Spring Street is located in Fitzroy and runs between Kerr Street and Rose Street. Running parallel with Nicholson Street, it combines industrial, commercial, office and residential building types to generate a diverse street typology.
With a width of 9m, Spring Street is primarily used by residents and businesses that face the street. A quiet street in the heart of Fitzroy, the site offers a great opportunity for redevelopment.
Rose Street and Kerr Street provide high volumes of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers that use them on a daily basis. With direct access from Nicholson Street and Smith Street, Spring Street is often forgotten about.
Kerr Street is a much wider street at 20m, which enables higher volumes of traffic. It is a main street used as a thoroughfare between Nicholson and Smith Streets. It contains a mixture of residential and commercial building types.
This is prevalent with Rose Street too, with the Rose Street Artists’ Market being held on Saturdays and Sundays. With this existing program so close to Spring Street, I aim to address their disconnection from one another.
Characteristics that resonated with me in Spring Street were the combining elements from Fitzroy’s industrial history with the emergence of residential pockets that have been developed in spaces that are still otherwise operated for commercial use.
Located in close proximity to Nicholson Street, Johnston Street and Smith Street, there is a merging of interesting urban elements, which were starting points in narrowing down my street selection.
Vegetation is also an area that I am aiming to focus on, with a lack of green space in close proximity to the street. Scatterings of trees can be seen on surrounding streets, but they do not offer significant greening to the urban environment.
Fitzroy typically utilises its main streets as social hubs, filled with commercial programme enabling community engagement. Residential development ties in to these streets to generate a diverse typology. I believe this philosophy can be carried into Spring Street to create a new establishment.
In moving forward, I want to create an environment where residents and businesses can interact. Challenging the notion of place, Spring Street is an investment looking to the future, inviting the existing community to come together.
Image sources
- Spring Street view, this and subsequent images copyright of author.
- Site overview.
- Spring Street analysis.
- Surrounding streets overview.
- Kerr Street analysis.
- Rose Street analysis.
- Building typologies.
- Surrounding vegetation.
- Residential / industrial.
- Industrial / commercial.
Streets without Cars 