People Streets

PEOPLE STREETS.

ARC80002 - Studio C - South Melbourne Egg Semester 1, 2022, Swinburne University

Acknowledgement of Country

I respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which Swinburne’s Australian campuses are located in Melbourne’s east and outer-east, and pay my respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.

I respectively acknowledges the traditional owners of the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung. I pay my respect to their elders past and present. I acknowledge and uphold their continuing relationship to this land.

Studio Leader by David O’Reilly Kaitlyn McNaughton 102110707

Contents

About me

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - The Study Area

Chapter 3 - The Site

Chapter 4 - Vision & Objectives

Chapter 5 - Implementation

Chapter 6 - Conclusion

References

Kaitlyn McNaughton

I am currently studying my third semester of the Masters of Architecure and Urban Design at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn. I am very interested in expanding my knowledge surrounding urban design and the impact it can have of improving peoples lives.

Introduction

Studio Introduction

Currently, South Melbourne’s urban form can be described as an egg due to its ‘hard shell and soft yolk’ urban form (low rise character encapsulated by high rise development and global roads). There are many ways to cook an egg: hard, soft or scrambled - they are all good, but different people want it prepared in different ways. - Unit Outline

02 The Study Area

Study Area: South Melbourne

The study area for the studio is South Melbourne, this area is located just south of the CBD. It’s standout characteristics are the arts and culture representation, low building heights, and great public transport connection. The area has a mix of residential, commercial and industrial buildings. It services two and a half thousand residents as well as an abundance of visitors from surrounding suburbs, which often visit the South Melbourne Market and surrounding retail areas.

Initial Site Visit

We each come from different places for the site visit. I came from hawthorn on train and then swapped to tram at flinders street. With a small walk to the town hall from park st.

Kris drove to the meeting point and parked next to the town hall. He had no problem finding parking, although he did have to pay for his spot until 6pm. Ali caught the tram from flinders street to park st and then walked up to the town hall. We all found the public transport and roads easy to navigate, with a range of availble transport options.

Image: Team Member Krishraj Boodhoo

Cognitive Mapping

Whilst on our site visit we used a different style of mapping. Instead of mapping geographical features we mapped how the site felt based on precincts and nodes like large roads. Major roads like Kings Way acted as significant nodes that create the hard shell around the study area. Landmarks like the Town Hall, CBD and Park Tower helped up to navigate around the area without needing maps.

Public Transport

Public tranport in the study area is very accessible. Its easy to reach stops for both the trams and buses. The availablity of public transport helps to ease some of the congestion from the surrounding roads and parking spaces.

The People

The population of South Melbourne has a range of varying demographics. Many residents were found to travel outside the study area for work and school daily, using a range of methods. Majority of these methods involve some sort of walking, whether it’s to a tram stop or the entire journey. The population has a large number of middle aged adults and a large number of children under 4, suggesting a lot of young families live in the area. We need to consider the sorts of amenities these people need to comfortably live in the area as they grow older. Not only families but also eldery or those with mobilty problems.

The Peoples Opinions

Whilst making another visit to the site I surveyed some of the locals about the area. I particularly focused around the idea of walkability and pedestrian amenity. The people made it clear that some of them love to walk and others avoid it.

Some of the issues that were raised appeared to be in the less popular streets of South Melbourne, these streets appeared to have less amenity and were not maintained as nicely.

Parking

Parking can always be a big problem in built up areas, although with South Melbourne's adequate access to public transport this shouldn't be the case. Visitors and residents can easily move around without a car. Clarendon street appears to have the largest parking shortage on both weekday and market days. Whilst most other areas always have some availability of spots at most times. This could be due to people wanted cars nearby for retail purchases or even people with mobility problems who can't walk far.

Public Open Green Space

One of the first thing I noticed on my visit was the lack of public green space, especially in the top half of the study area. An issue is that the land values and lack of availability make it hard to create anymore. It would become too expensive, this leads me to question how public open green space could be integrating in existing spaces.

Development

The South Melbourne area is characterised by its heritage charm. Many of the buildings feature heritage frontages which make the area what it is. The addition of new buildings are pushing the boundaries of the planning standards.

Development Challenges

These newer developments are in newer contemporary styles and this risks the are loosing its heritage charm. In particular the wedding cake typology has been popular.

