268
Brunswick and Gertrude

268 Brunswick and Gertrude

This is the diaspora of Fitzroy. The City of Yarra’s brief called for a new public space at the corner of Gertrude and Brunswick Streets. The heavy shrubs that have forever held the street apart from the Atherton Gardens Estate were removed and replaced by a new topography which spills out from Atherton Gardens to meet the footpath. A series of spaces are carved out and embedded within this new and densely planted landform. A new ramp allows access to the top of the Gardens and an uninterrupted view across the estate’s parkland – a significant space for the Aboriginal community in Melbourne, serving for decades as a meeting place, a centre for political activism, and a home for the many families and individuals who moved to the city from regional areas. The new public spaces host a diaspora of Victorian stone, cut and arranged to face significant places in the public and Aboriginal life of Fitzroy. An eccentric collection of backs and armrests imply occupation and offer an invitation to perch and observe the street and the long vista of the parklands to the east. In time, new trees will shade the footpath and the street. The ambition is that this place will endure – holding the corner, resisting future change within the Estate, and remaining a space of exchange and gathering.

Year 2023-2025
Location Fitzroy, Victoria
Client The City of Yarra
Collaborators Sarah Lynn Rees, Declan Fry, WSP
Builders Evergreen Civil
Project Team Blake Farmar-Bowers, Liz Herbert, Mark Jacques, Nick Ng
Photos Peter Bennetts
Year 2023-2025
Location Fitzroy, Victoria
Client The City of Yarra
Collaborators Sarah Lynn Rees, Declan Fry, WSP
Builders Evergreen Civil
Project Team Blake Farmar-Bowers, Liz Herbert, Mark Jacques, Nick Ng
Photos Peter Bennetts