OCULUS projects recognised at 2026 AILA VIC Awards
Four OCULUS projects have picked up awards at the 2026 AILA VIC Landscape Architecture Awards, including an Award of Excellence for Monash Community Family Co-operative.
The Monash Community Family Co-operative received the major award in the Health and Education Landscape category. (Image Leo Showell)
The winners of the 2026 AILA VIC Landscape Architecture Awards have been announced, with four OCULUS projects recognised for their contribution to shaping resilient, sustainable and community-focused environments.
Monash Community Family Co-operative (MCFC) was among the major winners, receiving the Award of Excellence in the Health and Education Landscape category. The Award of Excellence is the highest tier of recognition and is presented to the project judged to be the most significant for advancing landscape architecture in its category.
OCULUS was briefed to give children at MCFC access to nature by providing them with an extensive outdoor environment that serves as a natural classroom. OCULUS worked closely with a large team of collaborators to bring this complex project to fruition, including Law Architects Architecture & Access and Circularity Consulting,
OCULUS’s design encourages children, staff and visitors to connect with their surroundings; references the local landscape character; provides seasonal change; helps mitigate the urban heat island effect; creates educational and productive garden spaces; and supports biodiversity.
The AILA recognition follows MCFC receiving the 2026 Learning Environments Australasia Design (LEAD) Award, which celebrates excellence in educational planning, architecture, landscape design, innovation and community impact.
Landscape Architecture Award winners
Three OCULUS projects received AILA VIC Landscape Architecture Awards, recognising their contribution to the advancement of landscape architecture:
The TarraWarra Museum of Art: Eva and Marc Besen Centre (OCULUS with Craig Murphy-Wandin) strengthens connections between Tarrawarra Museum of Art, a Sculpture Walk and surrounding open spaces by creating an immersive visitor experience that simultaneously contributes to the recovery of local ecologies while elevating the Yarra Valley as a nationally significant cultural destination.
The TarraWarra Museum of Art: Eva and Marc Besen Centre integrates architecture, art and ecology. (Image: Leo Showell)
Melbourne Quarter Commercial Precinct (ASPECT | OCULUS) is a vibrant urban precinct that features commercial, residential, retail, and open public spaces, as well as a Sky Park that sets a benchmark for elevated urban greening. The precinct improves pedestrian connections, supports biodiversity and pollinator activity, celebrates layered cultural histories and creates high-quality public places that support daily city life.
Over half of the Melbourne Quarter Commercial Precinct is dedicated to public open spaces. (Image: David Mitchener)
And the pro-bono co-designed project the Nature Design Guide: Designing with Country and Nature in the Built Environment authored by a collaborative team of fifteen practices. This practical, industry-led resource that enables practitioners to restore ecosystems, support communities, strengthen connection to Country and deliver climate-resilient places through a Country-centred approach to nature-based design.
The Nature Design Guide enables practitioners to apply a Country-centred approach to design.
OCULUS worked closely with clients and collaborators on each of the successful projects. In the case of Melbourne Quarter, partnerships that spanned as many as 15 years (2011–2025).
AILA Jury Chair Joanna Bush said this year’s award-winning projects respond to Victoria’s need for more housing and infrastructure while preparing for a changing climate, restoring nature and biodiversity, improving health and strengthening the state’s relationship with Country.
“These projects show we don’t have to tackle our challenges one at a time,” Bush said. “Good landscape architecture allows our investment to work harder – delivering for people, nature and Country at the same time.”
As the Victorian Award of Excellence recipient in the Health and Education Landscape category, MCFC now progresses automatically to the National Awards, where it will be judged alongside the winners from other state chapters in the same category.