Image: Team Member Abdullah Alzahrani

Site Observation - Positives

From my visits to site I could immediately understand the appeal of the area, it was easy to navigate using public transport and provided safe opportunities to either cycle or walk to popular streets. There was also available parking spots on all my visits. The laneways allowed for businesses to take deliveries off the street and avoid disruptions.

Site Observations - Negatives

Some of the problems I began to notice were on the streets that are not as busy. These spaces felt less maintained with obstructions and tripping hazards on footpaths, lack of safe crossings, and areas that were not equipped for weather changes and significant rainfall.

The Site

Selecting a Site

When selecting a site, I chose to look into some of these less maintained streets. These streets seemed to be the areas I identified in my previous site analysis that lacked pedestrian amenity. I selected a range of streets each with a different scale. By doing this my implementations could easily be replicated on similar streets across the entire study area. My project is based around improving the amenity available to pedestrians.

Selected Site: Kings Way, York Street, Tope Street and Yarra Street

Kings Way

Firstly kings way, the highest traffic area, also home to a tram line. Issues with this site mainly involve the special building overlay, which is a result of the flooding the area is subject to. This leads to the need for raised floors levels which can create activation issues with the ground and public realm. The street overs next to no pesestrian amenity and is extremely uncomfortable and unsafe.

York Street

York Street is significantly quieter, however it has a 30m wide street for a single lane road. The distribution of space could be adjusted to allow for pedestrian and green spaces. Because of the wide roads the street has no permeable surfaces to absorb water.

Tope Street

Tope Street is home to adult stores which operate late at night, it can feel extremely un-inviting and unsafe at this time. This is a problem for night time customers and workers finishing late shifts. During the day the street has lack of ameni ty for pedestrians and many would avoid it if possible.

Yarra Street

The final street being, yarra street is more like a laneway. The area has many crossovers into properties, creating safe ty issues for pedestrians. The street needs to maintain truck access so shops can receive deliveries to their doors. This makes creating activation harder.

Vision & Objectives

This vision is all about creating a South Melbourne that prioritises pedestrians and the things they need. And shifts away from prioritising things like cars.

Vision - “South Melbourne streets that feel safe, comfortable and accessible to pedestrians”

Objectives

I have created a set of objectives that will help bring my vision to life. Firstly to foster enjoyable journeys. This can be done by adding value to pedestrian spaces. Not only areas for them to walk but for them to stop and enjoy their surrounds. Next to prioritise public safety, this ensures that everyone reaches their destinations safely at both daytime and nighttime. Creating comfortable journeys for everyone no matter their age, ensures everyone has opportunity to get to their destination.

Implementation

Implementation Schedule

Activate Laneways

I have created a set of objectives that will help bring my vision to life. Firstly to foster enjoyable journeys. This can be done by adding value to pedestrian spaces. Not only areas for them to walk but for them to stop and enjoy their surrounds. Next to prioritise public safety, this ensures that everyone reaches their destinations safely at both daytime and nighttime. Creating comfortable journeys for everyone no matter their age, ensures everyone has opportunity to get to their destination. This strategic direction centres around Yarra Street, and can be replicated in many of the nearby laneways.

Here we have an example of how the street could look following the strategies. People are encourage out onto the street. The semi permeable paving not only slows drivers but helps to absorbs water and add greenery to the street. Seating from surrounding businesses is spilling out into the laneway.

Improve Safety at Night Time

Next we have improving safety at night time. This can be done by adding lighting to spaces. This doesn't have to be done in an obvious or conventional way and instead can be done by backlighting street furniture, or light art installations. Reducing the number of concealments will also make pedestrians feel safer. These implementations are mainly focused around the tope street for the night workers and a key route leading towards popular areas like the market and Clarendon street.

An example, added seating with lighting. And projected art which could be changed frequently to showcase local artists, school kids, or indigneous art. It helps brighten the space in a less obvious way, and adds something to look at for pedestrians.

Improve Safety from Cars

Improving safety from cars can be done by adding garden beds along edges of footpaths. These garden beds also known as WSUD gardens help to absorb and filter runoff from the roads. Tactile strips help add safety for those with vision impairments. These WSUD gardens will be mostly implemented along kings way and york street, where the most water absorp tion is required. The tactile strips will be applied to all crossings.

Before and after along Kings Way. The added gardens provide a barrier from the road and also some shading on the paths.

