Gregory Terrace was filled with trees and plants as part of a Green The Street installation at the 2018 Ekka in Brisbane, designed to model how a public street can enhance a community’s health, happiness and lifestyle.
The demonstration ran from August 10-19 and transformed 70 metres of the Terrace with four zones: the Healthy City, Virtual Reality Experience, Urban Forest and Urban Agriculture, designed by Catherine Simpson, Senior Urban Designer with RobertsDay.
“The street has been incredibly popular. About 400,000 people come to the Ekka each year but it has still been surprising to us to see how people are engaging with it. I’m quite delighted actually,” Simpson told StreetChat.
“People are drawn to different parts: the lush street forest, the urban agriculture zone with native bees, the urban artpark and artworks get a lot of photos, and the virtual reality vision of the future of the street has actually had queues.”
Street Furniture Australia is proud to contribute Forum Seats and Cafe Stools featuring Cumaru timber battens and bright powder coats in Telemagenta Pink, Sensation Orange, Bondi Blue, Brilliant Yellow and Pearl White.
“As soon as we had the Forum Seats in place they have been used, and the colours have really complemented the artworks around them. Even during the build they were used by the artists as a spot to crochet,” says Simpson.
“I’d actually highly recommend them from an activation perspective – this is the second time I’ve used them after the Future Street installation (Circular Quay, Sydney, 2017). They are very robust and the bright colours, especially the pink and yellow against the green, really draw people into the space.”
The furniture invites visitors to relax in the Healthy City and Urban Forest zones, which use swathes of grass, shady trees and chill-out spots to demonstrate how a “street is more than a street,” says Simpson.
“It can be a parkland, a place for relaxation, somewhere to spend time with friends, to work or to be active,” she says.
“At a population level, both ample green space and active transport mitigate the effects of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, as well as social isolation, depression and health inequalities.
“Streets can work so much harder than they do, by providing these critical benefits.”
The Queensland University of Technology will conduct surveys during the installation to record what visitors would like to see from the future streets of Brisbane.
“They are telling us they want more trees and shade, since Queensland streets can get extremely hot, more bicycles and bike lanes, more open space and nature including native beehives, and fewer high rises,” says Simpson.
“A couple of strange ones include street waterslides and time machines, as we are surveying both kids and adults.
“Since the response from the public has been so strong, we want to advocate further for more of these kinds of streets in Brisbane and Australia.”
The installation also includes a virtual reality experience showing how Gregory Terrace could look in 30 years, with an emphasis on green and community spaces rather than technology, she adds.
“We were quite conscious of showing a street that isn’t unnecessarily Jetsons-ish. We think the tech in our future should support greener and healthier cities, and not merely new kinds of cars and products.”
Some 30 diverse organisations have contributed to the street, including city farms and engineers, committees and designers, QUT, students and tech innovators.
The project was commissioned by the RNA and Flower and Garden Committee for the Ekka for 2018, and Simpson hopes to see the installation return at future events.
“The reaction from the public has been incredible,” she says.
“People are telling us they want to see more of this and we are definitely coming back next year. Watch this space.”
Collaborators include:
- RobertsDay.
- Define Landscape Architecture, Real Serious Games and the Ageing Revolution.
- The Queensland University of Technology.
- Street Furniture Australia.
- Artwork and yarn bombing created and coordinated by Shore Street Studio and friends of Bowerbird Heritage. Murals by Imogene Peach Art, Sculley Design and Moon Gallery.
- Trees, shrubs, turf and mulch by Brookfield Garden Centre, Jimboomba Turf Group and Lawn Solutions, Pallara Trees, Aspley Nursery, Rudders Road, Rocky Point Turf and the NGIQ (Nursery and Garden Industry Queensland).
- Innovative Rigging.
- Northey Street Farm, Spaceplants, Flow Hive, Darwen Hives, Bee Yourself, Sugarbag Bees and Vegepods.
- Electric bike sharing by BYKKO.
- AILA QFresh.
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