Fed Square Melbourne

Guest post by Henry Mckenzie from Design Tavern

Hello there Mochatini readers!

I am very excited to finally, after a long chain of emails back and forth with Manvi, be posting on Mochatini. I thought this would be a good oppurtunity to share with you a small insight into my own city of Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne is a culturally diverse city, there are always live gigs, events or a festival of some sort going on. The city is also blessed with a vibrant art and design scene, which is where I would like to now take you!

Federation square or ‘fed square’ as most Melbournites call it has become a central hub, a distinctive space for the arts, live music, festivals, rallies, demonstrations, markets and can even boast a large outdoor digital screen.
This cultural precinct “comprises a series of buildings containing a public broadcaster, art galleries, a museum, cinemas, exhibition spaces, auditoria, restaurants, bars and shops around two major public spaces, one covered (The Atrium), the other open to the sky, and composed of two spaces that flow into one another (St. Paul’s Court and The Square). The majority of the precinct is built on top of a concrete deck over busy railway lines.”

The layout of Federation square has been cleverly thought out, with openings to a major train station and the river front it has been carefully integrated into the city and the people of Melbourne have responded.

There has been much controversy about the striking design of fed square from conservative heritage advocates, but in hindsight, does it matter how far from the norm of Melbourne the precinct is when the space has become so accepted by the city and its people, and used as it was intended?

I’ll let the images speak for themselves in terms of design, but it was the function that I really wished to share with you.