Team 10 are a diverse group of people from different backgrounds ranging from Graphical Design to Landscape Architecture to Fine Art to Urban Planning. The group is an international collaboration with members from Greece, America and Australia; 5 are from Brisbane, 1 is from Melbourne, 1 is from Sydney, 2 are from Greece and 1 from America. The 5 Brisbane participants knew each other before and the 2 Greek members are a father and son duo; the other participants are strangers.
Once the team was announced by Urban Realities the group began conversing through emails. It was evident that in order to work well as a team, they should get to know each other to find out what interests and skills they shared or what unique skills they could utilise for the challenge.
The group has made it a priority to work together from day 1 to get used to each members' collaboration styles.
8 members of the group decided to meet up on the Sunday before the challenge started, over a beer, to get to know each other socially. The conversation did however wander and the group began discussing the Docklands area and what some members already knew about the space. Several members, most former residents of Melbourne, were the most knowledgeable about the Docklands.
Throughout the discussion it became evident that the Docklands' urban spaces were at the beginning of an ongoing journey. The group all agreed that a public space is never "finished"; it will continue to ebb and flow and change and evolve.
This view was then reinforced in the Site Briefing by Bridget Liondias, Amanda Roberts and Margie MacKoy from VicUrban and City of Melbourne. These experts introduced us to the background of the development, the history of the site, facts and figures, the future directions of the site and answered every question we could throw at them! They told us that the development is only 50% complete. The parts that have been constructed were funded by large companies who were needed to initially fund the project. These companies have developed large "campus style" buildings as their headquarters, which have meant large expanses of spaces in between each building, each featuring its own unique urban designs. These have resulted in a disconnected urban environment. In the future smaller businesses will be encouraged to develop in the spaces between, diversifying the scale of the area and tying the precincts together.
It was clear in the presentation that the present day doc
klands is stage 1 of a long term plan and that over 25 years the aim is to:
- encourage the fine grain,
- connect to the water,
- focus on mobility,
- protect heritage,
- create urban delights,
- consider climatic constraints,
- diversify character,
- support public life,
- improve the quality of the streets, and
- green the area and introduce biodiversity.
Team X is very interested in the fact that the urban spaces of the Docklands are being recognised as being part of a evolving, changing, moving process and such it is an appropriate site for a 3 day challenge, for the State of Design Festival, which has the motto Design that Moves. We look forward to exploring this further...
The team took the time to wander around the Docklands this afternoon, and were fortunate enough to capture this lovely sunset.
See more of our images from today, in our online gallery.
Author, Amy Saunders on behalf of Team X who are Leigh Abernethy, Amy Saunders, Brooke Murphy, Luke Self, Damien Carroll, Myles Broad, Ilian Seferlis-Frantziz, Andreas Seferlis, Nanette Milner and Emily Ogilvie.
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