parklets
Victoria Park is home to several innovative pop-up parklets – urban retreats for locals and visitors to sit awhile, relax or take in the ambience and activity our suburb has to offer.
A parklet is a moveable structure, often placed in parking bays, which provide an extension of the footpath and provide public access seating and amenities for people using the street. The intent is to improve walkability, providing a place to stop, to sit, and to engage with activities along the street. The world’s first formal public parklets were initially conceived by Sb Design Studio and installed in San Francisco in 2010 and have since spawned a worldwide movement towards parklets and walkable streets.
As part of their Albany Highway Activation program, the Town of Victoria Park has commissioned and installed parklets at Café Gelato, Antz Inya Pantz, Cafe Zucchero, Cafe 935 and Sixteen Ounces. In 2015 The Vic Park Collective were engaged by the Town of Victoria Park to build and install a new parklet out the front of iconic local bookstore, Crow Books.
Under the guidance of Andy Christie from A Good Looking Man, a working group including members of the Vic Park Collective, students from Curtin University's Architecture Department, local artists, residents and business owners have spent many weekends designing, prototyping and building the structure, making tweaks to ensure accessibility, safety and fun. Town of Victoria Park staff have worked closely alongside the Collective throughout the process, taking a developmental and capacity building approach to support the project.
The parklet is intended to create a reading nook, a place to meet, bring the kids, sit on the street in a shaded oasis protected from passing traffic. Housed inside lilac coloured shipping cubes, the parklet features seating constructed from salvaged timber and decommissioned street signs from the Vic Park area. Trees and grasses add some cooling greenery. Crow silhouettes playfully refer to its location outside the iconic Crow Bookshop. A toy box built into an old fashioned TV provides a space for young kids to play and there are also plans to add bike racks in the near future.
In October 2016 the structure was finally installed and you can now enjoy the parklet out the front of Crow Books on Albany Highway.
We'd like to thank Town of Victoria Park for partnering with us throughout this whole journey. To A Good Looking Man for all his work with design, problem solving and mentoring us to build it. We want to thank Perth Wood School, Soils Aint Soils, Bunnings East Victoria Park and True Blue Containers for donating materials or giving us discounts. Thanks to Vic Park MiniLab for allowing us to use the workshop space, The Victoria Park Urban Tree Network for helping us with planting at the installation, and to all our amazing Vic Park Collective volunteers for donating their time and effort to making this happen.
P is for Parklet
We have recently promoted activating the Crow Books Parklet for fun casual events. The concept is simple: Do you have something to say? A group activity that needs a fun place to meet? Take over the Crow Books Parklet! We'll even promote it for you. Check out our events page for more info!
