Connecting People and Places
Evolving cities through rapid growth takes more than enthusiasm and requires a real understanding of the social purpose of the place itself and the places within it.
Central to our thinking for the Sydney Art Zone is the simple idea of connecting people to places. Distinct precincts need to be identified and assessed for their aptitude to host particular activities. Once identified, each place needs to be optimised to a program over time that builds on strengths and successes.
Placemaking is a way of imagining, making and maintaining public places that are valued, and where people feel valued.
Aptitude of Places
Places are identifiable at many different scales ranging from a single sidewalk café to the whole CBD. Nevertheless, when evaluated in terms of the experience economy, we need to understand and think at the scale of walkable precincts with differentiated character and offerings.
Engagement will rely upon a ‘discovery’ frame of mind being sustained for visitors. This is directly aligned with the ‘impulse’ frame of mind that is so protected and nurtured in retail environments. This is a different frame of mind to the ‘overload’ frame of mind that comes with navigating traffic and the logistics of getting around Parramatta’s CBD.
This ‘discovery’ frame of mind is always provisional and is easily interrupted, therefore precincts need to be holistically engaging enough to induce and enhance the quality and depth of dwell time.
“Placemaking is a philosophy, not a project†(Katherine Loghlin)
The Bays begins as an empty vessel and will acquire significance proportional to the dignity it affords diversity.
While digital media connects us all as tribes or communities of interest, it is through real human contact that those interests are developed and enhanced. Social connectedness is the purpose of a city. The Bays could provide places for such interaction, places to enjoy, produce and to refine myriad sub-cultural pursuits.
Civic space is the authenticator of digital tribal pursuits; de-pixellated, spatial, tactile and immersive. It feeds our innate need to gather in the physical, our insatiable appetite for connectedness and chance encounter with the unexpected.
Civic space is the neutral gathering place of tribal cyberspace.
Civic space aggregates meaning and depth through the memories of repeated and diverse tribal gatherings.
Civic space is the medium for community significance and cyber space is its content convener and aggregator.
Among other disruptive effects of digital technology is the creation of new patterns of work. Highly mobile people with flexible work contracts put new demands on the city’s infrastructure. For many who are out and about during the day, the boundaries between work and leisure are blurring and the workplace has become the city itself.
The Bays presents a timely opportunity to lead the thinking on how these changes can benefit a city, to become a place, and a brand, that is collaborative, immersive and engaging.
Bob Perry
5 July 2015