suffering from these disadvantages, the community has a reputation for its grassroots impulse and the emergence of local music talent. 

Inspired by this busy schedule of performances and community events, the Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain will feature a new pavilion canopy to provide shade, a permanent stage for events and performances, a new playground, ping pong tables, a group table for social lunches and individual seating located near the library entrance, becoming a bold injection into the public domain and a declaration of a brighter future. 

The Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain will integrate this creative culture into the design of the site. 

The pavilion is wrapped in colourful rope, providing shade, vibrancy and texture. 

Mount Druitt Pavilion and Public Domain aims to successfully incorporate the cultural and creative style of the community while becoming the first public investment in the area in several years, illustrating a new direction for a rapidly densifying area. 

Renders: CHOFRI.

JMD design is a landscape architectural practice committed to designing sustainable, creative and liveable outdoor environments that contribute to the social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of all.

CHROFI was founded in 2000 as Choi Ropiha following the win in the international competition for the re-design of the TKTS booth in Times Square, New York. The practice studio in Manly is now home to a team of 35 professionals headed by directors John Choi, Tai Ropiha and Steven Fighera.

The City of Melbourne has recently named a collaborative design team led by ASPECT Studios and TCL to create the design for the Greenline Project.