- Title
- Honeysuckle Placemaking
- Creator
- Ware, Sue Anne; Flatman, Nicholas; Shadbolt, Jane; Casley, Jarred; Sauni, Amber; Reilly, Warren; Chapman, Michael; Martin, Kira; Cushing, Nancy; Guthrey, Emma; Conway, Judith; Foulcher, Nicholas
- Relation
- . (Newcastle, N.S.W. July - December, 2018)
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- The Honeysuckle Precinct, formerly the location of the BHP Steelworks, is a 50 hectare, harbour side site located on the west of Newcastle city. Since 1992 it has undergone a considerable amount of development and renewal. Yet commercial space vacancies and public space activation has been a significant challenge. In 2016 the University of Newcastle researched the precinct via post occupancy evaluations and micro-climate data collections. This study found substantial areas that are under-utilised and inactive. There was a large number of ‘hot spots’ where urban heat island effect is so pronounced, they are uninhabitable during peak summer periods. The 2018 Honeysuckle Placemaking projects seek to address the findings from the initial research through five temporary activation interventions. These projects are a collaboration between UoN Staff, PHD candidates and students and experiment with public space activation, public engagement and research through design methodologies. The five projects are: Honeysuckle Hopscotch; is a painted-ground installation. Its title is nostalgic for a game, a playful activity temporally occupying a place. The painted ground addresses the Albedo Effect (light and heat reflected off of surfaces) through an exploration of colour, vibrancy and history on a desolate and vacant surface. The paint becomes a medium to renew use and appeal, and establish a connection between the public and place. The users can walk across and read complex layers of cultural information in the midst of the mapped surface. This is a palimpsest approach to placemaking, where time, site, and meaning is layered, partially peeled back and obscured as an incomplete and always emergent history unfolding in space and across time. Hidden Honeysuckle App; a virtual, visual, and auditory guide to Honeysuckle’s past, present, and future that provides a multi-layered reading of the precinct. The App is a digital and physical placemaking device, designed to encourage users to explore little known stories of the Honeysuckle Precinct’s past. The project is a smartphone application complemented by stickers placed on the ground as physical markers at story locations within the Honeysuckle precinct. The app content includes 21 unique story points, grouped into 4 main themes: ‘If only they could talk’: Animal stories, ‘The dark side’: Life and death in Honeysuckle, ‘On the move’: Trains, ships and people and ‘Step right up’: Entertaining Honeysuckle. Users can follow one theme as a guided tour or explore individual stories selected from a map of the precinct. Chatterbox; a 14-foot fragmented, shipping container that framed views of the harbours workings, housed exhibitions and invited direct occupation and exploration. The container is cut into a number of smaller pieces, and then configured in ways that focus on views and connect to historical axis in the city of Newcastle. The project promotes conversations around the built environment and highlights prominent, and sometimes unnoticed connections from Honeysuckle to the broader urban and geographical landscape of Newcastle. The interior is lined with plywood panels, that are painted a vibrant orange colour and CNC routed with a digital patternation. The pattern is derived from the eyes of a range of female participants in the city, of various ages, demographics and aptitudes. At the height of the 12 iris of these individuals, a hole was cut, allowing people to see out of the container from these various perspectives. Movable Feast; an installation of furnishings where growing herbs, preparing food, cooking, and a public table provide amenity and a convivial space for gathering. This project looks to social issues affecting the local area, leading to a focus on those sleeping rough and how they access food. On a local level, food security is tackled in a short-term sense through provision of free meals and grocery items, however the crux of the issue lies in the lack of sustainability and autonomy that comes with these meals and the issues associated with preparing raw ingredients without appropriate, accessible kitchen facilities. The Movable Feast is a response to the needs of the homeless community and the desire for a system which may be realised through an ethos of dignity and autonomy. Honeysuckle Lights, is an after dark activation project where animations are projected on to a historic building façade in a liminal and transitional space into the precinct. Using a range of illumination and projection techniques, this activation strategy opened up and promoted Honeysuckle to a larger demographic after-hours; increasing both safety and the night-time economy for various user groups of the area, This type of public art reimagines the existing city, forming new connections between the built environment and the arts.
- Subject
- Honeysuckle; Newcastle, N.S.W.; chatterbox; place-making; development; public space activation; public engagement; Honeyuskcle lights; Hidden Honeysuckle; Honeysuckle hopscotch; movable feast
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1515354
- Identifier
- uon:56890
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780725900403
- Language
- eng
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