> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.allovertheplace.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Why Bowden is the best piece of new urbanism in Australia pt. 2: Connections + Mixed Uses - URL: https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-2-connections-mixed-uses/ - Published: 2026-09-06T07:14:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-06T09:47:27.000Z - Description: Why Bowden's multiplicity of connections and mixture of uses are rare, special, and vital to its success as a place. - Author: Daniel Grilli - Tags: #no-post-image *This is the second post in a series of articles originating 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\. See* [*Part 1*](https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-1-streets-public-spaces/) *here.* --- ### III. Connections We resume this series on my observations on the success of Bowden by looking at that component of public space talked about so often in contemporary, popular discussions on urbanism: connections. You'll noticed that I haven't used the word 'transport' or 'transit' here. To 'transport' is to move something or someone. The danger of a word like this is that it's an abstraction. Questions of who/what is being moved, where this moving is coming from or going to, or even *why* the movement is happening at all tend to fall away, leaving only the act of movement to become an objective in and of itself. In practical terms, this leaves much of our contemporary discourse on streets and public space to consider streets purely as functional things in terms of their capacity to facilitate movement 1. A *connection*, on the other hand, stubbornly retains these important questions of who, where and why. It implies the linking of here and there, of a person with their goal, still implying movement but without the underlying bias towards speed and volume that a word like *transport* has. Bowden has all of the connections. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000150.jpg) Bowden Station, looking east towards the Parklands. There's a train station. And this is a train station done RIGHT. It’s basically in the heart of everything. The photo below shows one of the entries to the station on Gibson St, and you can see that it’s very visible, right on the bike path and easily accessible on foot. There are places to sit. The village green is one block away. And again, in what is very rare for Adelaide, there is a recognition that the land immediately around the station is extremely valuable. Normally suburban stations here are surrounded by carparks. Here there are new commercial buildings under construction and the carpark you can see in the background will soon become housing. The station in Bowden is an intentional part of the community - this is what a transport oriented development should be. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000038.jpg) Bowden station, looking northwest along Gibson St. Adelaide has 89 stations on our suburban train network - each of those is an opportunity to catalyse community like has been done here. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/bus-tram.jpg) Bowden: bus and tram stops on nearby Port Rd. In addition to the train, there’s a tram station a couple of minutes walk away on Port Rd, along with several bus stops. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000044.jpg) Bowden: standing on the Outer Harbour Greenway looking back towards Bowden. One of Adelaide’s best and safest cycling routes runs right along the length of one side of the neighbourhood. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000147.jpg) Bowden: Standing on the bridge over the railway at the former Bowden Station. The building on the left is the Nightingale Apartments. And even what we would typically think of as a ‘barrier’ to the suburb - the train line itself - has multiple pedestrian bridges across it. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000162.jpg) Sixth St, Bowden But in addition to all of these different ‘modes’ of connection, I think it’s really important to note that the grid of streets itself in Bowden is also intimately connected to the surrounding street network. There are countless ways in and out so that it really feels like Bowden is *part* of its area and not an enclave on its own. When an area is stitched into its surroundings like this, there are many reasons for which people might go there or pass through. This means there’s always a greater variety of people doing a greater variety of things. And you never feel like you’re not meant to be there. The beauty of this too is that while all of this helps Bowden, it also helps the surrounding areas too, by spreading and sharing some of the liveliness of the place. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000328.jpg) Mulberry Rd is Glenside's 'main entry'. It's weird that a neighbourhood even has such a thing as a 'main' entry! That’s not the case in Glenside. Glenside has very few connections. There’s one bus stop outside of the area at each far end. And I count only four roads that connect Glenside to its surroundings. Of those roads, one is exit only, one is through a carpark, and one is incredibly convoluted to get to. Basically, the intersection in the photo above is the only way in or out. When I’m in Glenside I get this feeling of enclosure, like I’m trespassing in a quasi-gated community. ### IV. Mixed Uses For Jane Jacobs, one of the most important ingredients of a successful city is that there are a mix of primary uses. That is, by mixing uses, such as living, shopping, working, events and so on, the public spaces of the area receive a spread of different sorts of people at different times of the day. It’s the opposite of the strictly functional planning of the modernists, where one area is for living, one area is for shopping, one area is for industry etc. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that’s a really effective way to kill public life, but it’s still the norm here in Australia. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000045.jpg) Bowden's supermarket, located in the Plant 4 building. Let’s see how Bowden does. Yes there is a supermarket, which is not THAT unusual for a new suburb. What IS unusual is that it sits on the street network and is directly connected to the village green. Crucially, it is NOT surrounded by a moat of carparking or isolated in a shopping centre. