The City Renewal Precinct Portal (the Portal) has been counted amongst the best design and innovation in the country as part of Australia’s International Good Design Awards for Design Excellence 2022.
The Portal is an online tool that encourages users to virtually explore Canberra’s City Renewal Precinct. The Portal maps out the City Renewal Precinct with interactive content that showcases current and future projects that highlight the future of our city.
Taking place on Friday 16 September 2022, the Australian Good Design Awards are the oldest and most prestigious international awards for design and innovation. Spanning 11 design disciplines, the Awards celebrate excellence in architectural design, engineering, fashion, digital and communication design, social impact, research and up-and-coming talent. More than 70 Australian and international jurors are involved in the evaluation process with each entrant evaluated by a strict set of criteria.
Developed in close collaboration with Canberra-based Formswell design studio and Spatial Media, the Portal received the Good Design Award in the Digital Design category. It was praised for demonstrating excellence in professional design and highlighting the impact good design has on triple bottom line outcomes.
Feedback from the Good Design Awards Jury observed the immersive experience of the Portal.
"Immersion is the key word when you come to describe the City Renewal Precinct Portal, a remarkably interactive virtual experience that communicates change and educates the community in a way that's fun and easily navigable. It beautifully balances traditional written content with the allure of visuals to produce a very accessible experience for all. The result is a journey that's endlessly inclusive and beautifully involves citizens with the changes, innovations and effects of an impressive new development."
Malcolm Snow, CEO, City Renewal Authority said the Authority was delighted to collaborate on such a forward-thinking and community-focused project.
“We are honoured to be recognised next to some of Australia’s most innovative, design-led thinkers. The Precinct Portal is an opportunity for us to engage with our community and not only showcase the array of renewal initiatives taking place across the Precinct, but also highlight each unique place, its history and characteristics in a dynamic, visual way. It demonstrates the place-based, design-led and people focused approach inherent in our practice.”
Dan Armstrong, Director at Formswell, reiterated this sentiment saying this is but one example of the collaborative approach Formswell and the Authority share.
"It's a huge honour to be recognised for an Australian Good Design Award in 2022 for our design and development of the City Renewal Precinct Portal. The Portal allows the Authority to communicate its projects clearly to the public using clever design schematics and well-thought-out user interface elements throughout the site. We thank the City Renewal Authority for the collaborative opportunity and hope to continually improve and update the portal into the future."
The winners of this year’s Good Design Awards have demonstrated ways in which good design can improve society and the environment we live in, making it better, safer, more efficient, or more beautiful. All these projects embrace a common driver at their core – people.
The Authority’s Creative Director and lead on the project, Patrick Rose, said the Portal represents a new way of thinking that is designed to convey the interconnected nature of the Authority’s work.
“We began this project because we knew we could do even more to make our engagement processes more interactive and illustrative. We acknowledge what works for some doesn’t work for everyone, and the Precinct Portal goes beyond traditional communications approaches to make our storytelling more accessible to everyone,” Patrick said.
“We’ve created this tool as a way of telling the whole story of the Authority. One that communicates projects in the easiest, most efficient and engaging way possible.”
To read more information about the award and to see the other winners, visit Precinct Portal - Good Design (good-design.org)
To see the Precinct Portal and access more information about Canberra’s City Renewal Precinct, visit Precinct Portal - City Renewal (act.gov.au)
We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the ACT and recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and region. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.
