Green Spaces in Unusual Places: Join our pop-up community climate hub this October
This October, urban design student Tiaré Murphy is hosting ‘Green Spaces in Unusual Places’, a dynamic pop-up climate hub in Melbourne CBD. Developed in partnership with Regen Melbourne and with the support of a City of Melbourne Youth Climate Action grant, the pop-up aims to involve the community in climate conversations and inspire action for a safer, cleaner and greener urban future. We spoke to Tiaré for a behind-the-scenes scoop.
Tiaré Murphy has been passionate about climate change for as long as she can remember. As a child, she learned about the topic in books, created climate-themed plays with her friends and implemented small energy-saving measures at home, like layering clothing instead of turning on the heater. “From a very young age, I’ve always had this drive for taking climate action,” she says.
As a teenager, Tiaré took the initiative of attending local council meetings but became disillusioned by the traditional paths of place-based engagement, which often fail to engage young people. Now studying Urban Design at the University of Melbourne she hopes to challenge these conventional approaches in her practice.
Tiaré Murphy wants to help get more young people involved in place-based decision making.
So she came up with something better. Drawing on inspiration from the global Park(ing) days (pop-up projects that turn curbside parking spaces into public parks), she envisioned the ‘Green Spaces in Unusual Places’ project, which is developed in partnership with Regen Melbourne and supported by the City of Melbourne’s Youth Climate Action Grants.
Part mini-festival, part community engagement platform and part participatory art installation, the event exists to promote green spaces in urban environments and to create a community space to host climate conversations in the heart of Melbourne. “I just got really invested in this idea of creating a tangible space where people could come together,” Tiaré says. “I like the idea of occupying an unusual space in the city, which when you’re walking by, you can just get swept in. There’s something theatrical about it.”
What to expect at Green Spaces in Unusual Places
Over three days, a pop-up green space will take over Signal (on Flinders Walk, Northbank, on the banks of the Birrarung River) and feature musical performances, facilitated climate discussions and sharing of personal narratives, interactive workshops (including bee hotel-making classes) and thermal cameras to illustrate temperature differences between green spaces and surrounding concrete.
After the opening on Thursday, the following two days will each have a different theme: Friday will be all about climate and health, while Saturday will explore the urban heat island effect (the fact that cities are often significantly hotter than their rural surroundings due to heat-absorbing surfaces). “Every pocket of green can help mitigate this effect,” she explains. “And green spaces are vital to our mental health”
The format is designed to attract passersby, encouraging them to drop in casually. “We’re targeting those who might be just walking past,” Tiaré explains. “We want to capture the rare essence of who the community is and it will be interesting to see how everyone reacts to the space.”
Inspiring community support and action
Tiaré believes engaging and connecting everyday people is a precondition for effective climate action, and that a city’s climate resilience starts at the grassroots level. By transforming urban spaces into interactive climate environments, she hopes to create not just awareness of the issue but also a sense of hope and agency among attendees.
On a systemic level, Tiaré hopes Green Spaces in Unusual Places can inspire meaningful dialogue and support for policies that promote the creation of more green spaces and innovative uses of existing ones. “It doesn’t have to be a huge redevelopment,” she says. “Small initiatives can collectively make a significant impact.”
And on a personal level, Tiaré hopes that visitors will leave the event feeling empowered rather than overwhelmed by climate change. “I want people to feel supported and heard within the community,” she says. “I hope it’s a reflective process; that people leave feeling a sense of urgency on this topic, and feel inspired to take their own kind of action.”
Green Spaces in Unusual Places is happening at Signal (Northbank, Flinders Walk, Melbourne) from October 3–5 (Thursday opening: 2–4pm, Friday and Saturday: 10am–4pm). Entry is free.
Tiaré and Regen Melbourne would love to extend our sincere gratitude to the brilliant organisations who have helped us bring ‘Green Spaces in Unusual Places’ to life: City of Melbourne, Signal, Sweltering Cities, Psychology for a Safe Climate, Climate and Health Alliance, Vic Health, Earthwatch and The University of Melbourne.
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