Joondalup Site Visit

11 March 2007 | Category: Life Log
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We are suppose to identify an urban setting that fits the project design called “Urban Analysis and Conceptual Scenario”, the site can be at the outer edge or periphery. We are required to observe the ways humans and animals adapt to the setting, how they use the structures and how they inhabit and adapt to the space, and we decided to go to Joondaloop. A place far far away from University.

The Joondalup region is part of Mooro country and is an important place for indigenous people. The story of the spirit women, Charnok Woman, is particularly important to Joondalup, read more – Joondalup history.

Why Joondaloop? Well, we are new to Perth and the best way to go about deciding a place to venture would be non other than Google Earth.

We went there by train; got ourselves a map and got ourselves lost; it is like the Blair witch project where those students in the movies walk in circles for days and… and die. Apparently that didn’t happen to us – yet. We end up wandering in the Yellagonga Regional Park for about 30 minutes.

Going to the Yellagonga Regional Park was a different kind of experience for me, the journey took about 15 – 20 minutes and from the train station to the peaceful park. Images of gradual change from concrete jungle back to mother nature, unlike the city which grow out of politics and commercial which hide the true identity in return for profit, the park is sheltered from corruption and greed from the capitalism world, the true essence can be seen with its texture and materials.

This reminds me of a poem:

Trees are a poem the earth writes across the sky. Humanity cuts them down for paper so we may record our emptiness – Kahlil Gibran

From our observation, we are to construct an urban scenario that will be a reference framework for our assignment, we are suppose to observe the way human adapt to the setting, discern the difference between public and private space, what is clear and what is blurred. I won’t go into detail about that but here are some images of the actual proposal by an architect firm:

Below is the proposed site, the existing railway track will be rerouted to a new underground tunnel and new apartment blocks or office tower will be erected.

northbridgelink_project_site_proposal_train_station.JPG

The second visit to Joondalup was good, and no we’re not lost this time around. Instead of going to the lake, we went to the city itself and saw this huge construction site. We’ve come to notice that there is a hand full of basement car parks and most of their buildings are between 2 – 3 stories high, mostly 1 stories possibly due to the amount of empty land they have.

As we walk around the city, we notice that the curb of the road has these small round little ceramic art work or was it porcelain, am not very sure about it but the city is filled with these cute little art work, along the walkway and curb. Kind of fun to look at it and I guess it gives the city itself a sense of life – an identity.