Team 1: Welcome to Sunset Beach Postcard to Council

Hi Michelle,

You won’t believe what’s going on in Melbourne! Today we went swimming in crystal clear waters of the harbor at Dockland’s Sunset Beach and the water was warmer than in Barcelona.

We cheered for the ‘Dockland’s Longshoremen’ at their first footy game since they opened the brand new stadium in Fisherman’s bend. A huge terraced panoramic square replaced the old Etihad stadium and has become the city’s favorite vantage-point. People come by the hundreds. Just like in Pompidou’s Square the terraces are boiling with street-life under a gorgeous canopy of sugar gums.

Dad sat and read for a long time in one of long benches at the Docklands seashore. Along the walk there are shops and restaurants every 20 meters. The ‘Vapporeto’ that took us from the docks to St. Kilda in a journey that reminded me of Manhattan’s circle cruises.

Little John had a great time playing at the beach with the children from docklands primary school. At sunset he went mad when little penguins arrived. Maria went kayaking up at Moonee Ponds Creek with some faculty friends.

We may stay here forever,

Love,

Maria

Docklands suffer from ‘social neglect’. Melbournian’s hardly known them or go there.

Docklands has arts but no public, has ties but no kids, has banks but no schools, it has wealth but little social mixture, it has sea but you can’t swim, it has squares but little benches, is has little parks and even less trees, it has the order but it lacks the appropriation… and it has LOTS of semi-empty bars and restaurants were you pay to sit.

At the same time, Docklands are such an unequalable urban setting: huge water bodies, Km of seashore, wonderful sunsets, exceptional skylines, proximity to the center…

Docklands is missing something of a BEACH. Beaches are melting pots, are playful & engaging, are free and equal to everyone. Beaches have clean water were you can swim and are the doorway to sea. Beaches are the most magnetic place on earth and can transform the character of a whole city as happened in Barcelona.

PIXELBEACH is NOT an artifice; there are already plenty of them in the Docklands, pixelbeach is a statement, a question. Pixelbeach is a social prototype, were people are invited to appropriate the docklands in a different way, unpredictable, playful, gratis, just like you are or feel, without suits.

Pixelbeach is a stage is not an art form, people makes it. In Pixelbeach people brings the color, the agenda and the meaning. Pixel is not beautiful, nor is poetic, pixelbeach what people wants is to be…

Pixelbeach can be programmed and transforms at down. It has a its own tune and a night ‘light suit’

Pixelbeach is a brick for a social claim, is a dream. The dream is edited into a Postcard that you can send to the Mayor suggesting another possible future docklands and it reads like dreamed city in a family letter.

We are Haulin Sand: T-Minus 17 Hours

After fourteen cubic meters of sand and what seemed like endless deliberation later, Team 1 is en route to project completion. What began as a economical solution turned into an design inspiration. The idea of pixel beach emerged. With bricks of sand, we are introducing a different type of beach to the Melbourne docklands. A beach that can be built, rebuilt, and modified to one's hearts intent.











A key element to bringing an re-imagined beach to the docklands is a surreal projection at night designed by our resident light designer. When the sun goes down, the beach turns into a mesmerizing blue sandscape.














Meanwhile, the team is busy bagging bricks of sand to create the supports for the sandscape. Comes see us tonight or tomorrow to see our beach in action!

We are Site Five - T-Minus 66hrs

Through an exciting round of picking slips from a a hat, we received site Five. Site five is nicely situated at the south eastern edge of the docklands, with views out to the city and the harbor. As a team we are trying to look for a way to reinvigorate this corner into a hub to gather and re-imagine the docklands.








We took advantage of the beautiful weather and set up our discussion table next to the water's edge. We discussed not only our site and the implications an intervention will have in the immediate area, but what greater effect our project can achieve in the minds of the visitors we attract.

Before our lunch break, we spent some time to put our discussions down on paper. Visualizing our ideas gave us a better sense of what we are trying to accomplish and re-oriented a very tangent prone collection of ideas building upon each other.
Another visit too the site seemed reasonable and we packed up our table and moved the team to our site. What began as a coffee break discussion turned quickly into a storm of model building. Coffee lids, cups, sand, gravel, and whatever we could find around our site became materials for our mini-model. A more detailed brief will be posted soon so stay tuned.





























See all our photos up until now on our facebook
Remember to follow us on twitter @URTeamONE

We Are Team One

We are Team One of the Urban Reality Competition happening in the Melbourne Docklands. We are a collection of enthusiasts from all over the world with a diverse skill set working together to dramatically transform the docklands space. Get to know us better in the following video!

Now that you know who we are, make sure to follow us in the next few days on:

Twitter @URTeamONE

Facebook @UrbanRealityTeamONE

And of course we'll be blogging constantly on the UrbanRealities Blog