The Roundtable

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Background: This creative work builds upon recent work exploring the design of tactical and temporary urban installations, and the projects exploring the capacity of architectural installation to express cultural values and the role of architecture within public space. This includes research by Wigglesworth & Till on relationships between occupation, furniture and spatial proposition, Atelier Bow Wow on temporary tactical urban design works for activation of public space and the architectural installations of Baracco + Wright exploring the flora of Australian cities.

Contribution: This research contributes to knowledge through the development and deployment of a low-cost, digitally fabricated, site-specific urban design prototype that was rapidly assembled and installed in a public space. Conceived in response to the loss of shared spaces during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns, the project comprises a 7-metre circular table planted with native and introduced edible species and surrounded by stools identifying each plant. It demonstrates a method for integrating Indigenous Australian edible plants and associated cultural knowledge into the design of urban public space. The use of architectural and urban design forms with culturally specific references—such as the communal table—contributes a model for landscape interventions that communicate place-based ecological and cultural knowledge through architectural and urban design.

Significance: In 2025 the work won the independently peer reviewed Italian National Council of Architects, Planners, Landscape Designers, and Conservators/Paysage ‘CityScape Award’ in the ‘Prodotti e Tecnologie Innovative per L’arredo Urbano’ category. The work was also shortlisted for the City of Melbourne, Melbourne Awards and the Australian Institute of Architects (Victorian Chapter) Awards in 2024, was a finalist in the Victorian Premier’s design awards (Architectural design category) in 2023. The work has also been reviewed and published in Landscape Architecture Australia and Green Magazine.