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# Why Bowden is the best piece of new urbanism in Australia pt. 1: Streets + Public Spaces
- URL: https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-1-streets-public-spaces/
- Published: 2026-08-20T23:52:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T04:11:30.000Z
- Description: I think Bowden as it exists today is the best piece of placemaking / attempt at creating a ‘new’ piece of our city that I’ve seen in Australia.
- Author: Daniel Grilli
- Tags: #no-post-image

We need to talk about *place*.

It's hard to miss that we are in the midst of a [housing catastrophe](https://www.abc.net.au/news/topic/housing-policy?ref=allovertheplace.au). We’ve all seen the headlines or read the [government press releases](https://homeseeker.sa.gov.au/coming-soon?ref=allovertheplace.au) of x hundred new homes to be built here, or y thousand there. Or we might hear from advocates that so many tens of thousands of dwellings need to be constructed to address the urgent shortfall of supply that’s partly to blame for the crisis.

These incredible numbers we hear about will by necessity entail the construction of many entirely new places and the wholesale transformation of many others. Which is why it’s strange to me that we rarely if ever seem to discuss what these new places might be like: how people will live, eat, sleep, work, move, gather… we’re only usually hearing the numbers.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/the_matrix_pods_of_humans-1024x534.jpg)

**The Matrix*, 1999

If it’s just about the numbers, then something like the above appears to be a cost-effective and efficient way to house people. But such a proposition is clearly absurd. It’s obvious that a place like this would be unacceptable and that the character of the places we live our lives in matters.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/Riverlea---88-OI-Connell-1.jpg)

Left: Riverlea. Right: 88 O'Connell

Of course the places we do create aren’t quite as devoid of amenity as the world of *The Matrix*, but for the most part we appear to be making places like those in the image above. We know how to do better, and I think we need to be talking about it.

The thing is, I believe we have an excellent example of placemaking under our noses, right here in Adelaide. Yes, I’m talking about Bowden, and I’m going out on a limb to say that **I think Bowden as it exists today is the best piece of placemaking / attempt at creating a ‘new’ piece of our city that I’ve seen in Australia**.

Bowden is relatively new and still in the process of being made, but other developments that have started around the same time or since just don’t have that same feeling to them that Bowden has. Bowden *feels* good - it feels interesting, it feels comfortable, it feels welcoming. So I wanted to try and put my finger on why this might be so and in doing so convey why, when we build or transform places, more of them should be like Bowden.

### Methodology

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000171-2.jpg)

In trying to understand why Bowden *feels*so good I made a deliberate decision not to do any research about it. I didn’t look at the masterplan and nor did I talk to any of the architects or planners involved in its development. Instead, I *went there* and walked and cycled around. I used my senses.

In some ways this is similar to the method advocated for by Alexander in [*The Timeless Way of Building*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FTimeless%5FWay%5Fof%5FBuilding?ref=allovertheplace.au), which is the companion volume to the well-known work [*A Pattern Language*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%5FPattern%5FLanguage?ref=allovertheplace.au)*.* In this book, Alexander says (and I am paraphrasing):

> *In order to discover patterns which are alive, we must always start with observation. Start by walking around, looking, paying attention to whether something feels right to you or not. Now try to discover some property that is common to the things which make you feel good, and missing from those that don’t.*

In adopting this method, I had other intentions too. As an architect I am well aware of the hurdles of time, cost and competing values that are put in the way of an individual project. This is only magnified at the level of a masterplan for a neighbourhood or planning policy for a state. All sorts of considerations other to the *actual built outcome* come into play. Compromises have to be made. I’m not discounting that. But at the end of the day what is **built** and **exists** is the most important thing. With time all of those reasons for compromise fade away, and the **place** is what people are left to live with for years, decades, maybe even centuries.

So for now I am going to put all those other considerations aside, and write about some of these outcomes that I believe make Bowden so special.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/Bowden-Glenside-1.jpg)

Left: Bowden. Right: Glenside

Along the way I’ll be using Glenside as a counter-example. Glenside is similar to Bowden in many ways: It’s an inner-city densification site, started just a few years after Bowden. Like Bowden, it’s still in progress. But to Alexander’s point, it *feels* very different to Bowden. To me it doesn’t feel *right* and every time I go there I get this feeling like I’m not meant to be there. I’m not going to dwell on Glenside too much, but by contrasting it with Bowden I hope to show with more clarity why I think Bowden is so special.

