Kids in the car park

RESEARCH BACKGROUND ‘Kids in the car-park’ proposed a series of small landscape design interventions within a North Melbourne carpark and at the property boundary. Being ground level, it was contiguous with the public realm, lending significant potential for pedestrian and cycle through traffic, as well as resident use. The asphalt surface was delineated into discrete communal spaces, using both material and infrastructural interventions to influence vehicular speed and multiply the range of uses. Boundary features, such as fencing and hedges were replaced by low boundary gardens to create a porous boundary accessible both to residents and the public. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The research aim was to employ design to advance inner urban redevelopment, and in accord with family dwelling and changing civic expectations of how urban space is used. The research interrogated the work of leading Melbourne Architect, Peter McIntyre and his innovations in the 1970s incorporating ‘emotional functionalism’ into design, such for City Gardens, a neighbouring site to the ‘Kids in the car-park’ site. McIntyre broke with vehicle-centric development norms for walk-up residential complexes, designating the entire common ground to communal space, with parking below. My work researched a design solution of co use to redress the privileging of car parking at ground level, limiting scope for community and pedestrian activation. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The work responds successfully to the need to re-imagine how former car-park typologies may be re-defined, multiplied and shared in response to contemporary needs and space limitations.Co-funded by the Owner’s corporation and City of Melbourne, the design presents a workable model for procuring such a project for other inner-urban sites. ‘Kids in the car-park’ was awarded City of Melbourne Urban Forest Funding in 2018 and is due for construction in 2020. It was acknowledged in ‘Melbourne Magazine’ (Jan 2020).