Categories: Place Making

1 Aug 2011, Comments (0)

Place Making (near and far)

Author: MDC

Has been a while since I blogged onto these pages – no excuses – just busy leading my best life possible.

The consultancy continues along with myself, our core team (Sue and Kathlin) and lots of interesting visitors – spending time on projects which focus on community development, place making strategies and strengthening social and community networks. Included in this is delivering local events, community art projects, establishing a community garden and facilitating lots of community and stakeholder workshops. Here’s a pic which includes one of our client reps Nadia D and Charlotte our community artist friend.  That’s me in the cream hat.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Our key focus remains public open space, community amenity and ensuring ‘life between buildings’ has meaning and adds to the quality of life experienced by all.

Some examples of what we’ve been up to:

BROWNLIE NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECTS

The team has been working in Bentley for the Department of Housing delivering community development services for about 18 months. We’ve done this through facilitating a series of capacity building projects to support a wider masterplan project to regenerate the area.

We’re very excited about the Bentley Community Garden – which is about to open it’s new site and has SBS completing a webdoc on it and it’s members – who are diverse and energetic.

 

 

 

 
We’ve held two fabulously successful Harmony Day Events which bring together hundreds of people from all walks of life, cultures and backgrounds and we’re planning to do it all again in 2012.  Locals from the Brownlie neighbourhood and reps from community groups put effort into many months of pre-planning and imagining this event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all including Sharon from the Salvation Army    who contributed outstandingly to face painting 100′s of f    faces and to Monica and Sarah from the local Division of General Practice for providing water, sunscreen and free blood pressure tests. We couldn’t do it without many others including the local Rotary who bbq 100′s of Halal sausages for us….

Charlotte continues to facilitate fun and sustainable art projects with people across the neighbourhood and in particular those involved with the community garden.   Here’s some fab art assembled into totem poles, made by the 3 local schools under her guidance.

 

 

 

 

 

 


CITY OF MELVILLE CULTURAL PLAN

We collaborated with Anne Goodall consulting to work on an interesting project for the City of Melville developing their cultural vitality plan. This included a school art project, a photovoice process, an online forum and lots of conversations with staff and community members about the culture of Melville and the quality of life they enjoy and want to maintain.


 

 

CITY OF FREMANTLE YOUTH PLAN

Again in collaboration with Anne G, we’ve been involved in assisting the City of Fremantle to check-in on youth needs and aspirations.  This has included one to one interviews, an online survey, dialogue with educational institutions, youth agencies and the community.  I’m always amazed and re-assured about the number of amazing people out there, working hard to make a difference, in particular to help out those who find themselves in difficult life transitions and situations.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CITYOF SUBIACO, PURPLE LOUNGE CONVERSATIONS

Following hot off the heels of our ‘red lounge conversations’ carried out for Town of Claremont. The City of Subiaco approached us to implement a similar process on their mainstreet with a focus on a bigger visioning process labelled Think2030. With the wonderful expertise of Gerald A we undertook filming in various locations, engaging people on the street (with the help of team member Sue’s excellent spruiking).


 

 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNITY/STAKEHOLDER FORUMS

This is core business for us – here’s a sample of some of our clients and focus areas:

  • Headspace Planning Day – mental health support and education for young people
  • Department of Education – youth transition and participation in education
  • City of Rockingham – urban art…balancing youth capacity building and the aesthetics of public amenities
  • City of Subiaco – local business input to developing public market guidelines (this included research on best practice and trends related to public markets)
  • Western Power – Mundaring Substation design workshops (this was an innovative approach aimed at improving the look and feel of heavy infrastructure through incorporating interpretive signage, art and public amenity) note: great exercise but the substation isn’t going to be built in that area after all…good lessons learnt though

PROBONO AND LOCAL PLACEMAKING

I consciously involve my self in local placemaking and probono opportunities. This allows me to ‘practice what I preach’ and experiment with ideas that may benefit clients and communities in the future.