### I. Streets

Let's get into it. I am going to start with Bowden's streets because it’s an easy way into the analysis and something that’s often discussed on [urbanist youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM&ref=allovertheplace.au).

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000111.jpg)

This is Gibson St, what I might call Bowden’s ‘Main Street’ as it runs all the way from Port Rd in the south to Hawker St in the north. It should be immediately obvious that this looks vastly different to almost any other main street in Adelaide. Unlike those other streets, Gibson is a street where the pendulum lies much closer to prioritising the experience of a person on foot *actually being there* rather than obsessing about speed and volume of car traffic.

To break it down:

- The car travel lanes are only a little wider than the cars themselves
- Trees and greenery in the middle of the road and close either side
- All sorts of things poking out: sharp kerbs, low-hanging branches, other cars…

All this ‘clutter’ makes you uneasy as a driver. And when you’re uneasy, you slow down. And when you slow down, the street is safer for you and especially everyone outside of a car. And when the street is safer, it’s a nicer place to be. Remember, this is the **main street**.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000086-2.jpg)

Sixth Street, Bowden

The cross streets follow a similar pattern. The street above is narrow but without a continuous central divider, which means if that if you're driving and there's a car coming the other way you both have to slow down to negotiate passing. There are also trees right in the middle of the road to slow cars down again. If I keep banging on about slowing cars down it’s because the speed and volume of cars is probably the single most important factor in how nice (or otherwise) our streets are as **places**.

Another important thing you can see in this image is that the ‘footpaths’ are by and large flush with the roadway. What this means in practice is that when you’re on foot, there’s this feeling that you have permission to be anywhere on the street. It feels safe and convenient to cross anywhere. It’s way more accessible too.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000309.jpg)

The other thing about the streets is that there are a lot of them, and as a result the block sizes are small. For [Jane Jacobs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FDeath%5Fand%5FLife%5Fof%5FGreat%5FAmerican%5FCities?ref=allovertheplace.au), small blocks are one of the crucial four ingredients in a living city. Small blocks give options for movement, make it interesting to walk around, and produce many corners which are always the best places to live, a shop, or have a chance encounter with a friend. They also limit the size of any one development, which is something that I will expound on in a later article.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000102.jpg)

Leighton Lane, Bowden

Even the service lanes are not such bad places to be. Again, this is because the block lengths are short, they're connected to the street network at both ends, and there's good visibility into them from the surrounding streets and buildings. 

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000130.jpg)

Tapestry Lane, Bowden

Indeed, the service lanes feel less like an afterthought as they usually do, and more like streets themselves. In the lane above, residents have personalised their entries with planting and artwork and the design of the buildings with their slightly recessed entries and overlooking windows brings a feeling of life and care to the street.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000099.jpg)

Pedestrian walkway between Seventh Street and and Leighton Lane, Bowden

Finally, there are the pedestrian paths. I said earlier that pretty much every street in Bowden feels like it’s been designed for you as a pedestrian. These paths aren’t, then, about segregating people on foot from cars, like you see in other places - those sorts of places always feel disjointed because they are splitting apart the vitality of a place. Instead, the paths here are little shortcuts between buildings which connect to each other in a meandering way to offer different and convenient options for moving through the area.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000318.jpg)

Lomandra Ave, Glenside

All of this is contrasted with the streets of Glenside. Wide roads for high car speeds, high kerbs with infrequent crossings, and isolated pedestrian paths that feel more like a recreational walking track than a vital part of the community. This is pretty typical for Adelaide.

### II. Gathering Spaces

I think that the Bowden Village Green is one of only three actually successful public squares in Adelaide - the others being [Moseley Square](https://maps.app.goo.gl/WGRVWPqY3zabwnH98?ref=allovertheplace.au) in Glenelg and the new [Civic Plaza](https://maps.app.goo.gl/57ioSRc1GdkE3HeZA?ref=allovertheplace.au) in Salisbury. The six ‘squares’ of the city of Adelaide are just glorified roundabouts by comparison. 

