[EVENT] Third Place – Transforming Everyday Public Spaces

NGV Melbourne Design Week 2021 + 106 Architects

106 Architects + NGV Melbourne Design Week 2021

How will design transform and shape life in the future development of community facilities?

Designers are rapidly reimagining our built and social environment. From speculative structures to breakthrough approaches this theme explores new wave design-thinking in the context of our community and sporting infrastructure.

From the platform of Third Place thinking, our mix of creative professionals will share, build, then intersect their perspectives for how we might transform our community places and spaces.

Each presenting speaker will unpack their interpretation of the impact of design in shaping our social infrastructure of the future. Participants will be encouraged to transform their own community ideologies, as they imagine within the fields of our presenters’ perspectives.

Presenters:

Simon Madden
Sports and Business Leader

Tiffany Cherry
Sports Media Commentator & Active Board member with SEA – Sports Environment Alliance

Dion Gosling
Sports Architect & Director, 106 Architects

James Mant
Urban Planner & 20-minute Neighbourhood Lead, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Martin Sheppard
Strategic Thinker & Founder of the National Sports Convention

Nikki Langman
International Speaker & Emotional Intelligence Specialist

Join us as we discuss the future transformation of community spaces with Third Place thinking.

→ Date + Time – Wednesday, 31 March 2021, 11:00am – 1.30pm AEDT.
→ Location – Moonee Valley Racing Club, McPherson Street, Moonee Ponds.
FREE tickets via Eventbrite.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV. It is also supported by Parks & Leisure Australia – VIC/TAS chapter.

NOTE: We realise with COVID restrictions and with the fragile nature of events that not everyone can attend and participate in person. For those who purchase FREE tickets, we will also make available a recording of the presentation. Complimentary car parking for those who do attend will be provided in the Centre Car Park at MVRC.

Third Place – Sport & Community

What Is The Third Place At The Intersection Of Sport And Community?
In traditional sport, we have marked edges, lines, and boundaries.  These can be circular as well as straight or hard and can offer direction as well as containment.  In design, we take edges and boundaries to present pathways, ideas, and vision ideals for people. For us, it is the meeting of people and the gentle collisions that can occur that interest us most.  The blurring of these traditional edges allows an opportunity to weave a much wider community, whether that is for various sports groups or the non-sporting community who are touched by adjacent activities and sites.

Whether we are designing local community facilities or large-scale stadia, we see the integration of the Third Place concept as opportunities in our design work. From nationally driven infrastructure based on legacy and the ‘mega-event’, regional/state facilities driven by identity and public sharing on a commercial basis; to local community-based facilities and our personal and intimate homes, founded on domestic understanding.  The narrative is that if we can implement those qualities with which we mostly understand in our own homes, into our larger-scale facilities, we will have a better chance of creating a Third Place in our sports infrastructure

The Design Narrative – Who Cares About It Anyway?  Is It Important?
106 Architects cares because we see sport and community projects as unique projects.  In the sense that they are not just a civic hall, a commercial office space, retail, indoor/outdoor, a pub or café, or education space.  They are all those things, but not just slight manifestations of each.  There is not one typology that fits the description.  They – sport, community and leisure facilities designed for local communities – are in their own category of design, primarily due to the complex arrangement of the users, inhabitants, the function, purpose, and relationship to their sites and community.  As such, we should all care, and it is important.

Where Can We Go From Here?
Through our work, we have learned that there is another basis at play in our sports facilities that informs the Third Pace.  It is an extension of the in-between place whereby our facilities must serve and be regarded as ‘fit for purpose’.  That is, the ability to balance as a place between two distinct groups – the high-performance elite and grassroots community levels.  We are constantly challenged for the social and financial balance between these two modes as they look to co-exist in our sports facilities.  We are constantly challenged to consider the tension that is between these two groups of users.  This tension is created when addressing access rights, functionality on design, specification requirements, hours of operation, rental return, pay-for-use, and of course, the priority of during day-activities and event mode.  Each brief and facility are different.  However, the way in which we design for history, tradition, site, culture, and the partnering of high-performance and grassroots goes a long way to releasing much of this tension.

“How do we scale for it, and how do we design for it” are the two biggest questions that 106 Architects seeks to answer.

For us, to design successful sports and community facilities, we look for fit-for-purpose outcomes that can occur for both day-to-day and event mode operations. Why? Because this will ensure an embedment of the Third Place into the economic and social plan – leveraging social capital for financial viability. This is about transition and interchange.  The more interchange, the more we heave between modes, the more often we can achieve, and the more sustainable the facility will be.

