Tensile’s Cool Roof System has won the ShadeSmart Award at the 2026 AILA NSW Landscape Architecture Awards.
We developed the system with Cumberland City Council and Western Sydney University to solve a common problem: open car parks are among the hottest surfaces in our cities, and trees take 20 years or more to shade them, often at the cost of parking bays.
The Cool Roof System is a modular steel frame with a stainless steel Webnet mesh roof, planted with fast-growing native vines. It fits around existing bay layouts, gives shade in under two years, and is backed by independent monitoring by Western Sydney University:
- Surface temperatures reduced by up to 35°C
- “Feels-like” temperatures reduced by up to 10°C
- No parking spaces lost
The AILA jury described it as innovative, measurable and replicable, and treated shade as essential public infrastructure.
Thank you to Cumberland City Council and Western Sydney University for their partnership, and to the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer for funding the research.
See the project or download the full research results.
