Moonlighting at the Camellia Gardens

Community garden experience design

Moonlighting:
1. The light of the moon. 
2. Have a second job, typically secretly and at night, in addition to one’s regular employment. (Oxford Dictionaries 2015)

In her article on place meaning, Lynne Manzo says that places “become meaningful through the steady accretion of experiences in them” (2005). ‘Moonlighting’ at the Camellia Gardens creates an experience within existing community gardens, where meaning will manifest though family-friendly community events around art, culture, celebrating and shared meals such as outdoor cinema nights, picnic style dinners with live music or community dance nights.

Background

Generally, parks at night are dark, scary and uncomfortable places, this project subverts that idea and provides a way to reclaim a space that otherwise would not be used. The gardens usually close mid-afternoon and are then inaccessible to the public. ‘Moonlighting’ at the Camellia Gardens allows people to interact with the gardens in a new way, with an entirely different atmosphere and ambience than it has during the day. The new experience creates excitement and mystery through the exploration of and journey into the gardens.

Year

2015

My role

This was a solo project I completed as part of my Master of Design degree. All aspects of the project were worked on by me, from concept development and ideation to design.

Visual identity development

As the Camellia Gardens are a beautiful, natural location, the project was designed not to interfere with or detract from the gardens. The lighting is solar-powered and placed in unobtrusive locations for minimal environmental impact. Spatial branding creates excitement and atmosphere in the form of fairy lights and lighting within tree stumps and natural structures, as shown in the moodboards. The visual identity incorporates light along with natural materials and forms to reflect and enhance the environment and the experience. The final brand mark for the experience incorporates moon shapes and integrates with the existing signage. The brand colours reflect the lighting colours in the paths and throughout the garden with the addition of purple which is a colour of many of the flowers throughout the garden.

Materials and forms

Environmentally friendly materials that work with the existing space and don’t detract from the beauty of the gardens during the day are used. The signage is low key during the day with the exception of the identification signage and posters which would bring awareness to the event. The use of materials such as wood, recycled paper, solar lighting and biodegradable materials are essential to create an experience that enhances and reflects the environment it’s in, instead of detracting from it. The final brand mark for the experience incorporates moon shapes to mirror the timing of the events to take place and evoke a magical feeling. The brand colours reflect the lighting colours in the paths and throughout the garden with the addition of purple which is a colour of many of the flowers in the garden.

Reflection

Although this was a purely conceptual project completed as part of my Master of Design degree, I've always loved the idea of reclaiming unused spaces for community use. If I were to see this project through to completion, I would love to get community feedback on the concept, branding and to engage the community in coming up with more ideas for how the space could be used. Also, the ability to testand iterate on some of the concepts like lighting, signage placement and materials.

In the time of COVID-19, outdoor spaces often feel like the only real safe space to be in and I think reclaiming unused spaces, or spaces that are unused during certain times like the park that I looked at for this project will become more important and relevant in the future.

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