BaptistCare Macquarie Park Masterplan slider image

BaptistCare Macquarie Park Masterplan

with Arterra and BVN

The approved masterplan for BaptistCare Macquarie Park unlocks the next phase of a proposed $2.5 billion transformation of the 6.4-hectare site at 157 Balaclava Road. Set within the Macquarie Park corridor, it provides the framework for a mixed-use campus that will guide future housing, care and community uses. As sustainability consultant, Atelier Ten helped ensure environmental design was embedded in the planning framework that will guide the next stages of development.

Working within a broader team led by TSA and BVN, alongside BaptistCare and specialist partners, Atelier Ten joined the project from the outset. Our first task was to prepare a benchmarking report, drawing on local and international precedents to test what strong sustainability performance could look like in this context. We then led visioning workshops with the client and design team to translate BaptistCare’s mission, Every Individual Living Well, into practical masterplanning initiatives. That early work informed the sustainability strategy, which we carried through to the State Design Review Panel, the ESD report for the State Significant Development Application, and the sustainability and water sensitive urban design chapters of the Design Guidelines. Together, they establish clear targets for future stages of development.

The site sits across a steep 28 metre fall, beside busy road intersections and within a flood affected setting. Those conditions called for a systems response that considered topography, water, ecology and accessibility together. Atelier Ten’s role was to help frame a precinct scale ESD strategy that responded to BaptistCare’s sustainability vision while staying grounded in the realities of the site and planning pathway.

A key part of our work was to connect sustainability to the structure and experience of the place. The proposed renaturalisation of Kikkiya Creek and creation of new public spaces, including a 1ha community park, creates room for flood management, cooling, biodiversity and outdoor amenity.
Atelier Ten’s strategy also supported a long-term net zero pathway to 2050, alongside a move toward all electric systems, lower operational energy demand, water reuse, water sensitive urban design and climate resilience aligned with future conditions. For the six superlots, that meant setting a shared environmental direction across energy, water, circular economy, resilience, mobility, biodiversity and community outcomes.

This work embeds sustainability in the logic of the masterplan. With approval in place, BaptistCare Macquarie Park has a clear basis for a more resilient, connected and nature led precinct, showing how environmental design can guide growth on a complex urban site.