Cumulus Studio’s reinterpretation of the Luna Park Scenic Railway has been shortlisted in a design ideas competition for the site of the former Brookes Jetty at St Kilda Beach.

The once loved, timber jetty was demolished in 2015, leaving only a concrete drain covered by a large metal cage in its place. Last year, architect James Brearley and the Bring Back Brookes Jetty group launched the competition known as the Leighton Prize in the hope that it could generate public interest and funds to revitalise the popular and culturally significant site.

The shortlisted Cumulus Studio entry titled ‘Luna Pier’ was the result of an in-office design workshop conducted during the Cumulus Christmas get together in late 2019. In researching the Leighton Prize, Cumulus Architect and part-time University Tutor Edwina Brisbane thought the competition would be a great opportunity for office collaboration and design thinking. Using the Leighton Prize as the brief, Edwina designed a team workshop which required teams to develop, swap and reinterpret ideas for the site. The exercise led to a number of out of the box ideas, including a ‘Mega Bridge’ and ‘Tidal Terrace’, but it was the Luna Pier concept, referencing the famous neighbouring rollercoaster which eventually made it to the shortlist stage of the official competition.

While we were thrilled to see the Luna Pier recognised among such an impressive international collection of ideas, the lessons learned from the original team workshop were perhaps the biggest takeaway from the whole exercise. We have seen a number of innovative, well explored ideas appear in recent project work that can be directly attributed to the open communication channels established during Edwina’s design workshop.

Congratulations to the winning entry ‘The Wave’ by Joao Sousa of JJs Architectura. We look forward to seeing action at this important Victorian landmark in the near future!