Cultural buildings: a city’s ‘art and soul’

A vibrant cultural scene sets a city’s tone. When streetscapes bubble with the delights of the arts, knowledge and history, they attract life and pulsate with an energy that nourishes citizens and nurtures community. As Melbourne demonstrates, these connections can ignite the senses and create a sense of belonging that can become the very fabric that holds a community together – a city’s beating heart and soul.

Despite living in an ‘always on’ world where smart phones and social media offer connections at the tip of our fingers, many still prefer to look past their ‘friends’, ‘followers’ and online ‘circles’ in search of more ‘real’ community experiences.

In the real world, cultural infrastructure assets shape a city’s sense of community, leading to human interaction and experience that the virtual world simply cannot offer.

How these assets are designed and integrated into a city’s landscape also plays a role in the quality of life enjoyed by residents and the capacity of a city to attract visitors.

AECOM’s Arts & Culture sector lead Annette Pitman believes cultural assets are intrinsic to a city’s identity, referencing Hobart’s Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) and Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum as cultural destinations that have become synonymous with the cities in which they reside.

“Cultural assets have the special ability to cut through social boundaries, disregarding class, age and education,” she explains.

“We have Arts Centre Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria, the State Library to name just a few – anyone can go into these places, walk around, look at their amazing art collections and feel part of something much bigger than themselves.”

Buildings that engage and nourish

The Seattle Central Library, designed by influential Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, is a cultural asset that reflects the diverse needs of its community.

Its design embraces the notion that  a library can be more than just a place to read and borrow books. Knowledge and discovery intersect in this egalitarian community haven that also provides an escape for a child in difficult circumstances at home, and a source of warmth and comfort for Seattle’s  homeless in winter.

As a multi-purpose civic icon, the Seattle Central Library quickly established itself as one of the USA’s leading examples of cultural infrastructure, attracting 2.3 million people through its doors in its first year, of which an estimated 30 percent were not from the Seattle area.

A young heArtbeat

Back in Melbourne, Pitman applies her love of the arts and passion for creating buildings that engage and challenge to her work on the revitalisation of Hamer Hall and Arts Centre Melbourne.
Constructed just 30 years ago, the Arts Centre Melbourne’s original designers – leading Australian architect Sir Roy Grounds and Academy Award winning costume and production designer John Truscott – wanted to transport visitors to a different world.

Now, as Melbourne continues its evolution as a world city, the Arts Centre’s revitalisation underlines  the importance of it remaining both a destination of choice, and an asset that can engage and nourish.

AECOM’s advisory arm is conducting the economic analysis for the building, while Pitman’s team is project managing the development of a masterplan and business case for the centre’s redevelopment.

“As with all cultural infrastructure projects, we need to consider what an arts centre of the future will look like 30 years from now,” says Pitman.

“What do we envision its role in the city will be, and how can we give the institution the tools required to make that all-important connection with the community?”

“It is essential that the right decisions are made now to ensure the centre remains a valuable cultural and community asset in the future.”

In 2015, more than 1.2 million people enjoyed performances at Arts Centre Melbourne venues, including almost 80,000 students. An estimated 227,000 people were also reached via 1,877 education and engagement programs, numbers illustrating how Arts Centre Melbourne feeds engagement and enriches the city.

Civic pride comes from inhabitants identifying with the nuances that give a place its vitality.  The many intricacies – the light and shade – cast by cultural infrastructure are pivotal to creating and sustaining that relationship between a place and its people – that bond between the creative and the concrete that is the Art and Soul of any city.