How can we design transport spaces which acknowledge their inherent complexity and intricacies, rather than as a series of large-scale systems and feasibilities?

For Melbourne Design Week 2025, Architectus, in partnership with Fed Square & MAPCo will present 'On Route’ – a conversation on transport at the scale of the individual, exploring the messiness that we are all well-acquainted with.

In architecture and urban design, we talk often about transport at the level of systems, numbers, urbanity, connectivity, and cities, yet the spaces attached to these words are personal, complex, unpolished, and relational. With a critical and receptive lens to the individual experience, can designers recognize and respond to how perceptions of time, space, safety, and equity of access are affected by the different scales that people traverse when engaging with transport?

The event takes place at Test Garden, a site for speculation which exists as a haven of resilience amongst the obstructive scars created by the Flinders Street rail lines. Bringing personal stories, musings, and proposals for a network which aids the rush of cities - to speculate on more equitable futures - speakers will occupy the site as they question how we can better accommodate for individual experience in public space.

Speakers Include: Tahj Rosmarin (CARD), Clara Chanisheff (Xtrascentsory), Hosna Eqbal, Andrew Copolov, Patrick Macasaet & Vei Tan (Superscale), and Dr. Anna Edwards