While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to open space designs, there are several common themes that have to be considered to design the perfect outdoor public space.

Public parks and outdoor spaces need to consider elements like the surrounding environment, community usage, and the regulatory requirements to be a success. Unsuccessful parks become a burden and expensive to maintain.

Whether you are renovating an existing park, or designing a new open space from scratch, here is everything you need to consider to create a winning open space design.

Understand the Needs of the Community

Without community input, it is impossible to design a public space that meets the area’s unique context, its historical resonance, and social and environmental needs. Your client may be the municipality, a public service department, or a private company, but it is the community that will ultimately determine, by their levels of engagement, whether the end product is a success.

Conducting successful community engagement will help you clarify exactly what the community wants and needs. Town halls, bulletin boards, postal surveys, and local engagement events can provide the information and feedback you need to create a marquee open space in the community.

Past studies, surveys, and other information-gathering reports can help you uncover background information on a community and improve your understanding of the local context before engaging directly.

Distinct communities with particular histories may need a space in which to meditate on or commemorate special events. Perhaps the local population data indicates a higher than usual percentage of the community belong to a specific age group, allowing you to cater your design to that specific demographic.

A public space, park, garden or lookout often becomes a meeting point, a crossing place where all residents come together. Designing a space that brings a diverse community together might be exactly what the area needs.

Know the Local Regulations and Requirements

Some local councils and shires will only review design submissions that include and consider how sustainability factors will be managed.

Incorporating sustainability standards, along with other regulation compliance plans, in open space designs are an absolute must these days. Design plan applications are assessed against the corresponding state’s Planning and Design Code. Each state has their own planning requirements.

Then, an application for building consent will be assessed against Australia’s National Construction Code and other relevant standards.

Knowing exactly what requirements need to be fulfilled and which standards followed are essential for park designs to be accepted, processed, and approved.

Designing for Multi-Use and Flexibility

A park or open space, particularly a great one, is used for more than just leisurely strolls and friendly or familial gatherings. A great open space is used to host a variety of events, with a variety of different usage requirements.

Some considerations to keep in mind when designing your public space:

• Can the space be used for a public market?
• Is there vehicle access, and secure access control?
• Is it possible to stage an entertainment event?
• Is there adequate casual seating? Or can temporary seating be added?
• Can a storage facility be provided?
• Is there access to power and lighting?
• Can a temporary structure be erected on the site, either to house a local service or an exhibition?

Designing a space to be multi-purpose and adapted to cater to different events and services will add value for the end user as well as the commissioning body.

Integrating Natural and Built Environments

If you are involved in the design of a public space in a new development, you may have the luxury of influencing the design aspects of the built environment surrounding the park. If so, you can exert more control over things like the flow of traffic or pedestrians and the natural light and sight lines to the park.

In this case, an ideal height for structures that surround a park planted with trees is around four stories for residential occupation. Peripheral structures beyond park bounds are then able to benefit from a direct sight line from available viewpoints. It also opens up the viewpoint from the ground, letting light reach the recreational space without let or hindrance.

If your designed open space will rest within an already developed area, your built environment integrations will have to be confined to inside park boundaries. While this places some limitations on what you can do, the possibilities for built structure integration are still endless.

Built structures like public restrooms, shade structures, park benches, and other outdoor furniture must provide the right balance between aesthetics and practicality. Customising park furniture is one great way to ensure that your built and natural environments are perfectly in sync.

Using the provided elements of the natural environment, and complementing that with built amenities, should be central to managing water control and irrigation, maximising multi-use aspects, and designing elegant spaces that resonate with the local community and environment.

Planning and Planting

Being sensitive to local flora is also key to developing sustainable landscape architecture. Taking cues from the surrounding environment’s hills, beaches, deserts, or rainforests should guide landscape choices.

Maintaining or incorporating local, native plants ensures the living environment is destined for success and reduces the risk of plants failing due to their inexposure to the region’s drought or flood conditions, and any natural pests or predators that thrive in the region.

Studies have shown that a water feature like a fountain, waterfall, or stream can lead to park visitors spending longer in a public space compared to one without a water feature.

Enhancing User Experience by Thoughtful Design

While community consultations may reveal to an architect or designer exactly what a community wants, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the community will use the open space exactly how the designer intended.

This might be revealed by informal pathways developing across grass or through planted areas. The unaccounted flow of visitors can disrupt the whole thought behind design elements. Understanding what a community wants and using thoughtful design to predict how they will use the park maximises user engagement.

While humans are, as a species, fairly predictable, they retain the right to surprise.

Shade and Rest Points

It is sensible in a new park not to rely on juvenile trees to provide adequate shade. Logical locations for shade structures and table settings, like beside playgrounds so that parents can supervise their children, is an example of thoughtful design.

Shade structures, as well as rest points, should also be accessible for mobility aid users.

Welfare Points and Utilities

Water fountains are a necessary facility in parks. If they are situated close to playgrounds, open-air gym equipment, and picnic areas, they should also be at an adequate distance from restroom facilities.

