DIRECTION

I was very happy with the outcome of the presentation for our group. We established a clear strategy for distribution..........decentralise the parliament to bring it to the people. I will continue working with this strategy in mind, however I will move away from the idea of the parasitic architecture. It may come up as a significant strategy in further development but at the stage we are at now, it is too early to define whether parasitic architecture is an appropriate response to the problem.

I'm not sure how an architectural solution will develop from my thoughts at the moment, but I am starting to think about what the Government can offer people and how this can be executed as an architectural solution.

I have also been thinking further about the infrastructure that exists within the framework of Australian cities, and I keep returning to the idea of utilising parks to distribute the Parliament. After all of the reading about the government and the systems and the attempts to try to organise everything to gain control I decided to go back to basics. Instead of looking at the needs of the people from the perspetive of the government and getting deeper into the complexity of what we may or may not need from a government, I decided to look at what the Australian people need as people, at the most basic level.

 This led me to Maslows analysis of human needs which gives a fresh perspective from which to rethink about the problem at hand:

According to Maslow, Physiological needs, safety, Love/belonging, Self-esteem and self-actualization are what we as human beings NEED. Is there some way the to transprogram this heirarchy of needs with the needs of the people from a Government? Can a Government offer these things?

I think it is worth looking into this further as I can regonise already one of these needs missing from the Parliament which we identified as being a barrier. LOVE AND BELONGING. We established that most people feel very disconnected from the Parliament or the federal Government because it is isolated. Both physically and functionally. There is very little attempt to involve the general public in the affairs of the parliament, and this lack of involvment leads to a lack of interest and of empowerment. The feeling that is missing is that of belonging. Without any feeling of ownership towards our parliament, there is no motivation to become involved.

For this reason, the idea of utilising parks as the principle infrastructure for this project deserves further exploration. Parks are a public place where everyone is welcome and where people come together and socialise. It could be the perfect place to facilitate a sense of belonging to the parliament and regain an interest from members of the community.