This is a place of butterflies. Balam Balam Place is located on Saxon Street in Brunswick within the grounds of a former school. The City of Merri-bek’s brief called for the transformation of the site into a thriving arts, community and civic precinct. Two new, custom designed community buildings have been provided and the heritage listed Sherwood House has been adapted as rooms and spaces for community use. Sections of the former school building are retained and the main building to Phoenix Street has been stripped of its facade to form a landscape pavilion called “the steps” that is part stoop, part stage and part shaded veranda. A new lawn along Saxon Street is planted with a dozen Eucalyptus viminalis and an accompanying arced path connects the new community buildings with the adapted ones. The landscape of the project provides a series of outdoor rooms framed by endemic planting. These rooms host different modes of community use – from the passive occupation of the lawn, to undercover events on “the steps”, to messier making activities in the hard yard. Interspersed are a series of smaller invitations to occupy the landscape that hold the memory of the previous site and register their new transformation – symbolised by the Balam Balam, meaning butterfly in Woi-wurrung.