Discover The 106 Architects Approach To Your Community Or Sporting Facility
We’d love the opportunity to introduce you to our Third Space thinking and show you how through collaboration, we can engage your passionate community to craft a unique facility that has its own successful unique identity and function.  A place that leaves its users free to explore the opportunity to make it a place of their own, shaped by their personal memories and most importantly, a place where users can enjoy the emotionally charged in-between places, not just the endpoint.

Join us at NGV Melbourne Design Week 2020 where 106 Architects and friends will discuss the future transformation of community spaces with Third Place thinking. Tickets are FREE via Eventbrite.

Date: 19 March 2020
Time: 3.30pm
Location: The Spotted Mallard, 314 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC Australia

[EVENT] Third Place – The Influence of Design

106 Architects + NGV Melbourne Design Week 2020 presents

How is Third Place design impacting the future of our social infrastructure and community interaction?

In a challenge to re-define social culture, Third Place design is about injecting the familiarity and intimacy of human connection into built environments. This event will explore this new wave of design-thinking in the context of community-sporting infrastructure.

Introduction:
Simon Madden – Sports and Business Leader

Facilitator:
Michele Frey – Environmental Consultant

Panellists:
James Mant – Urban Planner
Emily Mabin – Landscape Architect
Dion Gosling – Sports Architect
Martin Sheppard – Strategic Thinker

Join us as we discuss the future transformation of sport and community spaces with Third Place thinking.

Date and Time → Thu, 19 March 2020, 3.30-5.00pm AED

Location → The Spotted Mallard, 314-316 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC 3056

FREE tickets via EventBrite.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2020, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.

106 Architects – On Its Logomark, Getting Set to Go

106 Architects | New Brand

With A New Look And Clear Vision

Studio 106 Architects has re-branded with its new look representing a commitment to delivering unique, high-quality, sport-community building designs and bespoke residential projects across the globe.

The essence of the new iconography evolved from the elementary geometries of the line and the circle — akin to the bat and ball of sport, or a simple line, stroke or marker. These two, simple shapes also acknowledge the basic forms of architecture – a straight line and a curve. Together, they combine to reintroduce 106 Architects as a forward-thinking global practice with clear clarity of purpose: the consideration of people and their communities.

The firm is now looking for opportunities where they can design and develop new sports projects in Australian communities, where the team can share their learnings with like-minded members of the sporting and design fraternities. To this end, Principal Architect Dion Gosling has been invited to address this year’s NSC (National Sports Convention) as a guest speaker and panellist.

Melbourne Moves, Rebrand Catalyst
With the global demand for sporting architecture expertise growing, Gosling recently decided to establish a permanent base in Melbourne.

“Setting up a base in Melbourne, a city known for its rich collaborations of sport and culture, felt like a natural progression for us and a good time to rebrand. Despite the move, I am committed to being across all aspects of all our projects regardless of its geographic location.”

Sporting Heritage, Global Language
As a former hockey Olympian, Gosling has a truly unique perspective on the importance of the synergy between the design of sporting and recreational infrastructure and the surrounding fields of play.

“My unique experience of being an Olympian as well as a practising architect has given me an intimate and functional understanding of the subtleties of sport – from the perspective of a participant and competitor and also as a designer,” he says.

Equipped with his exclusive combination of sporting insights and design knowledge, Gosling and his team are empowered to deliver successful projects of all types and sizes across the globe – from small, grassroots community sporting concepts, through to large-scale stadia designs.

“We actively seek out projects that have the capability and substance to inspire people,” says Gosling. “I strongly believe that the designs of the best sporting facilities and venues become a universal language that connect cultures and communities from across the globe.”

Client Centric, Design Driven
106 Architects has always been committed to building strong relationships with its clients.

“Before we start designing buildings, we build relationships,” says Gosling. “This is who we are and what we do. It underpins the success of our designs – designs that harmoniously bring together aesthetics, sustainability, functionality, on-going operations and budgets, with the wider social, cultural and commercial interests.”

In taking on larger projects, Gosling draws on his Olympic experience. “An Olympic campaign requires many people and a concentrated focus. You need to build your team and capability, and work together in a heartfelt manner.” The lessons learned across 12 years at international and community sport level mean collaborating is now second nature to Gosling:
“We simply look at a project as a campaign and then look for the right team mix. This means a project team can include other local architects, as well as multinational engineering firms.”

The time has been right to reinvent, but at the same time, to reinforce the brand’s commitment to the core design principles of ‘collaboration and ‘integration’ – the collaboration of people with and through sport, and the integration of sporting infrastructure with its surrounds, both physically and culturally. Despite the expansion and the rebrand change, 106 Architects plans to remain small and bespoke, so that it can continue to operate a studio culture, meaning we’re small enough to care but big enough to scale to large project scopes.” says Gosling.