Nicole Larkin is a worthy recipient of the 2021 Christopher Procter Prize for her proposal titled “The Wild Edge”.

Nicole’s desire is to build on her beautiful reflective study of the singleness and shared features of ocean pools along the NSW coastline. Having comprehensively mapped, catalogued and analysed siting and design she is now seeking to consolidate a holistic approach to best practice for the management, conservation and future design of ocean pools. In a forward-looking piece she seeks to identify how to both protect and enhance the NSW coastline to realise economic, environmental and social value whilst acknowledging the pragmatic context of planning controls, conservation management plans and assets to be managed by local government.

Possibilities abound when we contemplate Nicole’s work to date and the proposal’s potential against Moneo’s essay, “On Typology” or Rob and Leon Krier’s typological study as a design method.

Her evident rigour, insights gleaned from reflection and the overlay of design creativity promises to unlock new ways of thinking about the co-existence of people, sea, sand and rock.

The proposal bodes well for the next generation of public space type within one of our most contested realms – the NSW coastline.