An informal look into Western Australia's urban space surrounding the product of its most recent Situate design competition.
situate was an international sculpture competition for Perth, Western Australia.
$1 million was offered for an artwork to transform the city landscape, with Forrest Place - the location of a proposed major upgrade - announced as the site.
The competition provided a model of cooperation between State and Local Governments to deliver major commissioned artworks within the city CBD. It was an invitation to think creatively about what we want from our capital city.
This competition has provided tangible illustrations of what can be achieved when committed to the belief that our sense of place and regional identity can be reflected in our built environment.
The winner of the competition - James Angus and his team - was announced on Friday September 11, 2009.
James Angus' artwork will be the single largest art commission undertaken in Western Australia.
As stated above, the winner of the international sculpture competition for Perth's Forrest Place was announced on September 11, 2009. Congratulations to James Angus and his team. A fly around animation of the scheme is available here.
Forrest Place - via Flickr ameland 1732
The Competition.
Earlier this year the Department of Culture and the Arts sent out a "challenge" to the international community to enrich Perth's CBD via the placement of a piece of sculpture. Popular online competition repositories such as Bustler latched on. The department worked closely with the Office of the Government Architect, who have done a tremendous job under the previous guidance of Geoffrey London in promoting architecture and stimulating discussion on Perth's urban condition. The organisation of this public art project in itself is no different. Well organised, well promoted with a good web presence. Not only that, the Department of Culture and the Arts had a few million lying around needing to be put to good use so the prize wasn't short of attention, especially seeing it was put out as the equity markets bounced along their recent lows in March/April 2009. The competition for the piece made sense. Its placement within a new urban plan currently under implementation though not yet complete by Woodhead for Forrest place was arguable.
The Winner - The Object
Angus' winning entry is a green anamorphic blob like structure suspended above the plaza, anchored by three slender legs. It seems to touch the plaza lightly, as if it doesn't really want to be there. It appears almost uncomfortable in its setting.
Angus' Alien - screenshot from animation
It will get given a name by the public. Angus is fully aware this. By putting anything on display outside a gallery is going to get its fair share of critique.
At first glance though Angus' scheme can be likened by appearance to some sort of green alien, its appendages completely off balance and decentralised. If gravity was to be an underlying tool for its conception, it probably would have been within an environment less conducive to what it is on earth. The piece is frozen, a frame suspended from an animate state looking as if its on its way to settling, though never will. Turbulence comes to mind.
For this reason the writer finds the winning piece (the object) appealing. If there is one way to encapsulate the city of Perth is by reference to its decentralised existence. Forrest place sits just off the edge of the pedestrian passage between the two main train stations in the centre of Perth. One train station services the west/east axis, the other spreads its tentacles from Mandurah in the south to nearly Yanchep in the north, an unbelievable 128km.
Giger's Alien - via Google Search
Plop Art - It's all about the context...
"...a turd in the plaza"
- James Wines 1969.
Winnie the Pooh
In regards to civic space in the 20th century, it is not the art that should be critiqued. It is the often dysfunctional plaza it sits within. Context, social as much as built, becomes critical if public art is to hold any relevance. Without solid context, a scheme has no grounding. In an ill-conceived environment, art can only ever exist as a thoughtlessly "plopped, unattractive and inappropriate" addition. An addition that has fallen "wetly and heavily, in the manner of excrement - extruded, as it were from the fundament of the art world and often at public expense" (Wikipedia - plop art).
A fundamental issue with the CBD in Perth, as well as many commercial public spaces in 21st century cities, is the lack of activity that takes place outside of business hours. It seems simple enough, when there is nothing to do and no one around why would you want to be there?
As long as the author has been actively observing Forrest Place, it has never struck as a place one would want to inhabit outside business hours. The areas surrounding Forrest Place are predominantly retail and commercial. When the shops and commercial offices close, the malls and avenues become barren. Add to this the flow-on effect of undesirable social activity that spreads when daylight fades. Life at street level disintegrates to nothing worth noting. An increased security presence in turn is required, which is neither cheap or accomodating.
A response to the public domain worth noting was formulated by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. The Architects and planners looked at how a site in a city can be active over a 24 hour period. The urban design proposal was for Yokohama in Japan (1992). Below is a visual data map identifying particular programmatic types that could contribute to a "24 hour city".
If you are able to program an area so that there is always activity, life will potentially flourish. People may want to inhabit an area. People may then claim ownership over an area. They will be proud to visit it. The public plaza will become a meeting place. People may transverse the massive distances from outer suburbia to meet friends. The centre could become the heart of our otherwise decentralised sub-urban ("sub" meaning inferior by definition) existence. If there is no opening and closing time you can "go a little later".
