Pop-up

A’Beckett Urban Square is a tempo­rary ‘pop-up’ recrea­tional space that has become an instant magnet for students and young urban dwel­lers. Located behind the new Swan­ston Academic Buil­ding the site had been used by RMIT Univer­sity for many years as an open air car park. RMIT has gene­rously turned this unde­r­uti­lised and dere­lict space into a publi­cally-acces­sible 2,800 square metre park incor­po­ra­ting multi-use sports courts with spec­tator seating, table tennis, BBQ faci­li­ties, bike parking, Wi-Fi, pop-up plants in tubs and places to sit and relax.

RMIT will develop this site in the near future; in the mean­time the univer­sity has opened up the site as a tempo­rary place for casual recrea­tion and enga­ge­ment. There is almost nowhere in the city to play casual sport so it is hardly surpri­sing that the new faci­lity has become so popular. A’Beckett Urban Square adds a new venue to connect the Univer­sity with the city and its people.

Approach

The design approach is purpo­sefully lean, deve­lo­ping upon the idea of a tempo­rary and demoun­table instal­la­tion. Typi­cally ‘pop-ups’ occupy leftover and unde­r­uti­lised spaces through the use of recy­cled mate­rials and the clever adap­tion of ever­yday found objects. They are often gritty spaces that are curated rather than desi­gned. A’Beckett Urban Square was conceived as a piece of urban theatre carved out of the surroun­ding city, which is framed by new resi­den­tial towers, multi-level car parks and RMIT academic buil­dings.

There is a playful use of bold colours and graphics on the ground plane to distin­guish the active hard zones from passive soft zones. Wrap­ping the site on two sides is a speci­ally commis­sioned large-scale artwork by Melbourne artist Ash Keating, titled Natural System Response. Keating’s work provides an enga­ging and ener­getic back­drop to the space with abstract swaths of verdant greens, searing reds and fluo­re­s­cent oranges cove­ring walls several metres high. Keating created the murals to repre­sent the idea of an urban forest and a desert land­scape, using airless spray from pres­su­rised, paint-filled fire extin­gu­is­hers.

An active place for casual recreation

A’Beckett Urban Square has been made as a demoun­table instal­la­tion from a recy­clable kit-of-parts. It is an active place for casual recrea­tion, mainly for ball sports like basket­ball and volley­ball. It is a place to socia­lise, relax and watch people. It has lots of casual seating, spec­tator tiering and benches offe­ring good surveil­lance. It is a place for informal lear­ning with Wi-Fi access and spaces to gather.

The eastern edge connects across a pede­stria­nized Stewart Street to the SAB buil­ding retail fron­tage and the main campus beyond. Land­scape is limited to the estab­lished peri­meter street trees and new plants in timber tubs scat­tered over a strip of arti­fi­cial turf.

Go there any after­noon or evening and you will find crowds of young people shoo­ting hoops or hanging around chat­ting or watching. A’Beckett Urban Square is a gritty fun place full of active energy and socia­bi­lity. Its success shows how important urban recrea­tion spaces are to the life of the city.