Another before and after along Tope street. The gardens take up unused space on the footpaths so no parking is compromised.

Prioritising Inclusive Design

Prioritising inclusive design involves making sure everyone can use the footpaths. This needs to take into account those that cannot walk as far or need breaks along the way. Therefore seating should be provided every 200m. Surfaces need to be smooth for wheelchairs, prams and walkers, and should be free from things like holes or bumps could cause people to trip and potentially hurt themselves. These strategies will be applied to the entire site.

Before and after on York Street. A plain 6m wide footpath now has some permeable paving, seating and more shade and greenery. Seating here is particularly necessary as york street has a slight rise up towards the market, and elderly walkers are more inclined to need a break.

Reducing Impact of FFL in SBO Areas

Reducing the impact of raised finished floor levels in special building overlay areas. To help bridge the disconnect created by raised floors, steps and ramps can be used for more than one function, creating spaces to sit or eat as well as to climb. Increasing the number of permeable surfaces helps the water in this flood prone area to be absorbed back into the land. We can also research further ways to prevent flooding without having to raise the floor level. These strategies will particularly be focused in this area that is prone to flooding.

Before and after on Kings Way. Removed the hard concrete and replaced it with softscape that can absorb water. I’ve included native planting with low growth heights, therefore they are less likely to interfere with surrounding roads and tram tracks. Ensuring not to block drivers vision or hit tram lines.

This before and after also on kings way shows how the change in elevation can be used to create spaces with value. Stairs not only act as way to get up to the building but also a place to sit.

Improved Wayfinding

Improving wayfinding ensures that everyone can get to their destination, without the need for a map or phone. Using lights or art to highlight a route can be less obvious but also easy to understand by people of all ages. By creating a key route up york street, it can help guide pedestrians coming from kings way that are looking for clarendon street or the market.

On the right we have indigenous artworks scattered through the garden space and along the footpath paintings that act like a trail to follow.

Improved Shelter

Improving shelter includes increasing the tree canopy and making sure that shade is available on seats. This ensure that pedestrians are comfortable along their journeys.

Here we have an after, which has trees that actually provide shade to the footpaths. The excess path space has also been replaced with semi permeable paving.

Re-prioritse Street Space

Prioritizing street space takes into account how the area could be better used to service pedestrians. Many of the footpaths especially along york street are excessively wide and could be repurposed. By retaining 3m of space for the footpath, the remainder can be used for garden or softscape. Pocket parks can also be put into these underused or unmaintained areas. These pocket parks will be placed along york street in spaces that currently aren’t taken advantage of.

On the left is a garden space that is poorly maintained and could be better used. On the right a pocket park has been created. This space provides an area for people to meet or enjoy their work breaks.

Create Clean Inviting Environments

The final strategic direction is to create clean and inviting environments. This includes making sure the area is free from obstructions and rubbish, by providing adequate waste removal amenities. Providing water stations nearby to seats, for those that may be short of breath. And to look into locations for a toilet to be built within the site.

Again we have the wide footpath that has been replaced with garden and more trees. A rubbish bin has been added and the paintings leading up towards the market can be seen on the path.

Conclusion

The key benefits of the project people streets are increased safety, increased comfort, accessibility and benefits for the environment. Although implementing some of the strategic directions could be costly the cost is outweighed by the benefits. The addition of semi permeable pavings helps to absorb water and better equip the area to handle drastic weather conditions. Public art not only appeals to the pedestrians eyes, but offers a voice to artistics and indigenous creatives. WSUD gardens help to absorb and filter runoff from roads, and act as a protective barrier from cars. These are only a few of the many benefits. Although the cost upfront could be off putting, these improvements can be enjoyed for years to come and would be entirely worth it in the long run. They help to create a better South Melbourne, and can be replicated on similar streets throughout the study area.

References

Figure 4.1 n.d. Green Laneway. [image] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com.au/ pin/565975878169195612/> [Accessed 3 June 2022].

Figure 4.2 n.d. Night Lights. [image] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com.au/ pin/396457573448666790/> [Accessed 1 June 2022].

Figure 4.3 2022. Garden beds. [image] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com.au/ pin/3870349670143882/> [Accessed 1 June 2022].

Figure 4.4 2017. [image] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/466826317637478923/> [Accessed 3 June 2022].

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