Wollongong CBD: Are we doing it right? by arki_lab

Wollongong CBD : Are we doing it right? An arki_nopoly report arki_lab Designing Cities With People

Rasmus Frisk Architect MAA + Urban Designer CEO and Partner of arki_lab rf@arkilab.dk DK +45 2628 0303

Jeanette Frisk

arki_lab Designing Cities With People

arki_lab ApS Birkegade 4 2200 KĂ¸benhavn N Danmark

Architect MAA + Urban Designer Partner of arki_lab jf@arkilab.dk DK +45 2814 3717

YALDA PILEHCHIAN (Contact Person) Urban Designer Urbanist MSc + Architect B.Arch yp@arkilab.dk +45 5047 5222

arki_lab Designing Cities With People

About this report

Disclaimer

This report is written based on the outcome of a series of workshops that was conducted in Wollongong, as part of a collaboration between arki_lab, a Copenhagen based urban planning and design office, and SMART Infrastructure Facility of the University of Wollongong.

arki_lab was neither paid or appointed to make this report and the recommendations are mostly only based on the suggestions that were put forward by the citizens. This is really important to be kept in mind, when reading this report.

The aim of the collaboration was to test-play arki_nopoly, a citizen involvement tool created by arki_lab, in order to investigate the possibility of digitizing the tool and utilizing it on a larger scale. The case area for the game was Crown Street Mall and Wollongong Central and their surrounding blocks. The outcome of these workshops are presented in this report.

Should any changes be made to the area based on the outcome of these arki_nopoly sessions, more comprehensive background studies should be conducted and combined with the data presented here to ensure a fruitful intervention.

This report is prepared in two parts. In the first part the game, arki_nopoly, is presented and in the second part the outcome of workshops are presented and analyzed. This is a mini-report that is merely prepared to demonstrate the potentials of arki_nopoly as a highly efficient tool for collecting data from the citizens.

Table of content About this report - Disclaimer

What is arki_nopoly? What are the benefits of playing arki_nopoly? SMART and arki_lab collaboration Participants

7 8 9 10

The case: Wollongong CBD

Conclusion

What is arki_nopoly? Arki_nopoly is a board-game tool, that aims to activate and involve citizens in urban design processes. Arki_nopoly follows the universally accessible board-game design principles, which is easy for everyone to relate to and grasp quickly.

What is important about arki_nopoly is that it makes us discuss our living environment, criticize it and see its beauties. It enables us to see our living environment as something we can have an influence on, instead of something immutable that we just have to live with.

The game is centered around an area, which could be as small as a room or as big as a city, and the aim of the game is for the players to know their immediate surroundings with its potentials and shortcomings better, analyze it, reflect on it and come up with suggestions for its improvement. All of this is done in a simple way: through a set of questions placed around the board. With every new question that is answered, the players acquire more insight into the area. After all the questions are answered, the players are asked to look at all the information that they have gathered throughout the game, and come up with design solutions for the area, based on their previous findings. The flexible structure of the game makes it possible to use it in a diverse range of projects. The game has been played at schools with kids, at the university with students, at a deprived neighborhood with the inhabitants, and in mixed groups of players from all ages.

Why arki_nopoly? Gamification is one of the recent innovative trends in participatory urban planning that encourages engagement through adding game-like elements to the otherwise nongaming environments. arki_nopoly is a response to this trend. This tool is designed to aid the users to gain a better understanding of their local area. The main objectives of the game are: learning about basic socio-spatial analysis, problem identification, and idea articulation. arki_nopoly builds on the idea that learning could be increased through gaming as it is more attractive and dynamic compared to the traditional teaching methods. The gaming effect is not only important in the case of children and young people, it is also highly valuable in the case of adults. This is because adults may not learn the same way as children, and gaming is a way to introduce various concepts to them and to increase their awareness about their living environment. Gamification is also great way to include those who are alienated from the planning and design discourse, as it presents the complex concepts in a simple and comprehensive way.

building. The game is centered around sites of interest and can connect people who live/ have interest in the same area. But on top of this all, through playing arki_nopoly we can create a database of citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ideas and suggestions for their city, which could largely benefit us in urban development.

