THE EXCHANGE

The Exchange at Knowledge Market was a unique urban living lab situated in Victoria Harbour, in Melbourne’s Docklands, a major urban regeneration project at the edge of the city’s central business district.

The book documents the overall project, the design research it made possible and a selection of the major outcomes. Through the book’s design the reader is invited into The Exchange, to enter the project and explore different aspects of it. Pull-out quotes and rich imagery allow for exploratory browsing, and thread together the major themes and findings. These offer a kaleidoscopic view of the many ideas that were generated in the space, as well as the events, installations and exhibitions that enlivened it.

Six thematic essays explore the underpinning principles of the project and explain the concepts of:

  • activation
  • collaboration
  • transformation
  • place
  • interdisciplinarity
  • futurity

These thematic essays were arranged in dialogue with six chapters that focus on the main topics that the design research explored:

  • design-led community engagement
  • sociality and community
  • sustainable resilient systems
  • digital infrastructures
  • urban spatial dynamics
  • memory and imagination

The book is a vivid portrait of an ever-evolving research project firmly embedded in a particular place. As such, it exemplifies a model of activation and community engagement, and an innovative example of collaboration between academia and industry.

 

View a PDF version of the book here.