Subsequently other secondary activity may then occur in Forrest Place outside business hours. Small festivals, markets, exhibitions, open seminars, public lectures. The edges of the civic space may fill with life, subsequently giving life back to the space that it surrounds.
If you were to assume a strategy of activating an area by providing 24 hour functional program (a few more apartments would also help), you need to have a government willing to allow such activities to take place around the clock. A frustrating issue in Western Australia are its antiquated laws relating to business trading hours and liquor licensing.
Only in the last 2-3 years Western Australians have had a liquor licence available that allows a proprietor to open a small bar (120 people). Only in the last 2-3 years have restaurants been allowed to serve liquor without a meal. The licence for a small bar came into effect on the 7th May 2007. After 6 months only one had opened up. Since then only a handful of the risk-averse have been game enough to fight their way through the red tape at both state and local government level to open. Even though the director of liquor licensing Barry Sargeant stated that;
"There is no provision in the Liquor Control Act that stipulates that public interest assessments have to be completed by industry consultants or legal representatives",
the fact remains that they are needed for the proprietor to get through the regulatory hurdles and burdens. Not only this, if a bar opens, it needs to then apply for other permits such as outdoor dining/drinking. Sidetracking for a second, how is it legal still for a citizen to smoke in the street putting everyone's lives in danger, when it is illegal in Perth to have a drink on the street outside a private or public establishment?
All of this aside though, 2-3 years later we are seeing bars pop up throughout the CBD, and people are staying in the city longer to enjoy these quieter more social watering holes, away from the big club and bar "piss pits". But can we wait until 2012 to see only another handful open, to see a proportionately small number of people want to inhabit these spaces? By drawing more people to the CBD, we will see more people being drawn to our civic spaces to gaze upon our civic art (Yes, the government is spending your money on this piece, not their money).
The built fabric surrounding Forrest Place is prepped and ready to help activate the CBD. Myer sits to the east, and is lined at two levels of other retail outlets. If these could only be opened outside business hours. If only we could have a supermarket nearby that was allowed to stay open past 5:30pm! Try explaining to a visitor that is deciding whether to visit Melbourne or Perth from Europe that only a select number of businesses are allowed to open after hours. Try convincing them after to choose Perth over Melbourne without mentioning that we have nice beaches!
The bottom line is that everyone should have the right to open or close their retail outlet or supermarket when they want to. If they aren't competitive, the free market will see to it that more competitive businesses will succeed in their place. A closing time will be naturally established when it is no longer profitable for a business to stay open. This may lead to more choice for the consumer, potentially better service and more people inhabiting our CBD and its civic spaces after hours.
A fundamental issue with the CBD in Perth, as well as many commercial public spaces in 21st century cities, is the lack of activity that takes place outside of business hours. It seems simple enough, when there is nothing to do and no one around why would you want to be there?
As long as the author has been actively observing Forrest Place, it has never struck as a place one would want to inhabit outside business hours. The areas surrounding Forrest Place are predominantly retail and commercial. When the shops and commercial offices close, the malls and avenues become barren. Add to this the flow-on effect of undesirable social activity that spreads when daylight fades. Life at street level disintegrates to nothing worth noting. An increased security presence in turn is required, which is neither cheap or accomodating.
A response to the public domain worth noting was formulated by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. The Architects and planners looked at how a site in a city can be active over a 24 hour period. The urban design proposal was for Yokohama in Japan (1992). Below is a visual data map identifying particular programmatic types that could contribute to a "24 hour city".
OMA - Yokahama Project - Data Map
Noticing that the peak hours of the market fall in the early morning, our hypothesis proposes a complementary spectrum of events, which would together exploit to the maximum the location and its existing infrastructure, to create a 24 hour "peak" composed of a mosaic of heterogeneous 21st century "life".
If you are able to program an area so that there is always activity, life will potentially flourish. People may want to inhabit an area. People may then claim ownership over an area. They will be proud to visit it. The public plaza will become a meeting place. People may transverse the massive distances from outer suburbia to meet friends. The centre could become the heart of our otherwise decentralised sub-urban ("sub" meaning inferior by definition) existence. If there is no opening and closing time you can "go a little later".
Subsequently other secondary activity may then occur in Forrest Place outside business hours. Small festivals, markets, exhibitions, open seminars, public lectures. The edges of the civic space may fill with life, subsequently giving life back to the space that it surrounds.
