Pause Pods. A place to pause
City of Canterbury-Bankstown NSW
As the biggest town centre in the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, Bankstown CBD – known for its diverse population, with 55% of residents born overseas and its vast cultural mix of places to shop and buy food– is undergoing a huge period of change. As a result, it’s facing a number of challenges, including poor amenity and wayfinding, limited ‘staying places’ and safety issues – particularly for pedestrians and in the evening.
To address these challenges, in June 2018, the City of Canterbury-Bankstown awarded a Bankstown Urban Activations grant to CRED Consulting and RDO Architects to design and deliver temporary public seating in Bankstown Town Centre. We call these seating spaces ‘Pause Pods.’
So what are Pause Pods?
Cities are busy places. Sometimes, our streets become so focused on getting from one place to another that there is nowhere to stop and enjoy the street itself.
Pause Pods invite us to stop a while and be part of our community. By providing places to meet, socialise, gather and watch the world go by, they help to build local social and cultural capital.
Pause Pods are more than a place to sit, they are a process. Before any Pause Pod is installed, we ask local kids to imagine their city in the future.
Their thoughts are drawn onto their own miniature Pause Pod, which becomes a buried treasure, leaving people to wonder about what’s inside.
Each Pause Pod is wrapped with thoughts about the present moment and filled with ideas of our future.
With concrete blocks often used in public spaces as bollards which look cold, uninviting, or lost, Cred took the view that all objects in public spaces and streets should reflect the local character of the area, feel friendly and facilitate social and economic benefits.
Pause Pods can play an active role in encouraging community connection, sharing and engagement.
For example, our pilot project on the streets of Bankstown included street library and umbrella post pods, which are still in active use today.
Pause Pods are also programmable and can provide a space for local community programs or events.
How we did it?
We asked ourselves, ‘Where are the places to stop? Where are places of public creative expression? Where can people engage with each-other and the city?’
To address these questions, community engagement and involvement included:
- 2x community ‘art jams’ to embellish the Pause Pods
- a series of mini-activations held at the Pause Pods
- a craft afternoon with local children at out-of-hours school care. Participants were asked to create mini paper models of the pause pods that captured their vision for future Bankstown. These models were collected from willing participants to be embedded into the concrete pause pod moulds – imbuing them with a ‘soul,’ so they’re not just lumps of concrete.
In partnership with the Bankstown Arts Centre, CRED selected a different artist for each of the five locations to animate the pods in a way that reflects the character and place identity of the centre. Two pods were painted during ‘art jams’ – mini live events, where the local community participated in the painting.
Great design was a key feature in bringing the Pause Pods to life, with RDO Architect Rob Harper working closely with a manufacturing company to ensure their shape maximises human comfort through curved corners and chamfered edges – making them friendly (and safer) than your average square bollard.
Armed with life-sized cardboard models of the Pause Pods, CRED and RDO shortlisted a set of locations, testing distances and arrangements and selected strategic locations in collaboration with Council.
Image credit: CRED Consulting
OUTCOMES
It has been four years since we installed the Pause Pods which can be found in five different locations in Bankstown, including at the Bankstown Arts Centre, on North Terrace, South Terrace and Chapel Street, providing a sense of delight for pedestrians’ as they journey through the CBD. We have had continuous positive feedback and updates about them being used by people of all ages to sit, meet, wait, chat, eat lunch, take a break and play.
The intervention is subtle and intimate, with a rich and meaningful result. It is affordable, adaptable and potentially ongoing, thanks to the re-paintable concrete surfaces – allowing Pause Pods to become a dynamic art installation for Bankstown’s streets.
Image credit: Tiera Boo
“Cities are busy places. We’re giving you a place to pause.”