BOROONDARA COUNCIL
Placemaking project with the City of Boroondara.
Undergraduate students from Business and Design backgrounds were challenged to design a placemaking solution for the Glenferrie Road precinct in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. Their solutions needed to enhance the sense of community while respecting sustainability and heritage concerns.
THE CLIENT
The City of Boroondara is a local government area in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Boroondara encompasses Swinburne University of Technology’s Hawthorn campus and Design Factory Melbourne.
THE CHALLENGE
Identify a current problem which affects the Glenferrie Road area and implement a placemaking solution to enhance the sense of community while respecting sustainability and heritage concerns.
OUTCOMES
MULTI-PURPOSE GARAGE
After conducting various research methods, Team Acquisition identified traffic congestion and inadequate parking as an issue faced by Glenferrie Road. Their solution was a multi-functional garage structure which would provide additional parking and a rooftop community space for events like markets or concerts. The garage has a sustainability focus, with vertical gardens, solar panels and pavagen footpaths. The overall impact on Glenferrie Road would be safer foot traffic/less congestion, greater community wellbeing and expression, and more economic opportunities for the area.
Concept by Julia Persson, Joshua Trainor, Jake Sleeman, Mudhhi Saeed & Corey Kain.
RAILWAY PRECINCT
The Purple Hats developed a three-stage placemaking implementation strategy to improve the area surrounding Glenferrie Road. The strategy first involves a general upkeep and aesthetics focus, with plans to undertake immediate cosmetic enhancements to pay respects to the heritage of the area. The next stage is to introduce lighting for wayfinding to bring modern innovation and highlight local landmarks. Finally, the Railway Arcade walk will be redeveloped into a multi-purpose interactive Railway Precinct. It will be shaped to accommodate for larger volumes of foot traffic and will include vertical gardens, extra seating and interactive light panels for community engagement.
Concept by Pip Wheaton, Joshua Henderson, Franco Melatti, Calvin Fardi Yakin & Julia Cinel.
GLENFERRIE SWITCH PARK
Through surveys and interviews with user groups, the Space Invaders discovered that community, sustainability and play were lacking in the Glenferrie area. Their proposed solution is the Glenferrie Switch Park, an outdoor space with a variety of sustainably-made equipment suited to all ages, including gym equipment, seating arrangements and art walls. Certain equipment pieces are mobile and adjustable, meaning users can transform the space to suit their needs. The proposed location of the park covers half of a nearby carpark to encourage visitors to use more sustainable transport methods.
Concept by Sarah Konda, Chris Pase, Grace Wilson, Luc Tunbridge & Jess Davey.
GLENFERRIE HIGHLINE
The A Team designed a multi-story footpath above ground level which could reduce foot traffic, increase road safety and allow for a greener, more aesthetically-pleasing area. The new footpaths would be built directly above the current footpaths by using the existing roofing. Their higher elevation will allow for less noise disturbance from Glenferrie Road’s traffic, as well as provide a better view of the surrounding area.
Concept by Bethany Shell, Orin Giesbers, Fraser McGill, Lachlan Stasiewicz, Chloe Hondrokostas & Georgia Ryan.
PRE-PARK & NIGHT MARKET
The Innovative Mangoes devised a two-part solution to improve the Glenferrie Road precinct. First, the existing council’s car park area would be renovated to offer more parking spaces, and an app ‘Prepark’ will allow visitors to reserve parking bays.
Secondly, a new night market would be introduced to increase the interaction between residents, students of nearby schools/universities and visitors, and provide more space for socialising and recreational activities.
Concept by Ayano Nakamura, Celine Petsetas, Minh Anh Nguyen, Chloe Longo & Techchhay Keo.