Most fun and enjoyment was summer 2011 when I was involved with the Cappuccino Strip Street Club in Fremantle (check out Linda Blagg’s video ‘at home on a fremantle street’).  Influenced by our mate David Engwicht (world class place maker and authority on giving streets back to the people) and supported by City of Fremantle Council who dropped red tape to allow it to happen. Over 4 summer evenings we were able to play in various streets linked to South Terrace and in the end the mainstreet itself.  This was done by a group of volunteers who simply wanted to provide a blank canvas and invite the community in to come and enjoy the space. I was also interested in experimenting with different uses of the street (as I was chairperson of the South Terrace Improvement Group at the time – which has since reported to Council and included some of the lessons learnt that summer).  It really proved to me that people can self-organise and can feel perfectly comfortable in their own place if we let them be themselves and simply enjoy life.  Some of the most memorable things for me were:

  • lots of children and families feeling safe
  • people laughing, dancing and connecting
  • someone bringing a birdbath, teaching people to mosaic and having the project finished on the night
  • someone bringing her canvas and painting in the middle of the street
  • a sewing machine set up and people making ‘why we love Freo’ flags which got strung up on the spot
  • lots of costumes and opportunities to engage people passing by encouraging them to try on a wig or crazy outfit
  • the lovely Claire being our official ‘free hugs’ gal and the look on the faces of people visiting the street when they got one
  • flash choirs, dancers and ukulele bands
  • fake green grass as markers for ‘shared space’ and cars slowing down or re-routing in order to help make it happen
  • local business agreeing to let it happen and local council helping making it happen (they cut red tape and provided a seeding grant of $2,000 of which we spent about $800 because so much time and spirt was donated)
  • the ease in which we set up for 5pm and set down at around 9pm with the street going back to it’s usual purpose

The Cappuccino Strip Street Club ‘experiment’ was noticed near and far and other precincts around Fremantle have since taken on parts of their streets or public spaces for easy and low cost activities – such as bocce at the Round House and ping pong in Kings Square.  I love the fact that sometimes all you have to do is ‘give permission’ and then see what happens.  Involves some trust but after all isn’t that what makes the world go round!  I also love the notion of ‘use before design’ which allows us to test how people feel most comfortable using a space before big infrastructure is built or lots of $’s spent.

Watch out for more fun next summer and possibly sooner.

 

 


25 Oct 2010, Comments (1)

PLACE WISHING – inside and out

Author: MDC

Off to the Melbourne Place Making Conference today.  Check out the link for the program http://www.melbourneplacemakingseries.com.au/ It will be fabulous to be with some of my tribe from around the world. I’m also excited about hearing and meeting one of my favorite authors/critics/public speakers – James Howard Kunstler   http://www.kunstler.com/blog/ who I’m sure will stir things up nicely.  He’s the leading proponent for the New Urbanism movement and his books ‘Geography of Nowhere‘ and ‘End of Suburbia‘ really helped me understand the need for creating meaning in public spaces and communities.  Finding unique points of difference that create place stories rather than developing suburbs that all look the same and don’t feed our minds and souls.

As part of the Conference I’m presenting a short ‘place leaders’ session and am going to focus on the ideas of -’engaging on the street‘ and ‘use before design‘.  My work and experience have brought me to a place where I’m tired of working on strategic plans… that turn into reports… that get caught in bureaucratic tug of wars… and then sit on shelves collecting dust!

I want to be involved in evoking new ways of living and helping create positive stories in places – that capture the imagination of people (well before mega bucks are spent on infrastructure and buildings).

I want to work with the people I love to create rituals that symbolize what’s important in life and communities.

I want to help redirect resources to short term programming that builds neighbourhoods and capacity.

I want to ensure that people get a say in decisions that will impact on their life and the spaces they frequent.

I want to give the voiceless a voice by continuing to be a conduit between ordinary citizens and decision makers.

I want to encourage decision makers to get back on the street and actually meet the people in the places in which they live, work and play.

I want to be surrounded by youth and diversity in order to stay creative.

I want to support positive change  for those who are experiencing a less than best life – who are poor – financially or in spirit or in resources or in power or in networks.

I want to make sure that individuals are as important as systems and project processes by encouraging human to human contact.

I want 2011 to bring new ways of working collaboratively to develop innovative ideas which bring meaning and possibilities into my work and the communities I work with.

