ASPECT Studios
(est. 1993, Melbourne)
Cox Architecture
(est. 1967, Sydney)

Between 2015 and 2018 (with some final parts of the project taking place around 2020), ASPECT Studios and Cox Architecture collaborated on the Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project, a Victorian Government initiative that removed nine at-grade level crossings along 16 kilometres of a major railway corridor and across seven suburbs in Melbourne’s south-east. For decades, this corridor was a major barrier to urban permeability, affecting road congestion, limiting connections between suburbs and hindering the introduction of new rail services.

Highlighting the city-shaping influence of integrated transport and public realm design, this project removed the dangerous level crossings and delivered five elevated railway stations (Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Hughesdale, Clayton and Noble Park stations) along one of Melbourne’s busiest corridors. Cox Architecture led the architectural design of the new stations while ASPECT Studios led the urban design of the parks below, including forecourts, public squares, multi-generational play spaces and shared pathways. Approximately 22 hectares of new public space was created for the intersecting neighbourhoods. The project required an intimate collaborative process between architects, landscape architects, engineers and the project’s owners and operators, and was critical in developing new benchmarks for elevated rail in Australia.

ASPECT Studios is a team of landscape architects, designers and urbanists founded in Melbourne and Sydney in the late 1990s, and which now extends to additional studios in Adelaide, Brisbane, Dubai, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh City, Perth and Shanghai. Their approach involves interpreting the historical, cultural and environmental context of a place and using design to enhance, reveal and repair it. Cox Architecture was founded in Sydney in 1967 by Philip Cox, originally as Philip Cox and Associates. Today, the multidisciplinary practice works on architectural, urban design and interior design projects, with a team of over 400 people across Australia and Asia.