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Marvel Stadium Upgrade - Placemaking Strategy and Activation

 

Melbourne, VIC - Grimshaw Architects/AFL (2019)

Categories and services:

  • Sporting/recreation precincts

  • Placemaking Strategy 

Image courtesy of Grimshaw

A high-profile inner-city destination (with significant State Government funding and a national audience), the Marvel Stadium Upgrade (MSU) Project is working on the creation and revitalisation of Marvel Stadium and surrounding precinct into an exceptional sports and entertainment destination and thriving waterfront neighbourhood.

Village Well worked with the project team to consult with the community and embed a placemaking approach into the masterplan development for the Stadium Precinct. We identified opportunities and provided recommendations that support and encourage everyday activity in the development of the overall Precinct Strategy and more specifically the ‘Town Square’ (South) and ‘City Edge’ (East).

Village Well’s in-depth place analysis involved observing and recording current concourse and precinct conditions during the everyday and event modes including weekends and evenings. Village Well engaged with 4,300 people in conversations and surveys around the potential for the Marvel Stadium Upgrade during the period of February to July 2019. This engagement helped begin to build relationships between the Stadium, their neighbours and key stakeholders in addition to asking the design team to consider the everyday users who live and work within the precinct. We were involved throughout all phases of design including stakeholder and community engagement, strategic design advice and place activation advice around design, operations and programming, and were also involved in the Internal Traditional Owners Design Workshop team to Indigenous culture, history, connection to land and future opportunities and programming can be seamlessly integrated into the stadium and surrounding precinct.

 

Much of our work culminated in the development of our Everyday Experience Overlay report, which presented strategic design and place activation advice around design, operations and programming of the public spaces in the Stadium’s East and South, and also identified appropriate activities and experiences for the Stadiums concourse and public spaces more broadly. The MSU project had numerous political, technical and other complexities relating to its location, diverse users and neighbours and thus the engagement process was integral to bringing stakeholders, designers and the community together for the creation of a new destination. The process of engagement helped begin to build relationships between the Stadium, their neighbours and key stakeholders in addition to asking the design team to consider the everyday users who live and work within the precinct.

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