Melbourne’s security bollards criticised by architect

Security bollards across Melbourne’s CBD have been criticised for making people feel threatened and scared, with a top architect saying they “instil fear” and make Melburnians more conscious of dangers. See how they’ve changed our city.

Bollards on Princes Bridge. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Security bollards installed across Melbourne’s CBD have been criticised for making people feel threatened and scared.

Top architect Peter Maddison said he believed the bollards had caused people to feel especially conscious about the danger of being in the city.

Hundreds of the permanent and temporary anti-terror structures have been installed at nine key city locations to stop rogue vehicle attacks.

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Princes Bridge with additional bollard works underway. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The bridge before bollards. Picture: Susan Windmiller

Mr Maddison told the Sunday Herald Sun: “Because they’re so prominent and visual, it makes the threat palpable.”

“They instil a sense of fear in the public the way they’re currently presented,’’ he said.

Mr Maddison, founding director of Maddison Architects and host of popular Foxtel show Grand Designs Australia, called for a rethink in the way bollards were presented.

“It’s how you integrate the structures, aesthetically, so they don’t end up looking like an entrance to a military camp,” he said.

Mr Maddison said bollards designed as street furniture and planter boxes, and the use of kerbside treatments, should be encouraged.

Fellow architect Karl Fender, from Eureka Tower design firm Fender Katsalidis, said there was an understandable quick response to terror and other threats.

“A lot of the protection barriers that went up, went up very quickly as immediate safety precautions,” he said. “And now you’re seeing more thought being given to how they can become part of the public infrastructure in a less perhaps threatening way visually.”

Flinders Street station in 2016. Picture: Alicia Bee

Flinders Street Station today. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mr Fender said part of the answer was to make bollards look like part of the furniture.

“We’ve never minded bollards before — bollards are all over Europe — they’re just a gentle way of separating pedestrian traffic from vehicular traffic without becoming huge barriers,” he said.

Mr Fender said that noise prevention walls on freeways turned into artworks were an example of how necessary urban measures could be softened.

Bourke Street Mall in 2010, before bollards. Picture: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg News

Bourke St Mall today. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“If we have a need for separation of traffic from pedestrians you could look at it in the same way — it’s an opportunity, it could just soften it and make it part of the city fabric,” he said.

In January, Lord Mayor Sally Capp said that barriers planned for places such as Princes Bridge had been designed in consultation with Heritage Victoria and heritage architects.

The city council is working with the Andrews Government over its $50 million CBD security upgrade.

Southern Cross Station before.

Southern Cross Station today. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Last month, James Gargasoulas was jailed for life after being convicted of murdering six people while driving along Bourke St in 2017.

Melbourne City Council started installing concrete blocks as a temporary measure, and now works have started at busy areas such as Flinders St Station to put in permanent bollards.

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