Over almost 40 years, Joondalup has evolved into Perth’s city of the north, fulfilling the long held vision of being the region’s commercial, civic and cultural hub. Today, it is home to a range of retail and professional services, diverse tertiary education institutions such as Edith Cowan University, TAFE Joondalup and the West Coast Institute, along with a world class police academy and thriving health sector. The Department of Communities (Housing) Connect Joondalup project will deliver 1,600 new medium / high density residential dwellings and commercial and retail space located just 1km from the train station – representing a new frontier in context responsive urban development.

element lead the master plan review, place plan and place blueprint development to define the qualities and essence of the place, informed by the needs of its end users.

• Working from an established master plan, our work needed to provide an additional place context and lens to guide direction for future development
• Noting the site would be developed by a third party private developer, a key challenge was to balance Communities’ strong vision with flexibility to enable an innovative response from the market
• element worked with an existing project and design team – providing place direction – which was challenging at times owning to considerable project history and various discipline priorities
• Ensuring future infrastructure suited the desired uses of the community who will ultimately live, work and recreate in the space was crucial – noting integration with surrounding sites including Joondalup Arena and the remainder of the Joondalup City Centre.

• Place analysis, context review and place trends analysis
• Place visioning workshop to bring vested stakeholders together and set direction for the development
• Review of the existing master plan including objectives and principles
• Development of the Place Proposition, Themes and Place Vision Plan
• Defining new project objectives, place drivers, KPI’s
• Creation of a spatial Place Vision Plan –such as proposed precincts, features, public realm, use and activity mix