A six-month prototype installation aiming to bring life, joy and comfort to Canberra’s Woden Town Square, supported by the ACT Government.
The concept, designed by Context, features places to work, dine, meet and play.
The project follows the success of the multi award-winning #BackyardExperiment activation in Garema Place, Canberra, lead by Street Furniture Australia and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects in 2016.
The ACT Government commissioned Street Furniture Australia’s R&D team to undertake a six-week exploration into the community’s experience of the square. The resulting Discovery Report informed the design, to put people at the heart of the activation.
The concept is based around creating experiences for each of the six personas identified during the Discovery:
- Mum with pram, who attends Story Time at the library and grocery shops at Woolworths once or twice a week.
- Office worker, who commutes to the square on a daily basis.
- Time out-er, who uses the square up to five times a day for a cigarette break.
- Retiree, who takes walks and visits the local Post Office and other shops.
- Wanderer, often unemployed, who takes walks to get out of the apartment.
- School student, who emerges between 3pm and 6pm, five days a week.
Personas identified for Woden Town Square.
Street Furniture Australia also facilitated co-design workshops to help build a sense of ownership within the community, which formed an important part of the success of #BackyardExperiment.
Brainstorming during the Woden community workshop.
Built carried out the project management of final details and construction.
Since opening in March 2019 the transformed Woden Town Square has seen more groups of people socialising together, rather than sitting by themselves. Parents with young children relax and play on the grass.
Woden Community Service is working with the ACT Government to program community activities and events in the square.
The Silver Sprayers, a group of Canberrans over 55 years old, are painting a street art mural. Urban Sketchers Canberra painted the square plein air. Free Sahaja Yoga meditation classes are on offer, and the PCYC invited the brave to abseil down a 93 metre tower into the square.
Teams are meeting and students are studying in the work spaces. Community groups are holding events such as Harmony Day.
The square from above, during the PCYC Plunge. Photo: Canberra PCYC.
Watercolour by Kathy Walter, from Urban Sketchers Canberra. Photo: Facebook
Aria 2S-PM-2S and curved configurations, some with PowerMe™ Tables, provide wireless, usb and power points to charge devices in the square.
Forum Seats and Low Tables, with timber battens and powder coated frames, combined with Cafe Round Tables and Stools, offer multiple places to sit in the sun or shade, under trees or on the deck.
Mall Sun Lounges invite locals to relax and bask in the centre of the square.
The park includes nature play elements, rope hammocks, bookable outdoor rooms with power for work, meetings and study, and a ping pong table.
Grassed areas have been revived and are now lush and green, and potted trees have been introduced to continue to grow and provide shelter from the wind.
Woden Town Square before activation.
Jeremy Smith, Executive Branch Manager of Infrastructure Delivery with the ACT Government, says: “We want to create a destination where people will actually stay, come out and get their lunch. Maybe on a weekend as they’re moving through they can relax in the sun and just take in the experience here in Woden.
“Stage one we worked out who was using the square. Stage two we did some consultation around what people might want to see in the square. Now we’re in stage three, we’ve put a lot of elements in, and we’ll roll out some activities.
“After about six months a number of the elements will stay and we’ll see how successful the experiment has been.”
