Second year architecture students from UQ's School of Geography, Planning and Architecture will be participating in Brisbane PARK(ing) Day on Friday, September 19.
As part of their Architectural Design studies, 78 students will temporarily convert 19 parking bays on the St Lucia campus into parks.
Event coordinator, UQ Architecture Lecturer Dr Nicole Sully, said students were looking forward to showcasing their creativity.
“The University has been incredibly supportive of the project, particularly Property and Facilities, Traffic and Parking, and Security,” Dr Sully said.
“The students have been working really hard on the projects and it has generated a lot of community interest.
“The project encourages the students to consider the nature of public space in addition to the impact of the private automobile in the city.
“It also offers a rare opportunity for students to test their design ideas on a real scale.”
Brisbane is anticipated as being amongst the largest PARK(ing) Day ventures internationally, with UQ hosting about half of the city’s spaces.
The UQ architecture students are the largest cluster of PARKs in Brisbane.
PARK(ing) Day started in San Francisco in 2005 when a group of artists and activists known as REBAR converted a single parking space into a simple park for two hours in protest about the lack of public space in their city.
In the following years, cities such as London, New York and Rio de Janeiro participated in the event.
In 2007 over 200 PARKs were constructed and more than 50 PARKs are planned this year in New York.
Over 40 spaces have been registered within Brisbane, with PARKs planned in Fortitude Valley, South Bank and West End.
Kristy Walters, Environment Officer at the UQ Union, has organised a “Tour de Parks” for the public.
The tour begins as a walking tour at UQ and turns into a cycle tour around the rest of the city.
A map of the UQ PARKs is available online.
Media: Katherine Hill at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723)