Piazza del Campo, Sienna - a world class civic piazza - via ionk on Flickr
If you were to assume a strategy of activating an area by providing 24 hour functional program (a few more apartments would also help), you need to have a government willing to allow such activities to take place around the clock. A frustrating issue in Western Australia are its antiquated laws relating to business trading hours and liquor licensing.
Only in the last 2-3 years Western Australians have had a liquor licence available that allows a proprietor to open a small bar (120 people). Only in the last 2-3 years have restaurants been allowed to serve liquor without a meal. The licence for a small bar came into effect on the 7th May 2007. After 6 months only one had opened up. Since then only a handful of the risk-averse have been game enough to fight their way through the red tape at both state and local government level to open. Even though the director of liquor licensing Barry Sargeant stated that;
"There is no provision in the Liquor Control Act that stipulates that public interest assessments have to be completed by industry consultants or legal representatives",
the fact remains that they are needed for the proprietor to get through the regulatory hurdles and burdens. Not only this, if a bar opens, it needs to then apply for other permits such as outdoor dining/drinking. Sidetracking for a second, how is it legal still for a citizen to smoke in the street putting everyone's lives in danger, when it is illegal in Perth to have a drink on the street outside a private or public establishment?
All of this aside though, 2-3 years later we are seeing bars pop up throughout the CBD, and people are staying in the city longer to enjoy these quieter more social watering holes, away from the big club and bar "piss pits". But can we wait until 2012 to see only another handful open, to see a proportionately small number of people want to inhabit these spaces? By drawing more people to the CBD, we will see more people being drawn to our civic spaces to gaze upon our civic art (Yes, the government is spending your money on this piece, not their money).
The built fabric surrounding Forrest Place is prepped and ready to help activate the CBD. Myer sits to the east, and is lined at two levels of other retail outlets. If these could only be opened outside business hours. If only we could have a supermarket nearby that was allowed to stay open past 5:30pm! Try explaining to a visitor that is deciding whether to visit Melbourne or Perth from Europe that only a select number of businesses are allowed to open after hours. Try convincing them after to choose Perth over Melbourne without mentioning that we have nice beaches!
The bottom line is that everyone should have the right to open or close their retail outlet or supermarket when they want to. If they aren't competitive, the free market will see to it that more competitive businesses will succeed in their place. A closing time will be naturally established when it is no longer profitable for a business to stay open. This may lead to more choice for the consumer, potentially better service and more people inhabiting our CBD and its civic spaces after hours.
Government support for commercial development and extended trading around our civic spaces are paramount to their success. Subsequently the success of a piece of public art that sits there relies on its context, both built and social. Let the free market run its course around the edges of Forrest Place and life may just thrive in these places! You only need to see that life exists in Forrest Place when the shops are open. Why not increase opening hours? Why not let a handful of bars open around its fringes? In turn people may visit, and restaurants may open. Some will succeed and others will fail. The inhabitant will ultimately benefit and who else matters?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If a piece of public art is installed in Forrest Place and no one is around to see it, maybe we should have put it somewhere else or not built it at all...
Forrest Place - The Major Upgrade - Providing Links Not Walls.
Aerial of Forrest Place and 140 William St under construction - via Google Earth
New Sculpture - Looking from the North - screen shot
It (Forrest Place) was a meeting place and focal point for political meetings in the 1950' s through to the 1980's considerable use was made of the steps of the Post Office being above the roadway level. There were clashes with police during the battle of Forrest Place on the 11th of June 1966...
Forrest Place became a large paved area with the closing of the roadway in the late 1987. It still links Wellington Street and Perth railway station with the Murray Street Mall, but the addition of steps to the northern end prevents vehicle thoroughfare.
via Wikipedia
Forrest Place after the senseless destruction of the Bones building
Civic space for Perth should provide an area the population can accumulate to speak freely on a neutral footing at any time. The Post Office steps, once regarded as the people's public speaking platform, is made an arse of whenever those accumulating face the balcony opposite at the entry to the retail mall.
Forrest Place has arguably been a thorn in Perth's civic pride ever since the Bones building to the east was thoughtlessly demolished and replaced with the "square-metre heavy" Myer building. Heritage issues aside, this was never a good move. The space narrowed (figuratively also) and everyone turned their back on a significant piece of architecture and Perth's civic outlet, the General Post Office.
The retail outlet does close and people are asked to move on after hours. The focus is shifted from an accommodating piece of civic architecture to a patrolled, gated, sleeping monolith. An example of this was the West Coast Eagles' victory precession after conquering Geelong in the 1992 AFL grand final. Myer expressed its supremacy by having Eagle's supporters face its "glamorous" retail-outlet lined colonnades and sky bridges.