Only about 10 weeks to the end of the year – which is why I guess I’m musing about the year to come.  Time to get WISHING!

18 Sep 2010, Comments (1)

2010 the busiest most abundant year yet!

Author: MDC

I haven’t blogged for a while because I’ve been busy living my best life!

We sold, found our new property and moved earlier in the year to South Fremantle.  We’re settled into our new home and our first short term accommodation guest arrives next week.  We now have 3 businesses in the family – Forrest Menswear (John also has a new shop which is gorgeous in Hay Street, Subiaco), MDC Places Group (core business for me) and Green Door Hideaway (the short term accommodation cottage on our property).  All 3 businesses allow us to meet many, many wonderful people and continuously grow our relationships and networks.

Thanks to all those who have supported us over the past months and helped us maintain some balance and fun.  We love, love, love living in Fremantle – it truly is a great place and is continuing to grow and change daily.

I will be blogging more often now and really want to catch people up on some fabulous work and life projects I’ve been involved with.  My time over the last month has been taken up with:

1.  A cool Town of Claremont project where we have been interviewing people about their mainstreet – Bay  View Terrace.  We did some of this sitting on ‘fatboy bean bags’ on astro turf which was filmed and is currently being edited!  It was the most fun and really proved to me that you can evoke what’s possible by infusing places with color and vibrancy on a temporary basis.  It’s got me really thinking about use before design ie. demonstrating ideas to people before the big bucks get spent on buildings and infrastructure. It also confirmed how projects can run very smoothly if all involved do what they say and work as a team.  Thanks to Sue, Gerald, Mark and Michael and all those who agreed to be interviewed.

2.  Art in Bloom which happens bi-annually at the WA Art Gallery in spring.  I collaborated with our fabulous community artist team member, Charlotte O’Shea and we created a huge papier  mache cake.  It was a homage to the artist Vivienne Binns who was a leader in the feminist and community artist movement.  We were given a painting to respond to with an installation (along with another 120 folk who were allocated different art pieces).  The painting was called ‘memory of the unknown artist’ and was a statement about the value of both high art and art in everyday life – we all have an opportunity to create, whether we are doing craft, choosing what to wear or even baking a cake!  Art in Bloom is also an amazing place making event in that it brings people to the gallery and in touch with art who don’t usually do so.  Am off there again tomorrow with my 7 nieces and nephews and it will be great to see the children’s response to an art gallery full of flowers, color and the amazing smell of spring.  Thanks to Charlotte for sharing her studio, knowledge and abundant creativity.  We enjoyed the collaboration so much we are onto another project idea already!

3.  When I arrived in Fremantle, I was very conscious of what kind of contribution I might be able to give. Some of that is living locally and spending my money there in unique home grown businesses, rather than franchises in a big box shopping centre.  It’s been great fun exploring all the fab shops, cafes and happennings.  As part of of emersing myself I nominated for a City of Fremantle Council committee and am now the Chair of the South Terrace Working Group.  Along with other community  and business reps, we are coming up with short and long term strategies for enhancing the cafe strip. At the moment I’m hatching the idea of a ‘wishing booth’ which will happen as part of the Fremantle Festival in November aimed at capturing ideas from the general public, which will further inform our strategy development.  I’ll tell you more as the project grows.  I used the idea of ‘wishing’ a lot in our work.  We often ask communities what their ‘greatest wish’ for their area is.  People respond well and reading other people’s wishes connects community members and inspires them.  Dublin have done it through Designing Dublin a not for profit group who have asked citizens to wish for the future of that city   http://design21c.com/wishes.  Have a read and do some wishing of your own.  I believe in the power of positive thinking, visualising and imagining what’s possible.  Wishes have come true for me many, many times. It’s a powerful thing.

That’s all for now gotten get on with cleaning house – general life chores get left behind when one is busy – but it’s important to keep my own place comfortable and fabulous too!  ciao for now.  M

24 Apr 2010, Comments (2)

Fremantle musings

Author: MDC

As lots of you know we have moved to Fremantle.  It happened this week and we are now living in a neat little cottage on the ground floor with a small garden complete with 3 olive trees and fish pond.  Our bird Bubbie has setttled in but the cat Astro is a little bit spooked!

