Albert Park bert Park Observations and Adjustments
Albert park is a small suburb just outside the city where golf, leisurely cycling, and the odd stroll around the park seem to be the most exciting things on anyone’s agenda. The first thing that Ken and I noticed was the lack of people anywhere! We were the only ones on our rather busy tram from the city to get off at the stop we did. After Walking for 5 minutes, we had still seem more swans that people. After wandering around for quite some time, we realised that our first impressions weren’t much different from what we had expected. Despite this, the area was interesting just the same and still had a lot to offer.
Oscar Langley Ken Chen
Cycling
Petting Zoo (Budget)
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Albert Park is an extremely bike friendly suburb. There are cycling lanes on most roads and in most parks with the addition of public bike racks all around the area.
Hidden by a large corrugated fence and an old tarpaulin is what appears to be a small scale petting zoo with what used to be chickens and small farm animals. Great for children which seem to be in abundance in this park environment.
ALTERATIONSALTERATIONS Although the bicycle infrastructure is very evident in the area, the aesthetics of it is boring and bland for a park setting. Changing the appearance of the infrastructure to follow a set theme would be a worthwhile change.
The petting zoo seems small and the enclosures that may have once held the animals seems inadequate for both the animals and the children that would have once visited the place. With better enclosures that showed off the animals more and promoted interaction between people and animals would be a successful change
Advertising
Barbeque Pits
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Small advertisements with pull tabs at the bottom were quite common in the area. They were advertising things anywhere from ‘rooms for rent’ to ‘dog walker needed’.
Albert Park is an ideal place for a BBQ, it’s relaxed, people can sit down and enjoy one another, and kids are able to run around and play until their heart’s content
ALTERATIONSALTERATIONS All the main infrastructure around the ‘park’ area With Melbourne’s winter rain and winds, a lot of of Albert park seems to be lumped together in these advertisements either blow away or get groups. Although this is convenient, there is all the soaked. Having a communal covered shelter would give people a place to hang these advertisements as space and only a small amount is used. Spreading the infrastructure around and filling the emptied well as protecting them from the weather. spaces with greenery would be a worthwhile change.
Graffiti
Leisurely Strolls
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Not on the large scale you’d see in the city, Albert Park’s graffiti mainly comprises what a called ‘throw-ups’, small pieces that usually take no more than a couple seconds to complete and don’t do much to turn heads.
The majority of people observed in Albert Park were either in running shoes, or adjusting their running shoes. From running to just walking, everyone was out and about.
Small ‘throw-ups’ in inconvenient places isn’t the nicest to look at and is often badly done. Having a communal place to do this would help isolate the bad graffiti and keep the taggers happy as they will have a place to paint.
With all the physical activity everyone was doing, there was no water around the park to aid these runners. The implementation of water fountains would have a great impact on the satisfaction of the people using the park’s facilities as there wouldn’t be a need to constantly carry a supply of water around.
ALTERATIONSALTERATIONS
Accessibility Facilities
Tree Placement
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION With a environment catering to people who desire a relaxed lifestyle, there is a definite lack of infrastructure helping those with disabilities.
Many of the walkways around the park failed to take the trees into consideration which caused the width of them to be compramised
ALTERATIONSALTERATIONS The with implementation of more wheelchair friendly Walkways that made detours around the trees would walkways, the park would be more enjoyable to those be a much better idea and provide a longer walk that are disabled either by injury, or with age. around the area.
Pathway
Entrance
OBSERVATION OBSERVATION A n etherealli pathway is requisite in the park
With the large area the park covers, there is definite lack of signage and maps.
ALTERATIONSALTERATIONS The path is dark at night or cloudy day; maybe we can build some lights on the roadsides
With maps at each entrance of the park visible to cars, bikes, and pedestrians, the park’s facilities would be used a lot more successfully.