Queen Victoria Market Southern Development Project : Gurrowa Place : Appendix E: Market Square design principles

Lendlease partnered with City of Melbourne and Scape to deliver Gurrowa Place, a key component of the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal, improving the trader and customer experience of the beloved iconic market, while celebrating the site’s rich history.
Gurrowa Place will deliver the restoration of the Franklin Street Stores, new community amenity, and the creation of a new public open space at Market Square.
Located south of Queen Victoria Market car park, three responsively designed, climate-resilient buildings offer a mixed-use precinct with workspace, authentic Melbourne dining and retail as well as a dynamic mix of student, build-to-rent and affordable housing.
Appendix E contains the design principles for Market Square and has 4 key moves
1. Market Square will be designed in a way that needs not to disturb the ground. The design will protect the significant national archaeological heritage values of the site through solutions which will not require ground disturbance.
2. Market Square will be designed to honour those who are buried here. The design elements of Square - its paving, planting, ways of moving through it and its materials - will respectfully acknowledge the full spectrum of previous occupations of the Square in a gesture of memorial and remembering. The former location of the cemetery paths
and the location of the market stores will be embedded into the design of paving to ensure that the layers of site occupation are legible for future generations.
3. Market Square will be a porous place that connects the city on all sides. The unique context of each edge informs how the Square meets the city. The Square design considers future adjacent public realm and establishes a cohesive identity.
4. Market Square will continue to be designed in partnership with the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung to reflect their enduring connection and custodianship of the land. Market Square will be the center of a wider landscape of reconciliation and repair. Its design will continue to be guided by First Nations voices. It will provide a public space that will reconcile the history of the site with its future, encouraging public curiosity, participation and exchange.