Street transformed in ‘Dodds St Reboot’

Dodds St underwent a transformation in November, as part of the ‘Dodds St ReBoot’.

The “reboot” was an initiative of CoDesign Studio which, in conjunction with Arts Victoria, attempted to activate the street space for the use of local residents, workers and students.

The four-day street “reboot” included creating a public space, providing greenery, better conditions for cyclists and pedestrians and providing more food options.

Helen Rowe from CoDesign said the ideas had come from a public consultation.

“Earlier in the year CoDesign’s team asked locals what they’d like to see happen on Dodds St and at Dodds Street ReBoot we aimed to prototype these ideas,” Ms Rowe explained.

She said the street was already blocked off to traffic so it was the perfect space.

“The basic idea of the project is that this space is under-utilised – it’s already blocked off to traffic – and Southbank could do with some more street life and community space,” Ms Rowe said.

“We thought it would be a great space to temporarily reclaim and see how else it could be used as well as finding out what people think of it,” she added.

Ms Rowe went on to say the experiment was a great success and locals responded very positively to it.

“We had a really great reception from locals – both talking to residents as well as students and people who live nearby,” Ms Rowe said.

“They saw it as a way to meet other locals, great for letting kids play on the street, especially doing chalk drawings! Even just providing seats and a bit of greenery was appreciated,” she added.

Mr Rowe said she hoped the momentum from this first reboot could lead to more activation projects in the future.

“We’re going to pull together the pictures and feedback from the event and provide this to the local arts precinct stakeholders and the City of Melbourne,” she explained.

“We hope that what we’ve achieved demonstrates that Dodds St could be used differently that this ‘reboot’ creates momentum for more creative uses of the street into the future.”