Bayswater is an inner suburban area that is set to radically change with the planned upgrade of its train station, a new land-use plan, and potentially a new rail line linked to the northern suburbs. The industrial area that is the focus of this project is located partly within the walkable/cycling catchment of the train station however has been subject to an economic and physical decline in recent years.

The genesis for the studio was a series of discussions with Future Bayswater, a community-based advocacy group interested in exploring the urban regenerative potential for the Bayswater Industrial Area (BIA).  Future Bayswater (FuBa) is a group of motivated Bayswater residents, ratepayers and local business owners who want to harness the collective goodwill of the community to inform the debate about what makes a good town centre and vibrant future-focused community. Following the initial discussion, we met with  John Di Renzo, from Rockforce, whose family owns land and runs a business in the heart of the BIA. John was keen to raise awareness of the issues in the BIA and donated a warehouse to operate as a temporary classroom during the studio.

This is the second studio run with this community group. The first one, also entitled Future Bayswater, asked the students to design a fun community engagement process focused on six key areas; community, transport, economics, design quality, environment and housing diversity (learn more about this studio here). Meanwhile, this studio focused on the development of revitalisation plans..Go to the Design Challenge and Detailed Place Process to learn more about the objectives of this studio, but if you are more interested in the teaching process applied, head on to the Detailed Learning Methodology.