Logan Village Place to Play Stakeholder Engagement
Logan City Council
Generations of Queensland children were given sub-optimal playgrounds devoid of the things that most interest their users, but not at Logan Village. The Place to Play initiative displays the very best in Queensland planning: best-practice approaches and methods, excellence within particular practices of the discipline (especially stakeholder engagement and urban design) and excellence in demonstrating the role, values and importance of planning for people's lives.
The Judges were particularly impressed with the stakeholder engagement with young children. The effort placed on children's knowledge, desires and developmental needs is unusual. Such stakeholder engagement is always difficult, requiring dexterity, finesse, and great empathy from the planners involved, and whole new ways of 'doing' planning. The approaches used at Logan Village and the design outcomes achieved on-the-ground are highly commendable. The planning team has brought to light the interests of children and young people, and involved them, their parents, local residents and others in the co-design of a great place. Excellent planning generated great design, increased care for and community-ownership of the playground, and better outcomes for the Village. Place to Play promotes the importance of planning to the wider community. It is for these reasons the judging panel considers Place to Play to be the worthy Overall Winner for 2021.