New South Wales Projects & Sites
"The Meeting Place" - Laneways: By George! Hidden Networks
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
Landscape Architect: ASPECT Studios
Location: Little Hunter Street, Sydney, New South Wales
Introduction
THE MEETING PLACE is a combination of public artwork, architectural installation, sculpture and social experiment. It is a playful installation which encourages participation and interaction whilst heightening the experience of moving through the urban space of Little Hunter Street in Sydney’s CBD.
The project encouraged a playful physical engagement with the work whilst also creating a social event within the lane. This interaction brings an unexpected burst of life to an otherwise underutilised service laneway.
The design consisted of two 4m high curtain walls of highly tensioned yellow elastic fabric which was stretched over a modular steel frame. The project both amplified the vertical scale of the lane and compressed the space. The design introduced a human and material intimacy to the space, establishing unfamiliar proximity between bodies and space. Two offset sweeping curves were designed to ‘meet’ in the centre of the lane - further enhancing and compressing the spatial experience, and alluding to the curves and architectural forms of Seidler’s adjacent Australia Square building – hence the name The Meeting Place.
The simplicity and clarity of the concept allowed a lot of other experiences to play out through the colour, scale and transparency of the material as people were encouraged to touch and engage with the work. One of the design objectives was that the installation should have different engagement from the day to night experience. The material had an opacity to it which allowed for views through and when lit at night became a canvas for revealing the movement of people through the space. The movement activated lighting was an innovative and artistic display and it transformed the laneway into both a delightful and safe environment.
The project altered the day to day experience of people by encouraging social interaction through communication and contact with people moving in the opposite direction. This unprogrammed interaction increased positive human contact with a sense of play.
introduction / overview / images / location / Projects
2011
