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# Why Bowden is the best piece of new urbanism in Australia pt 3: Buildings + Process
- URL: https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-3-buildings-process/
- Published: 2026-09-20T06:57:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T07:01:50.000Z
- Description: Why every square metre of facade matters - and why *how* Bowden came into being is almost as important as what is there today.
- Author: Daniel Grilli
- Tags: #no-post-image

*This is the third 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/) *and* [*Part 2*](https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-2-connections-mixed-uses/) *here.*

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## V: Buildings

I am an architect, so it is somewhat amusing that it has taken until Part 3 of this series for me to finally write about Bowden's architecture.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000158.jpg)

Gibson St, Bowden.

The buildings in Bowden relate to and contribute to the public realm in a manner that is both considered and effective. Take for a start the heights of the buildings: If I had my way we’d all be following Alexander et al's [pattern that no building should be over four stories high](https://patternlanguage.cc/Patterns/Four-Story-Limit-%2821%29?ref=allovertheplace.au) like the apartment in the photo above. Four storeys high is around the limit where someone in a building can have a meaningful interaction with someone on the street. But the buildings in Bowden go to six, eight, and even ten stories in a manner that doesn’t feel overwhelming - there’s a gradual build up in height from the low-rise edges of the neighbourhood that maxes out next to, say, the village green or the main road.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000110.jpg)

Gibson St, Bowden.

The entrances to the apartment buildings are also done really well. They are clear and approachable, with a design that recognises that they need to be a transition between the public and more private realms. I could easily imagine myself standing under the entry canopy of the apartment building in the photo above for parting words with a friend who had been over for dinner.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000073.jpg)

Fifth St, Bowden.

I think what I admire most about the buildings in Bowden is how they each try honestly negotiate that boundary between the publicness of the street and the privacy of the residences. It’s a tricky thing! In the photo above, the whole ground floor of the building is raised, and with these steps I could even squint and imagine the brownstones of [Jane Jacobs’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FDeath%5Fand%5FLife%5Fof%5FGreat%5FAmerican%5FCities?ref=allovertheplace.au) New York.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/Bowden-Townhouses.jpg)

Townhouses on Seventh Street, Bowden.

The two photos above are of some of the smaller apartments and townhouses near Bowden's northern boundary. These buildings have just enough setback to give some privacy but not too much for the residences to be detached from life on the street. I happen to know that the hooded windows you see on the building on the left are the kitchens; I think it’s so nice to be able to be incidentally connected to the goings-on outside of the house without having to make an effort to physically GO outside. And if you don’t want to be seen, you take a step back and you’re in privacy again.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/Bowden-Townhouses-2.jpg)

Townhouses on Sixth Street, Bowden.

Ground floor units are some of the most tricky to get this balance between connection and shelter right because there will inevitably be people walking right past, mere meters (or less!) away from the wall of the house. One of my personal cardinal sins of design is full-height windows on a building edge fronting public space. The internals of a house are so exposed that the blinds are invariably always shut. 

In the building on the left above, a higher sill, fence and garden bed provide some of that necessary distance between the street and the residence, even though the window is physically within reach of the footpath. I like the corner window by which you can see who’s waiting at your door. And in the building on the right, layers of lush planting and fence screening provide both visual screening to the ground floor rooms and amenity to the street.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/Bowden-building-details.jpg)

Seventh St and Leighton Lane, Bowden.

[Gehl writes](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781597268271/life-between-buildings?srsltid=AfmBOord7QabUk5AwyeVjwUkOzoxT2Y21AoDJWodDdIQ-TJWMxBm4WYp&ref=allovertheplace.au) that *it is quite simply of the utmost necessity to be very careful with every foot of facade* because the way the buildings interact with the street can make or break how pleasant (or otherwise) it is to be there. On the whole, the buildings in Bowden are rich in detail, even on their sides and back. The image on the right above shows a surface level carpark, which is astonishing because it’s actually pleasant to walk by.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000311.jpg)

Harriet Lucy Dr, Glenside.

Back to the Glenside counter-example: my impression is the relationship between the buildings and the street in Glenside is less about negotiation and more about separation. If we look at the building above, the entire thing is set back over a ‘don’t walk on me’ lawn, there are big blank walls at eye level, and the entryway feels like it’s for cars, not people. My friend and I both agreed this felt like less like a residence and more like a hotel.

