GREENSIDE INTERVENTION

1. Greenside Regeneration

Community and context

The Greenside business hub, public spaces and Local Park have gone through a long period of neglect and are in serious need of regeneration. As members of this community, GDC students have a vested interest in maintaining a vibrant, sustainable, clean and safe environment. Good design is pivotal to this regeneration. In 2012 the college initiated this project which had mixed reactions from the “outside community”.  In 2013, students continued to develop new and enhance existing designs to regenerate the neighbourhood. Students worked on the following:

Description of the Community:

Greenside Design Center students engaged with the residence and shop owners along Gleneagles road in Greenside. These activities unfolded over the period of the four week learning programme and included a number of novel “encounters”. The idea was that this all happened primarily on the east end of Gleneagles Road and in that sense became a significant site specific project.

The Sir Lionel Park

The local park in the vicinity of the GDC college formed the focus of this group. Students aimed to create a cleaner, greener and safer environment for this community as well as creating an interactive space which caters for all age groups. The students engaged the local community members to understand their assessment of the park, and based on this design several outputs to improve the park. These included new plan with new pathways, fencing and landscaping; establishment of a free outside gym, incorporation of recycling bins, setting up insect hotels, and signage.

Wall of inspiration and public art

The purpose of the Wall of Inspiration is to encourage interaction amongst Greenside community members and unite them by having them contribute to the process and development of public art. The general public were invited to write or draw something of how they feel about Greenside or what they think about the area. Art that becomes truly public. The students further identified ways to use public art in the neighbourhood to create a sense of identify and ownership though artistic visual statements.

Branding

This group worked on improving the overall appeal of the community through strategic branding and advertising of community events while encouraging a positive outlook on both residents and visitors alike towards the suburb. Several different brands were generated which included redesigning the logos and stationary of the Greenside Residents Association, initiating a ‘Love Greenside’ brand for use on posters, stickers, billboards, and coasters in the local restaurants. ‘Love Greenside’ also went digital with a blog as well as presence on social media.

The Street

Students in this group wanted to uplift the street by bringing in the new without forgetting the old. Their objective was to keep Greenside’s raw beauty while improving it in the places where the community felt is most necessary. The inspiration through the project was to MAKE GREENSIDE MORE GREEN. The ideas generated from the group included:

–        Re arrange the parking space to alleviate parking congestion

–        Instituting and branding a Tuk-tuk transportation system

–        Designed seating and solar-powered lighting on the Peninsular Island

–        Generated several concepts for the re-design of the traffic circle which is an old tram hub

–        Designing seating and stations for informal traders