arki_nopoly was a great way of generating conversations about the local urban space, which enabled our ideas about the local area to come together.

arki_nopoly could serve as a tool for community

Smart and arki_lab collaboration arki_nopoly was first test-played in 2012 and ever since, it has been continuously used and improved in various arki_lab projects. Capitalizing on this experience and encouraged by the positive outcome of using this tool, in 2016 arki_lab decided to take the project one step further and develop a computerassisted version of arki_nopoly. At the same time, University of Wollongong expressed its interest to digitize arki_nopoly. This collaboration was kick-started with test-playing arki_nopoly with 5 different groups of people from various backgrounds at the University of Wollongong. SMART and arki_lab are working on the digitization now and the first prototype will be presented in September at the next ISAGA conference in Melbourne. SMART and arki_lab hope to make arki_nopoly more accessible and flexible thorough digitization and to create a comprehensive data bank of citizens wishes and ideas for their city which would be a great resource for designers and municipalities.

In Australia, we have to start considering participatory planning through serious gaming-based approaches. This is especially important for identifying potential buy-in. In Australia, we have so many master plans done for different areas, but we are struggling to implement them. Community engagement and participation is known to be the right solution to that complex, but we are challenged to find the right entry door. We need an evolving, flexible tool that could be used with school kids, citizens, planners and any mix of them. We need to convince town planners that this is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;seriousâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; enough to invest their time and energy. With arki_nopoly we can make a thorough database of citizen ideas that could help us to that end. Pascal Perez, Director at SMART Infrastructure Facility

Participants The game was played in 5 different sessions, where people from different backgrounds participated, discussed and shared their ideas about their cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CBD and suggested solutions to improve it. These sessions were facilitated by arki_lab. The first

session was played by the SMART staff, which was followed by sessions with researchers, city planners, local business owners and mixed age-groups.

Local Business Owners

City Planners

Mixed Age-group

SMART Staff

Researchers

arki_nopoly gaming sessions

In the following section, the outcome of five sessions of playing arki_nopoly is presented in three different categories. These categories are: access and connectivity, activities and use and image and sociability. At the beginning of each category, the problems identified by the participants are presented and located on the map, this is followed by suggestions and solutions for those problems, mostly proposed by the participants as well. This chapter is closed by a short conclusion that summarizes the section and proposes a three-fold strategy to upgrade and improve the area.

Access and Connectivity Problems and recommendations

ACCESS and Connectivity The questions of this category were concentrated on different modes of transport and general accessibility of the area. The participants were asked to draw their main access corridors and identify the most used modes of transport in the area. Later, they were asked to identify the unaccessible parts of the area as well as the general accessibility and transportation problems and to propose their solutions to solve these problems and improve overall connectivity and accessibility of the area. Transportation, being one of the currently hot topics of Wollongong, generated a lot of discussions between the participants. One of the most pointed out problems was the high congestion especially in Princess Highway and Crown Ln. The area in general, except for the pedestrianized part of Crown St. was perceived as pedestrian unfriendly. It was pointed out several times that the high pace of traffic and lack of pedestrian crossings make it very difficult for pedestrians to access the mall. It was mentioned multiple times that the area is not disabled access friendly. Lack of ramps and travelators makes it difficult for the disabled or people with stroller to access different parts

of the area or the pedestrian bridges on top of the highway.. One of the other issues that most of the participants were concerned about, was lack of bike infrastructure. Shared lanes between bikes and other modes of transport were considered as problematic and dangerous and a need for a more bikefriendly area was pointed out. Visibility in the street corners with car-traffic was one of the other issues that was pointed out by the participants. This was especially highlighted for the corner between Market St. and Church St. The other issue related to accessibility was dealing with total permeability in the area. The Mall was considered as a massive barrier that blocked the access between different parts of the area.

The following map shows the areas that were marked as problematic by the participants.

Impressions of ACCESS and Connectivity

10 3 8

6 7

5 9

Problem areas 1

Traffic is too fast and there is no pedestrian crossing.

