02
Shade, water, and somewhere to sit — negotiated in the open.
A civic square built on the argument that shade, water and somewhere to sit are the three things a public space cannot do without. Everything else is negotiable, and was negotiated — in the open, over eleven months, with the people who use it.
Materials were drawn from within fifty kilometres of the site. The paving is laid dry so it can be lifted, repaired and relaid without a single skip leaving the square.
Forty-one trees were planted before any paving was set, so the canopy had two summers of growth before the square opened.