## VI: Process

The last factor that I think contributes to the success of Bowden isn’t something that’s tangible. Rather, it’s what I’ve observed of the *process* by which Bowden has come to be developed.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/IMG_8108.jpeg)

Bowden: Gibson St in 2015!

Firstly, the heart of the development, being Plant 4 and the Village Green, was built very early on, as you can see from the potato photo from over ten years ago that I found in my camera roll. Cementing the public heart of the development eary gave Bowden an *identity* and a reason for people from outside to visit again and again. Some of the original factory buildings were kept and repurposed, which further contributes to the formation of Bowden’s identity and is an important tangible link to the area’s industrial past.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000173.jpg)

Bowden: Fourth St viewed from Park Tce.

Then there’s the fact that it appears to me that each block was sold off gradually over time to different developers. With different developers there are different motives behind each development, different designers, and so the buildings that result each cater for slightly different groups of people. That means the residents are diverse too. Doing it this way gives a level of competition between developers, which I think has increased the level of quality overall. Layered on all this is the fact that the blocks are quite small, [as I previously mentioned](https://www.allovertheplace.au/why-bowden-is-the-best-piece-of-new-urbanism-in-australia-pt-1-streets-public-spaces/). No one developer is therefore able to control a large area and the resulting assemblage of buildings feels very natural in a way that is all too rare in contemporary developments.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000161.jpg)

Looking over an empty lot on Sixth Street, Bowden.

Further to this is the dimension of time. Bowden has been redeveloped block by block in dribs and drabs over the course of more than ten years. Rather than this being a symptom of failure, I think this is instrumental to its lasting success. In [*The Oregon Experiment*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FOregon%5FExperiment?ref=allovertheplace.au), Christopher Alexander argues for the concept of ‘piecemeal growth’. He says it’s essentially impossible to get the development of something on the scale of a city right if you do it all at once. Instead, by doing it a bit at a time, each new piece can respond to and address the shortcomings of the pieces that came before it and better adapt to the circumstances of the time. Doing things this way has long term benefits too, as down the line not everything gets old at once. 

It’s a bold and unusual way of doing things today when it seems the norm to give an entire site over to a single developer like happened at Glenside, but again, it’s really how successful cities have grown for centuries. 

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000138.jpg)

Drayton St, Bowden.

To that end, I will watch the development of the Gasworks site at Bowden with some interest as I understand it’s being developed in a very different model to the initial stages of Bowden.

To wrap up Part 3 of this series, I think it’s fair to ask *why* I am advocating for more places like Bowden. After all, if someone wants to live in privacy and without having to interact with other people, why shouldn’t they be allowed to? To answer that, I say that one reason is there are plenty of those places already in Adelaide if that is the kind of living you are looking for. But the places where people can live as part of a connected community are few and far between.

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/R0000036.jpg)

A peek into the future 'Southwark Grounds' development on the site of the former West End Brewery. Will this be another Bowden, or another Glenside?

The other reason is best explained by an anecdote. The first time I went to take photos for the lecture on which this series of articles is based I bumped into FIVE different people I knew. The second time, a couple more people. Each time, we had a little chat. These were people I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to arrange a meeting to see, but nevertheless it felt good to see them. It is these frequent, low-stakes meetings that allow us to develop relationships with other people in a natural way and, in turn, are really the building blocks of community. 

![](https://www.allovertheplace.au/content/images/2026/09/IMG_0912.jpeg)

Bowden has become a place people seem to gravitate for gathering.

What’s more, in living cities you are exposed to different sorts of people, objects, or ways of being and doing. That might be a little uncomfortable at times, but I think this regular contact with difference is vital to the resilience and success of our cities and our democratic society as a whole. I think that’s important, and that’s why I think we need more places like this.

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*This post marks the end of the content I presented at my lecture in 2025 - but not the end of my series of posts about Bowden. Recently, I was fortunate enough to speak to and hear from many of the people instrumental in making Bowden a reality. In a future post, I'll share what I learned about how Bowden came to be, what was a surprise, and thoughts for the future.*