Dangerous corner, with very limited visibility.

Pedestrians have no priority when they reach the end of the walking street.

Congested, high activity cross.

Pedestrians have no priority.

Very pedestrian unfriendly street.

Heavily congested area with poor East-West access. and inadequate pedestrian priority.

Bikes, buses, bicycles and pedestrians combine here and create congestion.

So many conflicting modes of transport makes it difficult for the pedestrians to cross the street.

Pedestrian access is missing here.

Lack of travelators and access for wheel-chairs and strollers.

Recommendations for ACCESS and Connectivity It is recommend that in the CBD area pedestrians are prioritized. Easy and safe pedestrian access to the Mall, the church , Wollongong Central and university building are the key to make the area more livable. There is a high pedestrian flow to and from these buildings and facilitating it should have high priority. This could be done with installing more traffic lights and integrating more pedestrian crossings in the area. To make the area more pedestrian friendly, it is recommended that in general, amenities are improved. Improving the footpaths, lighting, and urban furniture, fx more green around the footpath or more seating, could be a way to do so. Car traffic should be slowed down and be redistributed to the adjacent streets as much as possible. This will increase safety for the pedestrians and will create a more pleasant environment for the emerging cafes, restaurants and bars in the area. In short term, slowing down the traffic could be done through installing speed bumps and traffic lights. It is ideal that in long-term, car traffic is redirected out of CBD. This is however only possible after extensive studies of the area, implementing an advanced orbital strategy and improving public transportation and access to the area. There is no blueprint for pedestrianizing an area, it should be a thorough,

thought process, where the city and citizens are made prepared, otherwise it could result in declining the businesses in the area. the successful and unsuccessful examples of pedestrianization must be thoroughly studied before making any decisions. It is recommended that lanes for different modes of transport, for example buses, cars and bikes are separated. This will help a smoother flow and will contribute to the overall safety of the area. A bike strategy should be made and implemented and bike infrastructure should be integrated into the area. Building bike infrastructure should go hand in hand with campaigns to promote biking and creating a safe bike culture. Infrastructure alone would not solve so much of the problem. Allowing bikes and skaters to the pedestrianized lane through the mall could increase the liveliness of the mall, especially after hours and minimize vandalism. Finally, disabled, pram and trolley access in and outside of the buildings should be built to make the area accommodating to all users. Travelators are preferred to escalators, as they also accommodate the disabled.

Activities and uses Problems and recommendations

Activities and uses At this stage of the game, the participants were asked to identify different activities that are taking place in different spaces. They were asked to identify multi-functional spaces and reflect on why some spaces are working better than the others. They were also asked to identify underused spaces, and propose solutions to make more use of those spaces. One of the main outcome of this stage was that several parts of the area were considered as being underused by the participants. This is typical for many CBD areas, where the activity rate falls considerably after hours. For Wollongong CBD this especially applies to the pedestrianized Mall street and the many parking areas that are completely unactivated after hours.

into account the rarity of green spaces in the area. Being a private ground prevents the church from being used as much as it could. The Humber roof top bar was identified as one of the popular places, as well as Wollongong Central terraces on Princess Highway.

The other main outcome was that the Mall area was not largely considered as public space by the participants. The Mall, only functioning as a retail space, was seen as mostly private than public and hence underutilized. When the shops are closed, the area suddenly loses its liveliness. Globe lane is considered as a street with lots of potential, that is underutilized. The church yard is considered to have much potential, taking

Impressions of Activities and uses

7 2

1 6

Problem areas 1

This pedestrian street is underused after the mall is closed.

This parking is underused after the mall is closed.

This area is underused and lacks lively, creative businesses.

The church yard is private ground and is massively underused.

The upper amphitheater area is underutilized.

Globe Lane has lots of potential, but is underutilized.

The roof parking is underutilized, especially after hours.

The pedestrian street is underused in general, due to lack of inviting furniture and diverse activities.