Likewise, the most used bin enclosures are usually the receptacles positioned at a park exit. If there is a dedicated dog-exercising space, an adequate number of specific animal waste bins should be incorporated in the plan too.

Navigation and User Flow

If your planned directions and routes are not developed to provide an intuitive route through an open public space, then informal pathways will develop. Think of the path of least resistance for users.

For larger parks, incorporating clear signage is important, but not at the expense of developing clutter. Consider using colour-coded paths to guide users to specific points in a park, thereby reducing reliance on signage or other wayfinding.

Park entrances should offer a view of exits from the park too. The Victoria State Government advises designers to ensure park entrances and exits are integrated with surrounding pedestrian networks.

To enhance user perceptions of safety, multiple access points should be included to allow for easy linking to surrounding streets and other external amenities.

Integrating Local Art, Culture, and Design

The feedback received from community engagement, and the requirements of a local commissioning body may require the sourcing of public art or particular cultural elements.

This can be as simple as a steel cut-out on the back wall of a shelter, but it may also be an elaborate design or mural that becomes the focal point of the park.

The identity of an open space can go a long way to developing local interest and enhancing user numbers. The impact of public art can sometimes be controversial, and can sometimes spur pride, but it is never ignored.

Public spaces often benefit from a main focus that invites curiosity, or pride, and draws users in to experience the site, whether it is a water feature, a shade structure, or artwork.

Using Renders and Digital Illustrations to Visualize the Ideas

Many architects, designers, and artists are incredibly good at mental visualisation. They can see an object or structure in three dimensions before it’s put on paper, or on a screen.

This acuity is only present in a minority of the population, so by being able to present accurate renders of a project digitally in 3-D, you will be able to share your vision with the community and commissioning body.

Making designs more accessible to clients and other stakeholders, renders and digital illustrations are effective ways to build confidence in your design. For regulatory bodies, who need to know statutory spacings, gradients, and sightlines have been adhered to, digital renderings demonstrate understanding and broad compliance.

Digital Design Strength

Using renders and digital illustrations can be developed at pace to switch out layouts, materials, and features. Using integrated digital tools means that different schemes can be visually evaluated before final commitment.

This makes identifying issues and garnering support for your project easier prior to the building and construction phase.

Taking high-quality illustrations into meetings with potential investors, partners, public representatives, or community leaders is a great way to showcase a project.

Choosing the Right Street Furniture and Amenities

Choosing the right street furniture and amenities to outfit your park is one of the most important decisions you will make in designing your park. These features are often what attract users to your park and determine how great of a success your design is going to be.

This is also an important step in the process for considering the sustainability of the furniture and materials you are going to use. Alongside sustainability, durability is a key standard that has to be achieved as well.

Other considerations to keep in mind:

• Is the item vandal-resistant?
• Are its materials able to withstand local climate extremes?
• Is it both practical and aesthetically pleasing?
• Is maintenance of the structure difficult?
• Is it accessible to all users?
• Does it consider local context and design elements?

Where possible, a winning idea is to customize your street furniture so that it not only meets the considerations above, but that it also speaks to the identity of the space. If your structure can tell a story or commemorate an event, it will provide much more value to the community.

Sustainable Space Design

These days, designers are expected to plan for climate resilience and provide solutions that are adapted to changing conditions.

As such, it is important to consider the environmental footprint and impact of the entire design, procurement, construction, and end use of the open space.

Sourcing locally, using sustainable building materials, and integrating as much of the natural environment into your design as possible are strong sustainable design considerations.

The Light Fantastic

Lighting is an essential part of a park, and an essential part of its sustainable identity. Modern LED lighting uses little power and can be directed to ensure footways are clearly defined, safety concerns are met, and sightlines are well connected.

Solar-powered lighting should be integrated where possible as it not only lowers a park’s carbon footprint, but lowers costs over time as well.

Cycling and Recycling

Encouraging users of open space to reduce their own carbon footprint is as important as the decarbonisation of the initial design. Consider designating bicycle-friendly routes and sourcing locally-made bicycle parking solutions.

Aluminium and steel are both highly recyclable materials, and many products are readily available with a high proportion of recycled content built in. Wood structures, on the other hand, are less sustainable, less recyclable, and more prone to damage.

While it’s tough to beat the look and feel of a beautiful wood structure, Terrain Group produces a product that combines the best of both worlds. The TimberMatch Range is made from aluminium but looks like wood. It doesn’t warp, twist, melt, or corrode. It is locally sourced and sustainably produced, producing an all-around win for your open space design.

The Importance of Collaborating With the Right Partners

Working with the right partners is the most important decision that an architect will make in their design process. The right partner will provide help to meet regulatory standards, develop digital illustrations and renders, and provide industry expertise that only seasoned professionals have acquired.

With end-to-end project management services from consultation and design to liaising with local authorities, Terrain Group is the perfect strategic partner.

From street furniture to restrooms and design help, Terrain Group has the expertise and experience that your team needs to develop a winning park design.

Contact us today for expert help and consultation when designing and installing your perfect public spaces.