It’s already fabulous in Fremantle with almond croissants and a cuppa next door at La Vespa most mornings and testing the restaurants that meander down our road each night!  Will need to watch our weight though and I intend to get into some of the local yoga or pilates soon.  Regular walks down to South Beach and a bike ride or two should sort things out.

Have to say it feels completely different to the apartment (which I was very sad to leave – particularly some of the people we met there).  The main points of difference I think are:

- a sense of history both regards to our property and Fremantle in general vs something recently built (although we will be moving to a contemporary space upstairs eventually)

- uniqueness vs codified sameness (which does happen in apartment complexes as beautiful as they can be)

- ability to create our own space and story vs needing to go through a corporate body to make changes

- an already vibrant mainstreet vs an area with lots of potential but many hoops to jump through before change happens (now now my good friends at the City of Melville, you know I’m on your side and will continue to  help with your great place making ventures)

- friendly local shop owners who we are already getting to know after only a few days and local trades people who have been quick to respond

- feeling like we are back with our ‘tribe’ given we are pretty eclectic and a little left of centre vs being in a gentrified place (mind you John and I are good at fitting in anywhere – which we also experience when we go travelling.  I think it’s because we consider ourselves global citizens and ageless!)

Must get back to the packing boxes now…    

27 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

Visiting wise men from the East

Author: MDC

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a networker extraordinaire.  It’s in my nature to meet new people easily and to connect with them and I can’t help myself but link them with each other too.  I’m always intriqued to see what happens and if they can find synergy and ways of working together.  As part of this I regularly spend time building my relationship with colleagues elsewhere in the world.  This month 3 ‘wise men from the East’ visited Perth and I had the opportunity to participate in workshops they presented and chat with them about their work.  Here’s some of what they had to say and my learnings from the experience.

Crispin Butteriss from Bang the Table visited Perth in early March.  I’ve put up my hand to be their WA representative because I’m interested in what they do and have a desire to build my IT skills.  Bang the Table provides an on-line consultation service which provides opportunities for community conversations  in people’s own time and place.  I think it’s an easy to use product which is friendly and well moderated.  I’m exploring the use of the on-line forums in various projects I’m working on.

We recently had a forum running for the Brownlie Neighbourhood Regeneration Project my team are involved with.  We had a good number of people viewing the site and a small number making actual comment.  What I’ve learnt from this and observing other sites is that on-line solutions work well if they are part of a broader engagement suite of activities and if good marketing/communication takes place to let people know about the on-line forum.  If an issue is ‘hot’ there is more likelihood that people will be energised to have a say and that it’s fine if they just log on to look and not make a comment.  This can be interpreted in lots of ways, including that people maybe ‘ok’ with the issue/topic/project at hand.  Lots of comments do not necessarily mean success.  What I’m liking is where organisations have chosen to have ongoing on-line comment opportunities for citizens – check out Have Your Say at Port Phillip.  I think this gets people used to the idea of commenting on-line and builds a good data base and practice.  Crispin said, “commenting on-line is free and easy, it allows ordinary folk to speak and be heard in order to make a difference. Most importantly they can see what other people think too”. My challenge to you – check out Bang the Table on-line, find other on-line opportunities and make comment as an ordinary citizen yourself. Check out locally built Places for Me too (it’s a great site linking to Google Maps where you can comment on specific places).  Get skilled up and remember this is going to be the normal way of the world for the next generation.

