TRAFFIC is a collaborative design practice working across architecture, urbanism and computation.

We are interested in behaviour, form, the behaviour of form and patterns of occupation of the city and its architecture through the lens of procedural and process-driven experimentation.

This methodology is deployed as a mechanism to engage with the real, the hyper-real and the counterfactual. We observe, research, lecture, analyse, design, speculate, make and exhibit.

TRAFFIC is located in Melbourne, Australia with global projects, interests and collaborations, primarily in Australia, Europe and Asia.

Kings Square, Fremantle

the Square and two triangles

The triangular site is one half of an urban square, which should be treated as one. We would encourage the participation of the church in the process of creating a unified Kings Square.

the Church in the Garden

The church and town hall parcels are seen as the soft and hard triangles. St John’s is conceived as a church in a garden, predominantly soft planting and lawn, while the urban room and town hall are essentially a paved plaza.

the Arcade Screen

This is a key organising element; a heavily perforated mass wall defining the perimeter. It creates a zero lot line edge to the triangular site; a second skin protecting glazed walls, and a generous arcade at upper levels overlooking the high street. The screen folds back into the floor plate to form the edge of an elliptical courtyard, and unfolds at the triangle point to form a free-standing screen; creating a High Street arch and a Queen St. edge. The thick limestone-coloured wall recalls some of the early built form of Fremantle such as the Round House and the Arts Centre. The free-form perforations are able to vary and calibrate to the urban location.

the Urban Room

This space is a hybrid between a courtyard and an undercroft. The ground floor space is defined by the main floors overhead and the elliptical court at its centre; as well as the lobbies at ground level and the arcade screen at each side. The space is large enough to accommodate ephemeral programs (such as market events) as well as the virtual library.
The double layer of the arcade screen further defines two zones to the room.

Defined High street

The Adelaide / High Street corner needs a structure on its fourth corner to better define that intersection. We have proposed a gateway and pavilion structure sitting within the City of Fremantle title, and facing Adelaide Street opposite the town hall. The High Street axis is tightened and more strongly defined at its edge.

Queen Street Edge

The Queen Street face of the square would benefit from more containment. We have proposed an option of the arcade screen continuing along Queens Street as a free standing colonnade. It creates a gateway arch to High Street at that end and a colonnade that, along with the Moreton Bay figs, forms an edge to Queen Street.

Exposed Town Hall

The rebuilding of the library and civic offices creates the opportunity of exposing the north wall of the town hall once detached from the addition. The arcade screen, sitting away from this, would create a lane space next to the old town hall.

the One Stop Shop and the Virtual Library

The ground floor programs are critical in creating an informal public interface and an integration to the various programs. The lobby space combines civic administration, library and visitor centre as a one stop shop, both as a service counter and a self service series of lounge workstations. These is turn merge with market shops and virtual services, where touch screens in the arcade screen wall might together constitute a virtual library, complementing the physical spaces in the floors above. The Kiosk at the north end is a wedge of space for small programs- serving coffee or currency through the window, and a Public Hub with short term meeting and work spaces.

This project was undertaken as a collaboration with Antarctica.

Project Team: Graham Crist, Gretchen Wilkins, Ian Nazareth, Haziel Mitra, Mitchell Walker