On the recent Place Partners team trip to Melbourne, Atherton Gardens was the first stop on our list of things to see. We were keen to check out the public realm surrounding the Atherton Gardens estate and see how the new 152 home mixed housing development physically integrated into the existing community assets.

Instead of simply wandering around and looking at the architecture of the new building (which is rather cool, some what sensitive and fun all at once) I decided to do a basic place based assessment of its public realm offer.

The assessment is loosely based on Project For Public Spaces (PPS) The Power of Ten concept and looks at the existing and new public spaces, with this concept in mind. PPS Power Of Ten proposes that a great place generally needs 10 activities or reasons to be there to keep it vibrant and alive.

I wanted to see how many obvious ‘things to do’ were physically provided for and comment on the opportunities that these provisions/amenities faced moving forward.

Here we go, Atherton Gardens Fitzroy, public realm - Things To Do

1. The Matroshka (Babushka) Dolls 2002, by Bronwen Gray:

This public artwork is bright and inviting, it beautifies the area surrounding it and draws people in, it is not an interactive work by definition, but people do tend to sit on it/climb it for a photo… We did.

2. Wooden Dog sculpture:

Public art and seating, this 5m long wooden dog sits atop a small grass hill, it functions as a seat and gives the impression that its uses may be vast given the imagination of children.

3. Children’s Play Grounds X 4:

Each of the 4 playgrounds varies slightly in scale and offers different play equipment. Each of the play areas connects to another with clear sight lines.

4. Scattered seating:

The area has many little clusters of seating that is grouped in such a way that it would function well for socialising and small groups of people.

5. Quite seating areas:

These areas of seating are away from activities and play equipment and commonly have good shade and small planters, peaceful spaces for contemplation and reading.

6. BBQ area:

Well catered for spaces with multiple BBQ’s picnic tables and weather protection.

7. Community garden:

Well-established community flower and vegetable gardens, with signage in multiple languages – however the gardens are fenced off and only open to the public during certain hours.

8. Soccer field:

An open soccer field, with goals and nets, all line markings were well maintained and the perimeter had a low fence to stop balls going run away.

9. Cricket nets:

One single netted cricket pitch in very good condition, but without built in wickets

10. Basketball courts:

The fenced in basketball courts were in good condition, although they may have been placed a little close to the residences (the sound of a bouncing ball can really travel)

Some of the opportunities that these public realm amenities could address in the future are

So in conclusion the grounds of the original 60’s high-rise housing development has 10 clearly defined things to do that are provided for. If each of the children’s playgrounds were added to the count there would be 14 things to do at Atherton Gardens… Not bad at all!

PPS use The Power of Ten as a place making tool to help turn a place around, so for Atherton Gardens to have 10 things to do means it has great potential to be a great place for people.

If you have kids and want a nice place to have your coffee in Fitzroy I would happily recommend Atherton Gardens as well worth a look and the quantity and quality of the play equipment on offer is terrific.

By: Jos Maple - Jnr Place Maker - Place Partners

I have heard many definitions of place making and met and heard from many people who use the term place maker. I have also spoken to many clients, government, corporate and community who are increasingly confused by what place making actually is and how you can do it. Is it getting the community actively participating in changing places to meet their immediate needs or is it long term planning and integration into systems? Does it have to be one or the other? Can it be both?

At Place Partners we have begun to identify 3 streams of place making:

1. Strategic Place Making - we define this as integrated, cross disiplinary and long term planning for holistic places that consider the socail, economic, environmental and cultural aspects of place. Its where we most comfortably fit in terms of our expertise and our approach.

2. Tactical Place making  - we define this as lower cost, quick or short term interventions into the fabric of an existing environment that have a strategic or long term objective.

3. Opportunistic Place Making - perhaps this will be controversial - but we define this as those interventions that may also be lower cost, quick or short term but that do not have strategic or long term objectives. These can most often be activities delivered by an individual or smaller groups and directly responsive to their personal needs or desires right now.

I'd be really interested in your response to these definitions and where you think you or different place making activities fit in...

Kylie Legge

Director, Place Partners

It's not often I imagine that a place maker is invited to the Venice Architecture Biennale so it seemed like a big must do when I was invited by Cathy Lang Ho, the curator of the US Pavilion to participate as a panellist. The Biennale is a pretty amazing event all round with a fair sprinkling of starchitects and a serious number of the hopefuls as well as the genuinely interested. It is split into 2 sections - the pavilions in the Giardini and the curated exhibition in the Arsenale. This year's theme was Common Ground and the Director David Chipperfield stated “I want this Biennale to celebrate a vital, interconnected architectural culture, and pose questions about the intellectual and physical territories that it shares. In the methods of selection of participants, my Biennale will encourage the collaboration and dialogue that I believe is at the heart of architecture, and the title will also serve as a metaphor for architecture's field of activity."

Its hard to say how successfully this was achieved as I for one found many of the exhibitions a little too difficult to 'read' which perhaps is not the best place to start if searching for commonalities. I think this is why the US Pavilion, while not formally 'architectural', was so attractive to visitors who really seemed to enjoy the simplicity of the design as well as the humanity of the concepts and projects shared. The title of the US exhibition was 'Spontaneous Interventions; Design Actions for the Common Good' and featured 124 projects, actions, ideas and communications that aim to in some way improve our relationship to the city and its spaces. (Go to http://www.spontaneousinterventions.org/statements for the curatorial statement). What I do think is interesting, and perhaps a sign of the times is that the 'winning' pavilion; Japan, was selected by the jury due to the collaborative approach between architect and community while the US also received a special mention "for ‘Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good’. This interactive installation impressed the Jury with its celebration of the power of individuals to change society in small but effective ways. The unpretentiously simple presentation was a delight."

Perhaps change really is afoot!

The main highlight for me though was participating in the panel discussion ' From the Local to the Global: Scaling up and scaling down" with Mirko Zardini, Canadian Center for Architecture; Cameron Sinclair, Architecture for Humanity; Lars Kruckenberg, Graft Lab and Make It Right Foundation; and John Ewing, Ghana Think Tank. The discussion aimed to compare urban actions from around in the world and to consider common as well as culture-specific causes. The big question was 'How can tactics that originate in one locale be replicated in other situations?' Another issue that was addressed was the question of scale and replicability. While much time was given to considering governance and financial sustainability or alternative methods of working it was my comment regarding the potential scale of influence of this type of thinking that received significant support. The idea being that instead of trying to build individual ideas into long term businesses or the like, that we concentrate our energies on influencing the overall process of planning and building our cities to ensure that all ideas and opportunities can have a place.

Hopefully we will see this idea take seed and continue growing throughout the world!

Here are some photos for you also of some of my favourite things from the trip

Cheers

Kylie Legge

We are really excited to be working with Singleton Council to help kickstart a place making program in 5 places across the LGA.

Last week we were busy visiting Broke, Bulga, Jerrys Plains, Hermitage Road and Singleton, talking with the local communities about what makes their place unique, what their community needs and what quick-win projects they could do to make their place better.

We had a great response to the workshops and met some fantastic ‘long locals’ and ‘new locals’. They bought a lot of enthusiasm about their place and discussed some great ideas about how to make them better.  Even the Singleton Argus (the local newspaper) got excited about the project in an article 'Think tank pink plan'. 

We are looking forward to seeing the results, and of course photographic evidence of each of the communities rolling up their sleeves, achieving their projects and celebrating the success.