David Engwicht spent a couple of weeks here from mid March and I was lucky enough to be part of a City of Melville project focussing on adding vitality to the Canning Bridge Precinct.  This wasn’t about mega dollar solutions but about finding small, short term and low cost options to growing local community experiences and life.  David is an innovator and creative and really pushed our thinking.  On the morning of the 15th March he ran an action learning breakfast for IAP2 where we played with ways of improving the use of an outdoor ampitheatre next to the City of Melville library, civic and shopping centre.  I was thrilled with the simple but cool ideas that emerged.  For example, bringing the library outdoors (and pretty well doubling their space) by encouraging book readings outside, placing cushions with disused books in zip lock bags for staff and shoppers to stop and read, holding staff meetings outside, encouraging community groups to use the space more.  It was interesting, that at all the community and staff meetings we were often locked onto harder and more expensive ideas to implement and David challenged us to change our thinking and begin with good symbolic stuff that could grow the story and experiences of places.  I learnt that most importantly starting small but energetically can build momentum and bring much bigger things. Quite empowering really.  David said, “create strategies with what you’ve got…a space does not become a place until it is used for a purpose other than the designer intended…everything we all do determines the quality of experience people have in public spaces…including in our own homes and in the reclaiming of our front yards.” My challenge to you – go ahead put a seat or bench in your front yard, have dinner out the front, play board games, talk to your neighbours and supervise the kids playing on the footpath.


Gilbert Rochescoute from Village Well was the last to drop into town in March where he ran a Masterclass workshop focussed on place making and the art of authentic engagement. I’ve spent lots of time with Gil and it was great to have him here with his high energy and clear thinking about where the global human story is at.  I’ve long been drawn to Village Well, their practices and approaches. They continue to be holistic, deeply committed and on the cutting edge.  Gil and his partner Amadis are 2 of the most authentic people I know, practicing what they preach.  They were recently featured in The Age because they have dug up their front verge, put in edible plants, set up a table and chairs (where they welcome people to sit and give away extra produce and eggs).  They have basically created a community hub in the suburbs!   Gil sees Place Making as ‘the new environmentalism‘ – an integral approach to delivering place – social, cultural, economic, environmental and spiritual.  Jacque Robinson (Village Well team member and skilled community facilitator), co presented with Gil and shared her years of experience of engaging with communities authentically.  Her emphasis on social justice and community building reminded us all of the responsibility we have when working with communities, to do no further harm and to hold people in the experiences we create,  gently.  During their presentations some of the words and things they said were, “intent is key…it is important to allow community to create their own place using their own language so that they recognize themselves and that…our projects are part of history and fit into a continuum of the story of a place.”  My challenge to you – get out from behind your desks and walk the street and places you are working in, get to know the people, the business operators and those who visit there, it will make the process of engagement so much more real.  Get to know your neighbour and find ways of practicing your place making at home too.

I’ve had a big month with lots of work, selling and buying a house and dealing with my own issues of needing to take personal care and time to reflect.  It has been fabulous however during this time to reconnect with these 3 wise men (and 1 excellent woman), grow my friendship with them and know that I’m not alone in my desires to place make and contribute to the world we live in!


18 Mar 2010, Comments (2)

Places in the country…

Author: MDC

NEWS FLASH!  Over 100 Goomalling folk came to the project launch and local business expo on Thursday night.  That’s 10% of the area population.  Fantastic…

My team and I are currently involved with a lovely project in regional Western Australia (WA).  It’s focussed on regional resilience and helping little towns to thrive and grow into the future. It’s called Living Towns or Living Communities.

With WA so heavily reliant on the resources boom (mining and big business), we are already seeing little places that have put all their ‘eggs in one basket’ suffer when those global multinationals move out of town.  Couple this with the lure of the big city and large regional centres (particularly for young people) and the picture for some towns is unclear.

Living Communities aims to help build the resilience of towns by working with local people to create a community vision that includes social entrepreneurship and new business ideas.  We are embarking on a first pilot in Goomalling in Western Austalia’s wheatbelt 132 kilometres east of Perth.  The local community and Shire have been wonderful in welcoming us and teaching us that little places can have big hearts and dreams.  We are launching the project tonight with a community information evening and will keep you posted as to our regional adventures. We are hoping the model will spread and be applicable to other regional towns.  Check out Greg Winning’s blog for more about new economic approaches to living life in 2010.  Here’s a pic of some of the team including local Steering Committee members (our t-shirts say ‘help plug Goomalling’…

and Sue Crock and I at the local lovely caravan park…

Gerald has done a wonderful job of interviewing locals…

More to come soon. M

1 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

Perth….a city living on the edge of time

Author: MDC

I love living in Perth…I like the fact it is far away, isolated and young.  I love it’s beautiful environs, mix of people and most of all it’s potential to be a creative cutting-edge place.

