Daylighting the Rivulet
The Hobart Rivulet Redevelopment project addresses the challenges of bringing a lackluster CBD with 20th century infrastructure into the new millennium by introducing water-sensitive urban design, multifunctional public greenspaces, and opportunities for artistic engagement to create a dynamic urban core that invites economic development and long-term investment.
Presented here are several images from a design project at the University of Minnesota dealing with innovative ideas for restoring our most historic civic waterway.
You can read the entire thesis as a PDF file
Watershed-scale planning and design interventions facilitate the success of a CBD master plan.
Imagine:
- physical interaction with the waterway in the form of playscapes or performance spaces
- viewing the Rivulet from above inside of public buildings or on top of metal cat-walks
- a naturalized stretch of the Rivulet’s channel that reconnects the waterway to Sullivan’s Cove.
These are proposed as the first of many design iterations for the sites along the Rivulet corridor, inspiring a community dialogue.
The goal of this project is multi-pronged: to envision a greener Hobart; a cleaner Hobart, a more livable Hobart, and a more economically robust Hobart. This under-rated city has the potential to be a spectacular nexus of arts, culture, history, and nature that is recognized worldwide and sets the global standard for what a great city should be.
Tiffani Navratil is an American landscape designer who came to Hobart, Tasmania, in 2011 to commence research for her Masters of Landscape Architecture design thesis. With a background in the earth sciences, Tiffani worked on a master plan of the Hobart Rivulet and the CBD that would incorporate water-sensitive urban design, mixed-use development, and numerous public greenspaces in a multi-functional social corridor, connecting the waterfront to the CBD and the regional greenspaces beyond. The project earned Tiffani the 2012 American Society of Landscape Architects National Merit Award. She received her MLA from the University of Minnesota in 2012. In 2013, Tiffani was invited back to Hobart by the Hobart City Council and the Derwent Estuary Program to present at a AILA City Talks seminar focused on the rejuvenation of Hobart’s city centre. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she is currently a landscape designer at Coen+Partners, maintains a Adjunct Professor role at the University of St. Thomas’ Geology Department, and is frequently a jury member for the U of M’s graduate school’s design critiques. As an avid traveler and bushwalker, Tiffani hopes to return to Hobart in the near future to continue her work and explore more of the Tasmanian landscape.