This moment, like those similar that have occurred over the 15 years since then, showed Forrest Place functioning as a civic space during opening hours though returning shortly after to its quiet, disjointed self when the shops close and the sun goes down. What focus does a civic space need to have? Should it focus on retail outlet restricted by its trading hours? Or would it be better to focus on an object that doesn't close? In which direction should civic space primarily orientate itself? Will this piece of civic art take the focus from a retail outlet that opens and closes? It would be nice if those inhabiting the space could feel that there is no closing time. That the space is not a forecourt to the "on and off", to the "opening and closing" but a welcoming patch of land that all can occupy and be occupied by.
Forrest Place, 1992, After the West Coast Eagles won the Premiership, All eyes away from the Post Office, the traditional public speaking platform.
Further to the laws holding back the activation of Perth's "civic space" are issues regarding its access and circulation. In its current state Forrest Place might as well be gated. After hours it exists as a chasm sandwiched between lifeless walls to the north, west and the east. Locked skybridges exist to the northwest fencing in the government-let offices in Albert-Facey House supposedly threatened by vandals and undesirable activities (This was the response I received when I asked why access to the Horseshoe bridge was locked). Restrictive service access and stairs leading down to busy Wellington street lie to the north and west, and a train station at ground level beyond blocks Perth's cultural district that lies further north.
Service paths. Needn't be exposed.
For any type of work to be constructive, including the placement of the "Green Alien", the city needs to address circulative issues still left in an urban design strategy. An urban design strategy for Forrest Place by Woodhead (you can view it all online here) identifies some of the key issues and work is under way to remedy the mistakes of the past. Urban design initiatives highlighted follow:
Removal of the Skybridges
This has been a significant upgrade. The master plan implicated the removal of a skybridge and staircase that led from the upper Myer concourse over to a gated entrance to Albert Facey house. Forrest Place is now flooded with northern light. This is a drawcard. Another skybridge remains that crosses from Perth's horseshoe bridge over to Albert Facey house. This is going to be removed in the future, though it reduces the number of connections between Northbridge and Forrest Place which one can imagine isn't a good thing. Another solution may have been to open the skybridge and bring down pedestrian access from the first level.
In Shadow, the old skybridge that has recently been removed. Photo 2005
Linking the central train station and beyond.
Forrest Place - wait for the little green man or use the retail skybridge.
Perth's central train station sits across Wellington street to the north of Forrest place. Beyond it sits Perth's cultural precinct. The railway and trainstation needs to be sunk at any cost. Almost 100 years ago George Temple Poole suggested moving the train line further north. Either way, remedying this cut has been needed for a long time and should be now well under way. The train lines and the train station dissect the city. There are two cities in Perth demarcated by an impenetrable boundary connected by labyrinthine links via skybridges or thoroughfares crossing heavy traffic flows (bit of a mouthful). They segregate the cultural and the commercial, the retail and the social. It divides us entirely and is a burden on every city dweller subconsciously. In time it will be sunk and until then we will put up with make shift, confusing connections.
A section thru Wellington St. The train station is on the right, Forrest Place is on the left. Woodhead propose ramping between the two spaces and removing the stairs.
A connection between Forrest Place and Perth's northern cultural district would provide a much needed north-south axis of life for Perth. The clearer it can be, the more accommodating it will be for the pedestrian. This may contribute in the long run to a more successful civic space. Add this with recurring proposals by prominent architectural figures to convert Barrack street and William street into primary city links and we may have a pedestrian friendly matrix of access throughout Perth's CBD.
Though for now, a section in the Woodhead urban proposal (shown above) suggests positive measures are being taken addressing Forrest Place's link with Wellington st and the train station. The restrictive staircase to the north of Forrest Place leading down to Wellington street will be removed and the service paths into the civic space will be concealed by a gentle sloping ramp. Pedestrians still must wait for the traffic to stop before crossing to Forrest place, but a ramped surface is more accommodating than a staircase. A more permanent fix and reconfiguration of the train station side of Wellington street may be attempted when the $330 million sinking of the railway eventually takes place.
Just north of Forrest Place
Links to William St and the new 140 development via the GPO lane ways at ground level.
Forrest Place is the strip of light Khaki on the right of this image. The dark khaki shows the proposed laneway connections. We can only hope they don't gate them...ever.