We don’t need to follow – we can lead and I certainly don’t think we are ‘dull’!

Last week I helped facilitate a gathering of people who were continuing the conversation about Perth as a CBD and metropolitan area (at the Capital City Planning Framework forum).  We were most interested in what the common place story for Perth is and how we can communicate and grow that story.  Sue Burrows, Director Development Services at the City of Subiaco was one of the speakers and she’s allowed me to reproduce her talk – thanks Sue!  So here it is.  Enjoy, I’m sure it will resonate with you as it did with me, both in terms of how we live now and the challenges we face whilst planning into the future…

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“Good morning, I am here today representing my planning colleagues from the inner local governments which include the City’s of Subiaco and South Perth, The Towns of Cambridge, Vincent and Victoria Park.  I would like start this presentation by providing an overview of the inner city environment, (the issues, opportunities and challenges), by using a series of words to create a picture.

The inner City suburbs have over a century of community building, blending the old with the new, the working class grit with new affluence.

We have:

  • weatherboard to high rise
  • Outhouses to penthouses.
  • Backyards, courtyards and balconies.
  • Stained glass windows and front yards designed to be seen.
  • We have green leafy streets, secret streets, and back lanes,
  • Cricket in the back yard, neighbours talking over fences, in our streets.  Our communities and visitors alike, gather at our local parks, Kings Park, the zoo or the river.
  • We entertain with AFL, Rugby, and Soccer.
  • Large music venues, resorts, theatres, pubs, clubs and small bars.
  • Our local schools are again full.
  • We have corner shops to magnificent mainstreets and town centres.
  • We do have a local butcher, the weekly shopping trip, and top end retail.
  • You can wine and dine from a world menu
  • You can walk, cycle, train, bus or skate.
  • We have remnants of our past Industrial and manufacturing estates,
  • We have the ever expanding education and health institutions.
  • We attract workers and visitors in their thousands
  • We share our streets our facilities, our services with all walks of life.
  • We have the same social and amenity benefits, or problems affecting any major inner City
  • We have well defined traffic routes that lead to the City Core.  We also have traffic congestion, ever increasing parking demand, thru roads, freeways and railway lines that connect us, yet also divide our communities.
  • We are diverse, eclectic, multicultural, with an ever changing urban fabric.

To the future, from Network City to Directions 2031, the inner city local governments have been planning to provide growth and prosperity.  Some areas reaching for the skies, other areas retaining blue skies.  We are planning for the communities of today and tomorrow and in doing so recognising the past, by ensuring our individual, character, heritage and uniqueness remains.  This is represented in each of the inner city local government’s strategic plans and visions.

Going forward we are planning for our future communities to be:

  • Child friendly, safe and enticing to all ages.
  • Diverse in demographic makeup, housing choices, employment opportunities, entertainment, recreational and tourism pursuits.
  • We are planning for local communities, knowledge communities, blended communities, real communities.
  • We want vibrant and diverse centres of activity
  • We need to be Accessible, walkable and connected, not divided by major infrastructure.
  • We need integrated transport options.
  • Not to become clones of each other, but to protect the unique character and cultural aspects that makes an area attractive, not just its location.

Each local government is at various stages in master planning for the new wave of growth and urban living demands. Intensification of our urban fabric is occurring and will continue to do so.  In total 16 precincts have been identified in meeting new targets for growth. This does not include, the planning being undertaken to either create, or intensify nodes of development on our main streets and transit corridors.

We will see major growth on the river peninsulas, not only to take advantage of access to the City core, but spectacular views to the river, the City and our hinterland.  Balancing the old with the new, we are adding to the vibrancy of our main streets and activity centres, with a mixture of commercial uses to service both the local and the wider community, while providing living areas above.  Also preserving residential character neighbourhoods, which in the majority of cases have good building stock on small lots, they provide living choices, help to define urban form and provide green lungs for the City.

