We provide a totally unique end to end bespoke urban placemaking service. A methodology and process developed by us that allows us to partner with people designing urban environments to inject a detailed level of meaning and creativity into their projects.
We research, engage, report and carry out all phases of design and project delivery - a unique beginning to end methodology. A process also flexible enough to mould to the demands and budgets of any public realm urban design project.
We have a six step process that ensures we can work alongside you to help create meaningful, detailed, creative urban experiences.
Placemaking Strategies can be used to guide a larger design or visioning process..
Our strategies unearth place insights, dive deeply into local history, include demographic and cultural analysis, create target audience personas and provide unique insights into place characteristics from a multitude of viewpoints. When combined with stakeholder or community engagement these documents are powerful tools for delivering a shared vision.
Our strategies contain key drivers that guide outcomes in the public realm such as architecture, landscape design, master planning or place visioning. They have been used in the past to drive architectural outcomes in the public realm such as arts and community hubs and urban city-wide urban renewal design processes.
Our Placemaking Design Process involves unifying stakeholders around a shared vision, we have experience in bringing together diverse perspectives through a design-thinking process run in a facilitated workshop co-design format for small or large groups.
These outcomes feed directly into our design process or into our Placemaking Strategy work. The aim is to allow participants to contribute to the process in a meaningful way and create outcomes that meet the needs of everyone involved.
We have been engaged to create place-oriented design guidelines that are officially endorsed government publications. These guidelines are used by practitioners to inform the design of public places in ways which ensure unique place based outcomes.
Local government has an interest in ensuring development and change is guided by placemaking principles that put people, place and local character first - our unique work in this area ensures this happens.
Being highly experienced in the design and delivery of bespoke, creative outcomes in the public realm we are often engaged ‘client side’ to procure, manage and deliver urban revitalization projects for local government or community organisations.
These projects require a detailed understanding of the complexities of design and delivery of creative works in public places and how these works intersect with local and state planning laws, Australian Standards, structural engineering, electrical engineering and a range of other complex considerations.
POMO works with a hand picked list of artists in a range of mediums across Australia including First Nations artists. This allows us to achieve the bespoke, artistic outcomes we desire in many of our placemaking design and delivery projects. We are perfectly suited to collaborating with other professionals who are looking to integrate public art into their projects.
POMO can partner with contractors, developers, councils and others on any project that has a public art or integrated art component. We can cost detailed design and delivery for any art element big or small; we can help curate outcomes, we can manage all aspects of artist and specialist selection and take on the full design and delivery process through to in-the-ground outcomes.
Contact us now if you have a project with an art component that you need to partner on or need a subcontractor or sub-consultant for with this specialist skill set.
Stephen is founder and design director of POMO having started the business in the late 90’s. Stephen has evolved the practice by focusing not just on the design of ‘things’ but on the design of experiences, in particular the process of generating connections between people and physical places. This has led to a focus on design and delivery projects that have a placemaking focus.
Stephen has an undergraduate degree in Arts (Media and Culture) and Law (Hons) and postgraduate qualifications in Urban Design and Planning. He has also studied Art History & Theory.
John holds a Bachelor of the Built Environment (Architectural Studies) and a Graduate Diploma of Visual Arts (Graphic Design). John is a senior designer with a unique skill set that spans graphic, environmental and built environment design.
John’s background in architecture means he understands the built environment and how people experience spaces.
Nathan works to translate design into practice, using a logical approach to define the hidden structure and foundation of a digital project, working on the parts you don’t see in order to ensure the stability and usability of the parts you do.
He enjoys problem solving, regularly challenging himself with difficult puzzles and practicing logical thinking, his work consists of looking at the goals and expectations of a digital project, defining an efficient way to meet those criteria and then implementing it.
Nathan has a Certificate IV in Website Design and Development and a Bachelor of Interactive Media at QUT.
Olivia has a passion for unlocking the hidden narratives of places with a particular interest in history and culture. Olivia works as POMO’s research coordinator, assisting with deep research, community engagement and writing.
We have been recognised as award winning designers by the Australia Institute of Landscape Architects, specifically we have been part of the core design teams which were awarded these recognitions:
2023 Place Leaders Award - Large Scale Place Project Award
2023 People’s Choice Award Qld - Southport Play Attractor
2023 Landscape Architecture Award Qld - Southport Play Attractor
2023 Regional Achievement Award Qld - Miles Streetscape
2022 Infrastructure Design Award Qld - Sippy Downs Drive & Entrance Statement
2018 Gold National Civic Design Award - Palmwoods Town Square
2018 Civic Design Award of Excellence Qld - Palmwoods Town Square
2018 Community Contribution Award Qld - Palmwoods Town Square
2023 Gold Coast Urban Design Awards - Commendation - Southport Play Attractor
2023 Qld Planning Institute of Australia - Finalist - Nambour Community Revitalisation Strategy
The Miles Streetscape was awarded the commendation in the 2023 Department of Energy and Public Works, Minister’s Urban Design Awards for Movement and Place (Qld)
The design of our POMO studio (which you can read about here) won the Most Sustainable Commercial Building Design Award (Sunshine Coast) at the 2015 at the BDAQ design awards. It went on to be judged by Kevin Mcleod for the national sustainability award later that year. Other awards include gold and bronze at the international W3 awards.