Students plant the seeds for a community garden

A recent collaboration between Montefiore, Food Faith and UNSW saw students compete to create a winning design for a future community garden in the grounds of Montefiore Randwick.

Montefiore Director of Client & Community Relations Melanie Lindenberg was delighted to award UNSW Landscape Architecture student Emily Hanekroot First Prize for her Montefiore Community Table garden design recently.

The project was conceived by Judy Friedlander of Food Faith – an organisation that works to promote social cohesion and environmental sustainability through food – and landscape architect and horticulturalist Peter Glass.

Glass approached the School of Landscape Architecture at UNSW and briefed 86 second year students on the concept of an edible garden designed to be shared by Montefiore Randwick residents, their families and friends, and community groups.

“We’d like to create a garden that celebrates food heritages and cultures, brings together generations and communities, and provides a healing, sensory and therapeutic oasis,” says Friedlander.

At the judging day, the students presented their remarkable work and with guidance from Marc Deuschle of UNSW, three clear winners emerged. Emily Hanekroot in first place, followed by second prize winner Brett Bovis for The Seed, and Chenyi Zhang in third for her design Converge.

Says Glass: “All the students took to creating their conceptual designs with great gusto. The results are really exciting, and I’m looking forward to the time when residents can enjoy the community garden, including the social and multi-generational interactions that will occur as residents, friends and family intermingle.”

All at Montefiore look forward to seeing the design come to life, too, following a period of construction set to commence at the Randwick campus later this year.