What is needed is:

  • Better connections, mass transit systems that do not divide, but connect our major centres of activity, our health and educational institutions, our knowledge arc, tourist attractions and our town centres.  For example …….Crawley to Subiaco, Subiaco to Leederville.  Curtin University to the Perth/ Armadale line.  A station at South Perth.
  • Old centres need to be reconnected. West Leederville and Leederville.
  • Better connections north of the City Core connecting the east with the west.
  • Utilizing the river as a way to connecting communities and attractions.
  • The wider good needs to be serve, but not at the loss of our unique character and local accessibility.

The inner City local governments are working across their boundaries for the betterment of the central area, looking at the bigger picture, the future for inner City living, at growth and prosperity and being connected.

Thank you.”


24 Feb 2010, Comments (0)

The zen of Antartica and the need for sanctuary from everyday life…

Author: MDC

I’ve long been drawn to Antartica. To start with I love the winter and cold weather but my attraction was also something about getting away from the chaos of everyday life and into a zen place. The definition of ‘zen’ I’m talking about is:

simplicity, naturalness, freedom from attachment, and tranquillity

On Sunday 14th February 2010 I got my opportunity and was part of a Qantas flight over that great white continent and it was wow! Like everything and nothing I imagined. We flew over it for about 4 hours and saw great expanses of snow, sheer ice cliffs, mountainous ranges and lots of blue blue sea. It was inspiring and mysterious at the same time and what I noticed as I looked at my fellow passengers was that we were all enjoying its bliss and uniqueness. We were also captivated by stories of early explorers and how they crossed such hard and difficult terrain.

Mind you, we paid good money and it confirmed for me that we are well and truly moving to an ‘experience economy’ with people wanting to spend hard-earned money on life rather than just stuff.

Often the experiences we try to create via urban design, place making and programming is about vibrancy and activity. I think we also need places that provide calm and sanctuary, where we can re-energise and find balance. In my experience these places can be created for low cost and in forgotten spaces between buildings with some imagination and by allowing nature in.

Rooftops really interest me too. On a recent trip to Melbourne I went to numerous rooftop small bars, up winding stairs being surprised by eclectic furniture, good drinks, interesting food offerings and the shapes of surrounding buildings framing the wide open sky…next time you’re there check out Campari beer garden in Hardware Lane and Siglo bar on Spring Street.

7 Feb 2010, Comments (3)

How big is a ‘place’ ?

Author: MDC

I’ve been pondering – “how big is a place?” .

In the work I do, it’s often a town centre or mainstreet and sometimes a whole suburb or town.  I reckon though it can be much smaller and bigger.

A ‘place’ I think can start in the heart

How I feel on the inside, my sense of self and my connection to people and the places I frequent.  I really believe in doing the internal work to get to know yourself – who you are warts and all!  The life journey for me is about becoming my own best friend and then challenging myself to grow.  The more I do, the more comfortable I become with myself, how I relate to others and being authentic in my work as a facilitator and place maker.  You can’t ignore the self and how it impacts on how we move into and out of our daily life and spaces.

On the other hand, I think a ‘place’ can be huge!  the World, Australia, Western Australia, Perth – the Universe…

I like to think of myself as a ‘global citizen’ a ‘world explorer’ and I do feel connected to those I know around the world and to those I haven’t even met.  The link between my personal self and the rest of the world impacts on how I walk my daily life whether with those I love, my neighbourhood, at work or in the public places I spend time in.  It’s at the end of the day about ‘respect’ for all that is beautiful – other people, our environment and the interesting social spaces we create that bring meaning, joy and sometimes pain into our lives.

I love the Hindu greeting ‘namaste’ – it has a number of meanings including “I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of love, integrity of wisdom and peace.  When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One”.   In simple terms it can be a form of ‘welcome’ or even ‘gidday’ and is usually said with the head bowed and palms to forehead.  I often whisper it when I see a stranger or even a living thing that isn’t travelling so well.  I’d like to say it to you too…

NAMASTE!

  • Mary Del Casale

  • Mary Del Casale

  • Lead consultant of mdc places group
    We’re a small but energetic consultancy focussed on creating more meaning and vibrancy in the ‘third’ place - the social and community settings people spend their lives in. I’m also passionate about food and sustainability matters and I’m a frequent national and international traveler from my base in Perth, Western Australia, to discuss and collaborate on these issues. Find out more >

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