Workshop Outcomes

• become a destination to invite and attract local residents and workers, as well as visitors;
• connect with other areas of vitality in the Valley and the CBD;
• mark the entrance / edge between the CBD and the Valley, as well as the route to and from the Story Bridge.

exploring context

Students undertook their design work both in response to the site and the immediate surrounds of the site. All groups considered development along Marshall Street to introduce apartments and/or office space plus a vibrant street culture as critically important to changing the dynamics of the park. Many students went further and described the types of businesses to be attracted to the street, including alternative retail and eating establishments that acknowledge the potential of the site as a unique niche withing the urban fabric - that of a small and human scale streetscape proximate to urban park within a busy area. Cultural diversity in businesses was seen as desirable to acknowledge the cultural diversity of the Valley. This was seen as vital layer to be considered within the vision for the park as well.

tangible & intangible layers

The idea of “layers” - the physical, the sensory and the cultural - was a tool developed and used to explore and generate design by the students. All groups considered the existing physical layers - the highway, the tunnel, the slope of the park and the Marshall Street streetscape - as parts of a whole and as parts to anchor various functions and spaces attributable to the park. For example the edge of the park adjacent to the highway was seen by some as a visual marker to the Story Bridge, the edge between the city and the Valley and as the visual cue that something of potential lay beneath (i.e. the park). The edge of the park adjacent to Marshall Street was seen by some to be an extension of the streetscape and street activities to include places for rest, informal meals and performance during formal or impromptu ‘events’. Similarly, the sloping nature of the park was seen as an opportunity to introduce massed plantings for visual amenity, as viewed from the Ann Street / Kemp Place approach to the Story Bridge or to modify to create comfortable seating terraces to view the park and activities of the Marshall Street.

The conduit between physical layers, that is the tunnel between the park and All Hallows, was invariably treated as a potential feature with its entrances marked in some way by nature-based interventions (water walls) or by strong graphic statements. The tunnel itself was sometimes physically altered to make it wider and more spacious, or in many cases, endowed with warm and abundant lighting, permanent graphic artwork, poetry or frames to invite temporal or graffiti-based artwork. These interventions were provided to inspire tunnel users and establish a more friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

New layers were considered by many students to deal with connections across busy roads to Ivory Park, public transport, All Hallows School or direct pedestrian networks to the other destinations in the Valley or the CBD. These layers were largely seen as physically residing above the park, contributing landmarks and viewing platforms to view the site and beyond, but also to reveal the site to others.

some conclusions...

All of these elements, whether they are planning or design interventions have the potential to greatly enhance the park and the precinct in which it resides. The new layers considered by the students, however, contribute to a new urban ‘language’ for the Valley and the future city. Just as Brisbane is undergoing a renewal in infrastructure development to perpetuate private vehicle use and improve efficiencies in public transport via tunnels, the idea of an upper or elevated layer provides a form of infrastructure to support pedestrian or non-vehicle movement. This could be extrapolated further as an integrated local system of accessible connections within an urban renewal scheme with high rise development, public elevators, land bridges and landscaped roofs and terraces as potential shared or public space. While such ideas are not appropriate everywhere, the challenges presented by sites such as Kemp Place have yielded responses from workshop participants that seek to restore the potential for expression, enjoyment, lifestyle and ease of access and movement to the urban landscape.