Victorian Projects and Sites
Britannia Mall
introduction / overview / images / location /Projects
Landscape Architect: Site Office Landscape Architecture
Location: Whitehorse Road, Mitcham
Project date: 2006
Introduction
Scattered across the suburbs are countless ‘everyday’ landscapes that are embedded in the daily life of people. In an era when social interaction is being altered by new forms of entertainment and communication and where transport is dominated by the private car, these landscapes remain important places to meet and interact with others. These are the landscapes we pass through regularly to purchase the milk, drop off the video and try our luck with a tattslotto ticket. Even though we do not necessarily ‘see’ these landscapes, there is an important sense of familiarity that underpins these types of civic spaces.
In this sense, these landscapes are an important part the physical fabric that draws the community together. Unlike larger privately owned shopping malls, with their suite of chain stores and impersonal décor, the charm of Britannia Mall is its friendly, local atmosphere. Small, suburban shopping centres like Britannia Mall have become the default urban spaces which people use on a daily basis, offering the opportunity for regular social interaction and exchange. It is because these public spaces are engrained within the daily habit of people that makes them so important.
BRIEF:
Yet over time, many of these landscapes have suffered from a lack of investment in the quality of public space, resulting in a degraded and underutilized landscape, and underperforming commercial tenants.
Given their civic importance, how do you re-invent the local suburban shopping mall to make it more meaningful and useful in the new century?
How do you reconfigure spaces such as Britannia Mall to encourage people to linger and enjoy themselves, and promote a sense of civic pride and participation within the community?
Given the sheer number of similar landscapes across the city, how can we improve the civic quality of these spaces within the constraints of limited capital works budgets?
introduction / overview / images / location /Projects
2008
