Why BlackwoodTown?
BlackwoodTown
is the name of this project. It’s a name that encapsulates the idea we are working towards.
Blackwood
Like most names, its meaning as a particular place or thing, is far greater than the actual words describing a colour of a tree or timber, even though the reference to nature is evocative of the hilltop location.
Blackwood is the place.
So, if Blackwood is a place what does that mean? Most literally it can be defined as:
“a particular position, point, or area in space, a location, a locality”
But that’s only the start of it, because the name triggers associations in your brain and these will be different for everyone. Images, memories, a sense of home, or a place to visit, a functional need like shopping, or where a friend lives.
Or just a place to get through on your way somewhere else, and a difficult intersection.
This project is fundamentally about place. But it’s about enriching place, maximising positive associations, creating new memories. Its about place that is dynamic, interesting, surprising, welcoming, nourishing and regenerative.
Blackwood is a place, but it would be hard to say any of those things about it right now.
Town
Town implies a certain level of urbanity and a geographic scale.
Town is a human settlement on a scale bigger than a village and smaller than a city. A town can describe a central built-up area of business and shopping, and denser housing within a defined boundary.
Town also emphasises a clear difference from the surrounding suburbia. The Adelaide Hills suburbia is a much loved, lower density settlement characterised by detached houses, larger lots and vegetation.
A town on the other hand has permission to be built-up, with higher densities and mixed uses. A town’s greater concentration then generates a greater energy, more social interactions, and more economic activity.
But the failure to have a clear boundary often means the worst of both types: a lower density suburban town centre and denser suburbia.
A real lose / lose result in the Hills.
And pretty much describing the situation in Blackwood, where the centre really struggles to project its urbanity and spark any energy, while the backyards in the encircling suburbia are slowly being subdivided.
The eroding urban boundary
Just across Waite Street from each other, two sites tell the story of Blackwood's eroding urban form.
This photo shows houses demolished for more car parking on the fringe of Blackwood town centre which further weakens the form of the town centre, and erodes the boundary.
This photo shows lots subdivided for one storey, large footprint housing in the surrounding Blackwood suburbs, which degrade the Hill's leafy and spacious neighbourhood character.
BlackwoodTown
A single word to describe a place and an idea.
This Project sets out to envision a place where people will want to be, to live, work and play. A place with energy and a thriving local economy, a place on a hilltop, and that place is BlackwoodTown.
(Also, you can say ‘Ye olde Blackwoodtowne’ and immediately an old and mysterious Blackwood rises in the imagination!)
