Concept sitemap of Danks Street South Precinct (DSSP) by City of Sydney (DSSP Concept Design Summary, 2023)
Danks Street south precinct is an area of Sydney’s inner suburb Waterloo. Bordered by Danks, Young, McEvoy and Bourke Streets, the precinct includes the Sydney Water Pumping Station and Valve House. In a pioneering project, the City of Sydney in 2016 commissioned a public art strategy to creatively engage with the surrounding community so that their stories, values and ideas could help shape the design of the public domain. This process has led to the ‘Open Field Agency’, which offers artist residencies to support regenerative creative practice. The OFA positions artists not as beautifiers in urban change, but as vital agents in reshaping the systems, structures, and futures of our cities. Join us for a special preview tour of the OFA before its official launch to hear about the origins of the project, learn about the history of the precinct and view the site’s innovative pre-fabricated and self-build structures.
Note: Meeting point to be confirmed closer to the date.
Tour Leads
Heidi Axelsen, MAPA Art and Architecture
Dr Hugo Moline, The University of Newcastle
MAPA Art and Architecture is an art and architecture practice founded by Heidi Axelsen and Hugo Moline, which works between the social and the spatial.
Heidi Axelsen is an artist who has worked in local government (including Bankstown Art Centre and Creative Industries at Blue Mountains City Council) and PhD candidate at MADA, Monash University. She co-directs MAPA Art and Architecture, the art and architecture practice commissioned by the City of Sydney to develop the public art strategy and subsequent Open Field Agency Residency infrastructure and program in the Danks Street south precinct.
Dr Hugo Moline is an architect, artist, urbanist and researcher and Program Convenor of the Master in Architecture, University of Newcastle. He co-directs the MAPA Art and Architecture an art and architecture practice.