Recommendations for activities and uses CBDs are typically underused after hours and Wollongong CBD is not an exception. The area is mostly mono-functional and most spaces are allocated to retail and to parking spaces that are linked to retail activities. For the same reason, users of the area are from a very limited age and social group, which creates segregation and decreases liveliness.

The church yard could be used as an open green space with seating, as well as a place for community activities where different events such as outdoor exhibitions or concerts take place. Community garden could also be a good way to activate the church yard and use it as an intergenerational space where families could spend time together.

The availability of several cafes and restaurants and the Market View Student Accommodation are some of the potentials that Wollongong CBD could utilize in order to continue to be lively after hours. The more people use the area, the safer the area becomes and the less vandalism occurs, which eventually will result in flourishing the businesses located in the area.

Night markets are another way to activate the mall area after hours. Markets could be combined with music, workshops or various other events to make it more appealing to different age, and social groups.

There are various ways that the area could be activated after hours. One way to keep the area lively after hours is introducing more diverse activities such as cafes, bars, restaurants and outdoor dining.

The roof parking could be used as a camping site after hours, which could help activating the night economy. Next to introducing temporary and after hours activities to the spaces, improving the furniture and lighting and adding more green to the area could help improving the quality of spaces and making the area more lively.

The parking area at the intersection of Market St and Church St at Wollongong Central, could be used after hours by the student accommodationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residents for sport activities.

Image and Sociability Problems and recommendations

Image and Sociability At this stage, the participants were asked to share their impression of different parts of the area and to reflect on why they find some spaces more inviting than the others. Then they were asked to propose ways to make spaces more accommodating and inviting to different age- and social groups and activities. The pedestrianized Crown St Mall was identified as uninviting due to uncomfortable furniture, lack of shade, many gray, hard surfaces, inadequacy of public toilets, many unappealing shop fronts, impermeable facades and the protection around the existing trees. The lane was considered as a place that mostly encourages Mall visitors to move rather than to pause and socialize. The 7/11 corner at the northern end of Mall street was identified as an uninviting, problematic area due to the presence of drunken people. Various edges of the area were mentioned to be dull and uninviting due to impermeable facades.

Impressions of Image and sociability

3 7 6

8 1 2 4

Problem areas 1

This is where people struggling with addiction and drunk people hang out

Uninviting furniture that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t invite for social interaction.

Uninviting street.

Harsh, uninviting space.

Lots of vacancies and poor built form.

No active sheet edge at all. Used as a smoking area.

Dead space and no opportunity for activities.

Uninviting back access to Crown Central.

Recommendations for image and sociability The pedestrianized Crown St Mall could be upgraded through using more flexible seating that is co-created with the users. Integrating more green into the lane could be a way to both create shade and to make the area more pleasant. Some of the participants suggested integrating water into this lane, and making a green-blue lane that gives the area a strong identity and makes it more appealing. Interactive, unconventional lighting is also another solution to improve the quality of the area.

increases the overall quality of the environment, could be a way to attract the young, creative class to the area.

To make the area more child-friendly and accommodating to families, play equipments could be installed. Chess tables, tennis tables and such could be a way to attract more people to the street and encourage them to spend more time there. Other ways to do so are pop up shops, community gardens and introducing events and activities such as dance or yoga and music events. Meeting and hang-out places could be created through landscaping, that could bring different social groups to the area. The facades could be upgraded in collaboration with artists. temporary exhibitions and art works on the facade not only

Conclusion Based on the outcome of workshops, we recommend to implement a three-fold strategy, where the three issues below are dealt with simultaneously: -Implement a traffic strategy to make the area more bike and pedestrian friendly -Introduce diverse temporary and permanent uses to the area to utilize all the spaces and minimize vandalism

What is central here is that the issue goes beyond only making physical changes. Every change should be made together with the users, and it should be a slow process rather than an overnight change. This way, we ensure that all changes are embedded and accepted amongst the users. This is the sustainable way to move forward. When the changes are made together with the locals we can be sure that a sense of belonging is created during the process, which minimizes vandalism.

-Integrate better furniture in the area

Wollongong CBD : Are we doing it right? An arki_nopoly report arki_lab Designing Cities With People