Temporary Suburban Activation
Cox Architecture

Opening Sydney’s streets to its community

Our new normal has arrived and we have been asked to adapt by working from home, however, flexible working will continue into the future. The role of local centres has and will continue to shift to accommodate the needs for more people during the week as a result of working from home, or closer to home.

An increase in the number of people living and working within their suburb of residence places a demand on the local centre uses. As such, there is a demand for more space to be allocated for pedestrians to adhere to social distancing measures and for increased numbers of people within these spaces.

By temporarily converting road space to pedestrian space, local centre streets can accommodate more users, within a COVID safe space. An eye-catching, unique and temporary intervention creates a novelty for all age groups whilst supporting local businesses to stay open.

Community members will be able to feel comfortable stepping out and maximising the offerings of their local centre. This can be in the form of closing parts of streets for marketplaces, parklets, outdoor cinemas, public seating areas, outdoor dining or in the form of additional seating in parking bays as a natural extension of shopfront cafés or restaurants.

This idea is transformational as it delivers additional community uses for the community by reframing how people think about streets and reclaims the allocation of space for vehicles for pedestrians.