OUR WHY | Our Purpose

 
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IT ALL STARTED WHEN...

Commune + Co is a social enterprise characterised by entrepreneurial changemakers, and was started in 2016 after recognising the need for new ways of approaching conventional community engagement and collaboration between community stakeholders, councils and property developers.

Community discontent was occurring with the influx of new residential developments occurring in across infill sites in inner city and high growth fringe neighbourhoods in Victoria, some of which barely met the Better Apartment Design Standards, and that the affordable housing crisis was driving people into fringe and outer suburbs.

Many of these suburbs lack the amenity and infrastructure of inner city suburbs; and that there were increasing numbers of citizens forgotten in marginalised communities.


Traditionally, creative placemaking has been connected with landscape architecture, public space and public art programs, and we also realised that the term 'placemaking' lacked general community awareness.

Placemaking is largely defined as:

"a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces, capitalising on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that promote people's health, happiness and well being".


So we have set out on our mission to find out what this actually looks like, mapping out the myriad of ways social and environmental impact can be measured, and more importantly, how can our brand of placemaking lead to long term purposefully integrated community led developments?

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OUR DELIVERY

We want to prove that there is a place in the changing urban landscape for a different placemaking agency led by
design and built environment
professionals who believe in creating a process of research and place activation aimed towards social inclusion of marginalised communities, including the elderly, refugees, youth, and new parents.

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OUR PROMISE

We believe that every person has a say in how to make our communities a better place to live in to ensure Melbourne’s liveability and viability in years to come.

We partner with them, bridging gaps and pulling a mixture of community and external resources to create mutually beneficial outcomes.

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WHY IT MATTERS

We need to start a movement to
generate conversation and get citizens involved in the making of our future cities.

By disrupting the archaic standard
building practice of "if you build it they will come"; we know the future lies not only in design led place-making and human centred design, but having the conversation we need to have with the people who live within it that will empower neighbourhoods to author their own story of place.

Because life is about how and where and when we commune, and the ways we can influence spaces that create happier communities where we live is what makes our clocks tick.

This is why we have created
Commune + Co.