The BlackwoodTown Project can be read in any order but this page gives an overall view of the Project to date.
This page is a constant work in progress so is bound to be buggy - some some articles are waiting on time.
And of course the Project is aiming to be wholistic and recognise the interconnectedness of everything - so there will be many overlaps!
About the Project
What is the BlackwoodTown Project?
The BlackwoodTown Project is both exuberant fantasy and pragmatic proposal, using art and urban design to re-imagine Blackwood in South Australia.
Latest Videos
BlackwoodTown Fly-overs
Urban Form
There are archetypal urban forms that we recognise and respond to. Blackwood, on its hilltop, could be among them.
Urban Form - Fantasy Towns
In books, film, TV and games, archetypal urban forms are used creatively for our shared wonder and delight.
Urban Form - Historical Towns
There are many famous historical examples that we know and love.
Macroforms and Scale
Macroforms can be a way of looking at human settlements, and our transport systems, as big, beautiful and scupltural forms, on the scale of landscapes.
Urban Design
Some foundation urban design principals underpinning the project.
What's in a name?
BlackwoodTown is the name of this project. It’s a name that encapsulates the urbanity we are working towards.
Blackwood Urban Node
Urban nodes are places of higher density and greater activity within the wider city. Blackwood could be a thriving hilltop urban node in the future.
Streets, Lanes and Squares
The traditional building blocks of urban form.
Dig, Loop, Frame, Scale, Live
Dig, Loop, Frame, Scale, Live.
The 5 step plan to get from an ugly, struggling, low rise, amorphous suburban service centre, to a thriving, dynamic, consolidated, and sustainable 21st century urban node.
BlackwoodTown by numbers
Here we have rough numbers of commercial and community space, new homes and carparking.
BlackwoodTown Flyer March 2023
Download PDF
Social and Economic Issues
Acknowledgement
This project impacts many people.
The Impossibles
BlackwoodTown is obviously impossible...
The Roundabout and the Sunk Cost Fallacy
The roundabout is the cancer at the heart of Blackwood and a sunk cost fallacy.
see https://blackwoodtown.com.au/waite-reserve-upgrades/
BlackwoodTown: Bushfire Refuge
An urbanised BlackwoodTown can be a bushfire refuge without the need to evacuate to the coast.
Transportation
B.E.R.C.
The Blackwood Electric Railcar Company is a paradigm changing urban transport proposal, using the existing single way rail track with 21st century autonomous electric battery vehicles.
BlackwoodTown Elements
These posts will begin to outline specific elements of a re-imagined Blackwood.
207-217 Main Road Blackwood
This our take on this strategic site on the Blackwood Main Road northern arterial strip
Fiveways Park
With the roundabout demolished, a new Blackwood central park spills down the hill to the Railway Station.
Masons Lane
Running from Fiveways Park to the northern wall, Masons Lane is a new inhabited lane behind the Masons Hall.