Regenerative Placemaking in Point Cook

Project Description

This project is focused on fostering socio-ecological connection through placemaking in collaboration within the Point Cook municipality of Greater Melbourne. Point Cook is one of the fastest-growing areas in Australia and is home to over 60 000 people from 160 different ethnicities. It also has a very young demographic of families with over a third of the population under 14 years of age. Interestingly, it is also the online shopping capital in Australia according to Australia Post. The project will explore how the latest ideas in regenerative development can be applied to the planning and development of the 2020 Point Cook Pop Up Park led by Colocal.

The aim of the project is for students to work with multiple local stakeholders to design a broader strategy to foster socio-ecological resilience within the community as well as pitch a concept for the 2020 pop-up park Part of the brief will be for student groups to design a small-scale temporary Pop-Up Park (as part of their larger vision) as part of a studio-wide competition. The winning design will be realised in February/March 2020 in collaboration with Colocal. The project presents opportunities for students to explore both permanent and temporary design features and programming strategies that celebrate the site’s ecological and cultural layers.

Learning Methodology

The studio will run on Wednesdays from 10-3pm in semester 2. This will include two site visits with community stakeholders, and a community exhibition/presentation in October/ November. Through their site visits, students will engage with knowledge consultants and community partners as part of their project development to explore the use of place-making tools to come up with their designs for the Pop Up Park and broader site. Students will have the opportunity to work with a range of experts and stakeholders including the council to respond to a diversity of perspectives, insights and provocations provided by community groups as well as conduct activities that demonstrates the site’s potential.. Their proposals and architectural renders will be presented to community partners, resulting in an exhibition and presentation that showcases the work to the public. As part of creating the vision for the site, groups will design strategies for the pop-up park which will be pitched for realisation in Feb/March 2020. A jury made up of community and stakeholders will select the design to take forward for implementation at the festival.
It is expected that students enrolling into this studio will be able to develop the following placemaking skills:
• Hands-on skills for engaging in dialogue and conversations with communities and stakeholders
• Experience in how placemaking processes can be used to inform and refine design outcomes
• Hands-on skills in pitching and communicating design ideas to a variety of stakeholders and communities

How does this studio match PlaceAgency Objectives?

This project is asking the students to think about the place keeping strategy to achieve very long-term objectives and does so by taking advantage of the existing movement of \\\'pop-up park\\\' led by our local partner. Furthermore, the way the studio is structured, the budget applied rewards the \\\'winning\\\' students for their good work and provides them with an opportunity to bring it to reality at the beginning of 2020.