The Urban Coffee Farm

I tweeted a video of Hassell's Urban Coffee Farm process (here) for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and I am super stoked to share some photos of the finished product here. I think this project really embodies a great temporary urban place and love that it has focused on reactivating a space that was otherwise underused.  Not only that I, like many Australians and especially Melbournites, am a coffee addict - so any place to get more coffee is always going to be approved by me!  The space is also awesome as it actually gives you to opportunity to learn more about coffee and where it comes from placing an emphasis on sustainability. 

Inside the Urban Coffee Farm via Habitus

The design of this project is, for lack of a better word, ingenious. The way that pallets, ply and chalkboards have been used in conjunction with a huge volume of greenery and vegetation really does set the scene of walking into a coffee farm or jungle and allowing you to step out of the city for a few moments (as well as just looking genuinely cool). Not only does it look cool, but you can see in the below picture that the coffee farm is attracting a wide range of people and giving them a collective an accessible open space to enjoy together. 

Outer View of the Urban Coffee Farm via Habitus

There are more photos over on the Habitus blog if you want to check it out further, and if your living in Melbourne I hope you are heading straight over to enjoy it while it's there because I wish I was! 

Making the Most of Empty Spaces Recap

Okay! So I still have no internet at home and with uni starting back up I think I am going to have to resign myself to less frequent posting over here on Urban Submarine - I am thinking about three times a week (and whenever I see something too cool to not post). 

Anyway, yesterday I attended the Renew Australia "Making the Most of Empty Spaces" workshop presented by Renew Newcastle founder Marcus Westbury. While spending my day at the Bleeding Heart Gallery Space on Ann Street Brisbane I learnt some pretty awesome (and practical) things about creating temporary urban spaces and pop up shops in our cities. 

The Renew Australia group are best known for their super cool work as Renew Newcastle - effectively upgrading Newcastle from an unknown, deteriorating industrial city outside of Sydney to one of the top 10 hippest cities in the world. Acting as an "enabler" or as I like to think of it Space Curator, Renew Newcastle give "Inititavists" the opportunity to put their brilliant creative idea into action by putting them up rent free in a vacant urban space with a rolling 30 day license agreement. This process not only helps creatives get their idea up and running but creates activity in otherwise vacant areas, improving safety and vibrancy in the city centre. 

Renew Newcastle project map via Renew Newcastle

The most important elements I took away from this workshop were the need for practicality and clear solutions when starting any pop up venture and the importance of having elements like how you will organize insurance for projects understood from the beginning. I also learnt the importance of involving a large cross section of people from the community itself in order to create a self sustaining and successful pop up project, not just the people you personally think are amazing or the things you think should be there (I personally am very guilty of this one!).  

All in all it came down to initiative, passion and responsibility and it made me want to start my own venture straight away. If you are interested at all in this kind of thing I would definitely suggest you check out Renew Australia and all the awesome resources they have available on their site.