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000155.jpg) Plant 4, Bowden. Then there are Plants 3 and 4\. As bougie as they are, they are one of the big drawcards that bring people from outside the area to Bowden. They’re full of lots of little shops that are open from early in the morning to late in the evening, which almost on its own brings that magical spread of people to the Bowden Village Green, and by extension, Bowden as a whole. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000061.jpg) Laneway separating Plants 3 and 4, Bowden If I put on my [Pattern Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%5FPattern%5FLanguage?ref=allovertheplace.au) lens I would say that one of the reasons for the success of the commercial spaces here are that they are really [a gathering of many small tenancies](https://patternlanguage.cc/Patterns/Market-of-Many-Shops-%2846%29?ref=allovertheplace.au). Small spaces mean lower rent and lower risk, so new ideas can be tried. The offering is diverse. It’s interesting. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000063.jpg) Red Shed Ln, Bowden There’s even light industry there, like this brewery. I think it’s important too that the commercial area really doesn’t have a ‘back’ - I mean, the photo above shows the ‘back’ if there was one - so it again is sort of stitched into and spreads its beneficial influence into the surrounding area. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000067.jpg) Commercial tenancy on Fourth St, Bowden The commercial spaces bleed out from the central area too, with many of the surrounding residential buildings having commercial space at the bottom. These were empty for a while but are just starting to be let out, which is really nice to see. I will say though that tinted glass on shop fronts is a pet peeve of mine: it makes it very hard to see what is going on inside! ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000137.jpg) There are also a scattering of commercial tenancies elsewhere in the district. Above is [my favourite cafe in Adelaide](https://maps.app.goo.gl/kumMQTcsviXJiLWY7?ref=allovertheplace.au), not just for the coffee (which is excellent), but for how NICE it is to be able to sit outside in a public space and enjoy a sense of peace and quiet. It is unnatural and counter to thousands of years of human history to have places where people live, but where you aren’t able to work or shop or dine or gather like is the case in most of our suburbs today. In most places, it’d be illegal or very, very difficult to do something like this. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000052.jpg) Now, I think it’s also very important that there are actually industrial uses mixed in and around Bowden too, at least for now. Typical thinking in Australia today is to segregate industry from residential areas, but according to [Jan Gehl](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781597268271/life-between-buildings?srsltid=AfmBOord7QabUk5AwyeVjwUkOzoxT2Y21AoDJWodDdIQ-TJWMxBm4WYp&ref=allovertheplace.au) there is only a very small group of the most annoying industrial activities that aren’t suitable for integration with residences. I agree with that. The things that happen in buildings like the ones in the photo above are vital to the functioning of our cities, so why move them away? Some might say that these uses are taking up what could otherwise be valuable residential land, but I think that’s advocating for a kind of gentrification. After all, the people that work here need to live somewhere, and the people that live here need to work somewhere too. I hope some of this mix remains into the future. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000122.jpg) (Former) Adelaide Bike Kitchen, Bowden Across the road from the villiage green there was also (at the time of giving the lecture this post was based on) a community space: the Adelaide Bike Kitchen. Lively communities *need* to have a place for people to come together and share ideas, no matter what those ideas might be. These community spaces must be located right next to the main centres of activity for these places to be viable and the ideas generated therein to be shared. The loss of the Bike Kitchen would be a shame and will be a loss to Bowden’s community - thank goodness it managed to find a home [only a couple of streets over](https://maps.app.goo.gl/jykwJCV2iDvjvqjb9?ref=allovertheplace.au)! ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000153.jpg) New commercial building on Second St, Bowden Overall though, it appears that the mix of uses in Bowden will continue to develop over time, with a several new commercial or mixed-use developments happening near the rail line. I can’t wait to see the further diversity they bring to the area. ![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000325.jpg) View from the Frewville Foodland carpark, Glenside. Glenside, on the other hand, really is that functionalist dormitory suburb advocated for by the modernists. Sure, there are non-residential institutional uses in the area like the SAFC and SA Health, but they are specialised and insular functions that are separated from where people are living by moats of wide streets and parkland. And it just boggles my mind that after nearly 10 years there is STILL no direct connection between Glenside and what is allegedly [the best supermarket in the world](https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/chapleysowned-frewville-foodland-supermarket-named-best-in-the-world/news-story/1703cf39a5c4c048138d8740b075c776?ref=allovertheplace.au). ... Stay tuned for Part 3! --- 1) For a very recent example of the way in which it is difficult to think of our streets as being for anything other than transport, have look at [this article on the proposed masterplan for Light Square](https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/light-square-redevelopment-could-spark-741-per-cent-cbd-traffic-surge/news-story/345e89a4f8a1d32b40dc7f34978b2b6e?ref=allovertheplace.au). The benefits of making the open space of the square better connected and accessible by not being severed by a moat of high speed car traffic (like Bowden's Village Green!) are not mentioned even once - the entire article focuses on the impacts to car traffic.