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Hi, I'm Maree and I'm currently studying a degree in Interior Design. This presentation
is the pitch I used for my initial concept for my major work. So I started off the semester
researching the idea of the Odyssey Generation which was a subgroup from the Y Generation.
I then used this focus group as a way to look into this idea of social belonging. So I investigated
the idea of social networking, the idea of a virtual blogging email and I then looked
at our need to feel connected with other people. So I then developed this research topic into
trying to decide on a need. So I looked into field research as the basis of developing
this need through observation and interview. So I then came up with my initial problem
which is that we now live in a world of weak ties. So we're drowning in this sea of online
social networking, making us disconnected and more alone than ever. We have no virtual
for any physical connection so, as tribal beings, we can only maintain so many connections
and we now have the ability to up and leave at virtually any moment.
So as individuals and as social beings, we always want to feel that we need to have face
to face connection with others. We demand certain connections in order to see our friends
all the time and we want to be bound to that by community in order to fee that we have
a cohesive place to live and work. So I had a missing link and that was the idea
that we don't have a cohesive community. I used this need in order to build this community
in order to develop stronger relationships and to build a new kind of community experience.
It was from this initial problem that I introduced the concept, Click. So Click fills this link.
It is a physical space in order to provide a partnership between students, staff and
the wider community. So community groups with the need, regardless of what it is and whether
it be an advertising campaign or a marketing plan, come to Click and the uni students and
staff will help facilitate their needs. It was about providing a link to a set of
groups in order to provide a cohesive whole. So I used Click and I made it for Sydney Uni
and Sydney Uni had a need: they wanted to make their ties with the community stronger.
They wanted to engage in social, cultural and political life; they wanted a context
for their students to go out into the wider community. So I found that Click would be
the answer to this. So Click's vision is this idea of a world
of belonging, the idea of connections with one another more physical as opposed to virtual
and the redevelopment of a new community. They value knowledge, empowerment and resources
and they value obviously the community. So Click was adapted on the model of UTS Shopfront.
UTS Shopfront already exists and it's a space for UTS students and staff to come together
and work for community groups. Some projects in the past have been reconciliation projects,
finance plan, advertising campaigns and I wanted to use this model but adapt it for
the Sydney Uni community. But instead of it just being an organisation, I wanted to make
it a lifestyle. I wanted to gain greater awareness for this model and I wanted it to be a holistic
service offered to all community groups, all students and all staffs.
So Click provides this new community centre, an experience between work and play. I wanted
it to be the redevelopment of a new social hub and the development of new partnerships.
So the Click process is a combination of connection between the student, the staff and the community
in order to provide this idea of networking and this idea of coming together.
So firstly, I, the student, the weak tie, the one that wants to make a difference to
the world, I want to develop myself in the community in order to provide future possibilities
for what I want to do with my life. Then we have we, the student and staff, so it's this
initial connection between the Sydney Uni student and the Sydney Uni staff. There is
some exchanging of goods, some exchanging of ideas but it's this initial development
and support that then leads to the idea of us, the community where the students and staff
collaborate, develop relationships with the wider community in order to fulfil the community's
needs regardless of what project it could be.
So I wanted to model Click in the Sydney suburb of Newtown; Newtown being the perfect location
as it has a diverse range of subgroups. It's a suburb that never really sleeps; it has
so many bars, so many restaurants and with so many subgroups, they always want it to
feel connected. Newtown is also the ideal location as in that it's close to Sydney Uni
itself but also close to Sydney Uni Village, the housing for all its students.
So in order to make sure that my concept was perfect, I had to look at what else was already
available. Newtown does have a few community centres: it has a Brown Street community centre,
a café and a neighbourhood centre. They are quite limited in who they're targeted for.
So the community café is mainly for vegans and vegetarians while the Brown steet/Newtown
neighbourhood centre mainly has things for AA addicts. So I wanted to make Click available
to all. I wanted it not to be so plain, so conventional and boring: I wanted it to be
more of an experience and more fun really. So I made Click site specific to Trocadero
which is on King Street. The site hasn't been used for quite a while and it was ideal because
its original use was as an entertainment venue. And I wanted Click to further this and make
it the transformation of this new building. It's a perfect location in that it backs right
onto Sydney Uni housing. So Click is a twofold space - one which is work - in order to facilitate
these connections. So it will be a work environment that's collaborative, adaptable, really transparent
so that the community group can just come, students and staff work together.
But then I wanted it to be this kind of twofold so that the work environment just spills out
into the leisure and fun. And I wanted it to be this idea of Click as play. So it will
have a hospitality precinct where people can come together, discuss over a drink, over
food but also this idea of Click as an expression for the community. So maybe a place to hold
function centres, a place for art events, movie previews.
So where will Click take us? It's a community of the future; it's ultimately to move away
from weak ties and to build a new idea of social belonging. I wanted my interior space
not only to develop a new experience but ultimately to be a new interior idea. Thank you.