Perth has a new train station sitting beneath the new 140 William Street retail and office development. The development above the new train station is currently under construction. The proposal looks to add a permeable ground level that will filter life between the new and old train stations and their surrounds. It will add narrow, retail alleys and avenues that connect to Forrest Place. An exciting element is shown above, with the ground level of the Post Office and its adjacent lane ways left open to the public. Fingers crossed the lane ways don't get gated. These smaller tertiary arteries provide a welcome shelter from the busy traffic on Wellington and William St.
This project, designed by Hassell, was initially met with scepticism on my part as it reduces the vista toward the beautiful rear facade of the Post Office that has in recent years been exposed..
Photo of the Perth GPO's beautiful Western Facade - Now covered when observing from Williams St, but not all bad...
Looking at the scheme as it materialises now though, it looks like it has a good chance of succeeding. Its formal relationship to William street is dynamic and sensitive at the same time. Heritage is a thorn for developers, but thankfully legislation is stringent and designers need to design in context to "what we've already got". The 140 William Street devlopment not only accomodates existing heritage buildings on site, but is sensitive to local heights along Murray street. Its staggered design allows light to filter to the street level and give the heritage buildings room to breathe whilst adequately addressing the programmatic, commercial requirements in the towers setback from street level above. The development is so far an interpretation of existing massing requirements put forth by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure and the City of Perth. This can be seen in the diagrams below.
140 William St development. Heights on William St are considerate towards the old heritage buildings.
Sustainable Art
The 140 building complies with all current environmental standards. A notable consideration are the externals screens and louvre systems addressing Perth's relentless harsh western sunlight. The effectiveness of the green star system aside, this move will conserve untold units of energy.
"The $215 million project recently achieved a 5 Star Green Star Office Design rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, meeting Cbus Property's requirements for the development, and also those of their major state government tenant"
With the very exposed thrust by Government bodies at all levels on environmental sustainability (economic sustainability seemed to be thrown to the side often), one can only imagine that it would have been worthwhile to involve this word in the art competition somehow. Moreso to actually make use of sustainable and forward thinking building practices to improve Perth's most significant civic plaza.
Although the areas surrounding Forrest Place are shaping up to be visually dynamic, the challenge remains for the area to be dynamically functional. Civic art or architectural thrill cannot activate a space. It may draw a momentary glance or inquisitive stare, but this tends to wear off quickly...much like Perth's Bell Tower. The Bell tower is a shining example of state money injected into an object and not the urban environment that surrounds it. It sits in solitary confinement between Riverside drive and the Swan River, next to a convention centre that in itself epitomises disastrous urban planning.
The Bell Tower, Perth, is sandwiched between 6 lanes of freeway bound traffic and the river. Another example of an object without consideration for its context - Image via Wikipedia
We need public and authoritative bodies to understand the importance of good civic design that functions 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Good civic space should not rest. It cannot be static when businesses close. We need to design the context for our art and architecture. It needs to be alive. We need to reconfigure the street level much like Rob Adams has instigated for Melbourne. This needs to be achieved before adding new pieces to our city that will not function without well formulated spaces surrounding them. Emphasis at the moment needs to be on the configuration of what happens at and near ground level. The public domain should exist as a comfortable gallery environment for these pieces of civic art and new pieces of architecture.
Aerial of the Belltower surrounded by carparks and heavy traffic, via Google Maps
The Prize
Of particular interest is the last sentence in the quote at the top of this post. The Department put out its largest art commission ever for Western Australia, $1,000,000. With Western Australia's recession-defying royalties flowing in from the ever expanding north west mining operations this sum is a drop in the pond. But the question remains as to if this large sum was actually necessary? The large figure attracted interest from the international architecture community and consultant groups alike.
One can't help but speculate on the implications of creating something that doesn't equate to the $1,000,000 though. The winning team could potentially put the sculpture together for a fraction of this and pocket the rest (not that there is anything wrong with this). Though to gain international recoginition maybe the dollar figure stands for something more. If the role of public art is to generate discussion then maybe it is money well spent. Hopefully when Angus' green alien is finally built the surrounding urban condition starts to take shape, and the new sculpture manages to generate more than just frivolous dinnertime conversation in outer suburbia.
One can't help but speculate on the implications of creating something that doesn't equate to the $1,000,000 though. The winning team could potentially put the sculpture together for a fraction of this and pocket the rest (not that there is anything wrong with this). Though to gain international recoginition maybe the dollar figure stands for something more. If the role of public art is to generate discussion then maybe it is money well spent. Hopefully when Angus' green alien is finally built the surrounding urban condition starts to take shape, and the new sculpture manages to generate more than just frivolous dinnertime conversation in outer suburbia.
