PROVOKING NEW ENCOUNTERS

Prahran Square

Prahran, Victoria

Built on the land of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation

Aspect Studios

Prompted by a media flurry focused on unhappy traders, I visited Prahran Square on a mild and sunny late afternoon in February. The complaints were reminiscent of early moments in the life of Federation Square: certain expectations about public space weren’t being met (where were the trees and grass?) and many were prepared to condemn the new space before it had time to embed in our collective cultural psyche. But less than a generation after these criticisms were levelled at Federation Square, attempts to re-work a small part of it were furiously and successfully opposed by hundreds of thousands of Melburnians. My curiosity was piqued. What qualities of this new public space in Prahran were being questioned, and what demands does the