Sebastien Lucas-Lely

While climate change begins to threaten the Great Ocean Road - the need to relocate the road becomes vital to maintain the longevity of the Otways as a tourist attraction.
As the GOR passes through Apollo Bay - a major town along the road - both protection of current residents & providing amenity along the new road is prioritised. Two movements are proposed:
A) DENSIFY the large nature strips along Pascoe street with planting to reduce visual and audio pollution from the road to residents.
B) CENTRALISE 150 car parks from the beach front to available plots of land. As well as providing amenity and a designed experience for the users to slow down & appreciate Apollo Bay.

The design explores how users of the Great Ocean Road can be grounded to their context. From being disconnected through the drive, the proposal aims to slow down the user to walk - spark interest throughout the site and then reveal them to the Great Ocean Promenade. This transition, will reconnect the users to their surroundings resulting in a strengthened grounding to site with greater experience. To supplement, end-of-trip facilities including bathrooms and showers provide amenity, as well as a kiosk to service needs of the users including foods, drinks & other travel items.

As the tourist drives down Pasoe Street (the new Great Ocean Road), an extruding roofline and clear signage will guide them towards the proposal. The extruding roofline is supplementary to the densified nature strips of the surrounding residences, as it will appear that this proposal is the predominate structure, with the surrounding residential landscape being hidden behind large plantings.

Once the tourists have parked their car, the primary view is straight through towards the promenade, however - smaller cut outs of the wall allow for picture-framed views. The lightweight roof allows for protected travel from the parking to the promenade, but also remains light due to the height and cut-outs. The sight-interjecting walls promote a sense of interest throughout the proposal, cutting vision to select areas - further reducing the speed of the user throughout the design.

From the promenade, the users are immediately taken by this large-scale wall - although inline with the surrounding built typology, the design aims to create a threshold between the carpark and the environment. With an abundance of planting and limited vision into the proposal, the wall allows for the user to interact with the wall, both physically (through seated dugouts) an and multiple access points, ranging in sizes to create separate threshold experiences for every user.