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000120.jpg)

Bowden Village Green

Why do I think it is so successful? Firstly, there’s a mixture of uses nearby, both residential and commercial, so there’s a diversity of people coming and going at all hours. You can’t underestimate how important it is to the success of a public space like this for people to have cause to be in and around the space without actually having to choose to ‘go there’ as an activity in itself.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000157.jpg)

Bowden Village Green

Then there’s the way the square is directly connected to Plants 3 and 4 with this fuzzy transitional space of activity you can see in the photo above. Here, there is cafe seating, public seating, trees, shelters, bike racks, a water feature and a playground. The buildings themselves step in and out to create meaningful spaces to dwell in and there are alleyways feeding into the space with more shops. The path in the photo above is actually part of the zig-zagging network of pedestrian paths I mentioned earlier. This zone is really the centre of the centre of Bowden in terms of activity. And it’s so nice not to have this separated from the square by a road. It’s *crucial*.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/village-green.jpg)

Varied seating at the Bowden Village Green

But there’s more. [Gehl says](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781597268271/life-between-buildings?srsltid=AfmBOord7QabUk5AwyeVjwUkOzoxT2Y21AoDJWodDdIQ-TJWMxBm4WYp&ref=allovertheplace.au) that *the availability or lack of good seating opportunities must be considered all-important in evaluating the quality of the public environment in a given area*. And let me tell you, whoever designed this square must have been a disciple of Gehl because the variety of seating is glorious. There are so many options for sitting in so many different parts of the park, both near the buildings and far. What it means is, even if the area near Plant 4 is busy, you can find a seat on the opposite corner and still enjoy the pleasure of being around people but maintaining a comfortable distance. It’s a really nice space and I always try to stop by when I’m riding through.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000074.jpg)

Kevin Taylor Reserve, Bowden

The village green isn’t the only public space in Bowden. There are several other medium sized squares, of which Kevin Taylor Reserve is my favourite. It’s only a block away from the Village Green via a walking shortcut but offers a different kind of space. It’s quieter. It’s a comfortable space to be in - I think the scale of the park is a good fit with the height of the surrounding buildings. Look at all the different types of spaces here. Look at these people practicing circus. So good!

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000116.jpg)

Gibson St, Bowden

In addition to the dedicated ‘parks’ there are these types of public space that are almost rarer in Adelaide than a proper square. Do you know how hard it is to find a place on a street, anywhere, to sit down by yourself or especially in a group without having to pay money? It’s basically unheard of. Our streets are typically set up to keep people moving and have a hostility to staying still built into them like there’s some fear of what will happen if people gather, or god forbid linger. And yet here in this little 'parklet' there are opportunities for not just one person, but multiple groups of people to sit together comfortably in a variety of ways.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/Bowden-Seating-2.jpg)

Left: Seventh St, Bowden. Right: Kevin Taylor Reserve, Bowden.

Here are some more. The one on the left is cleverly located at the intersection of a pedestrian path and a street, because that’s exactly where you might bump into someone and decide to chat, or pause to check something on your phone, or be comfortable while waiting for a friend. The ones on the right are basically day beds encouraging a snooze in the sun. They speak to [Alexander’s statement](https://patternlanguage.cc/Patterns/Sleeping-in-Public-%2894%29?ref=allovertheplace.au) that *it is a mark of success in a park, public lobby or a porch, when people can come there and fall asleep*. There are a few groupings of of these chairs scattered around Bowden.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/08/R0000317.jpg)

Mulberry Road, Glenside

It almost feels mean to talk about the quality of the public gathering spaces in Glenside as a comparison. There’s a lovely playground, but it’s isolated in the corner of the site next to an incredibly busy intersection. Oh, and it’s in a giant hole in the ground. There aren’t really many gathering spaces at all, and the seating spaces are like this one: out in the open so that it’s doesn’t feel comfortable to spend much time there.

...

That's enough for one post, I think. In subsequent posts I will expand on how I believe Bowden's connections, its diversity of uses, the designs of its buildings and the process of its development all contribute to it success as a great place for people to live, visit and play.

---

*The content of this article was originally presented as a* [*public lecture*](https://www.instagram.com/p/DPwrIgKk%5F6B/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) *I presented at the late University of Adelaide in 2025.*