Civic Hall open for designs

The studio became operational on Tuesday after bringing the space inside the Civic Hall up to safety standards and finalising contracts, following its official opening more than one month ago. 

Here Studio co-director Ammon Beyerle was amazed how many people came in on the first day. He said many ideas were being discussed, including an exhibition space and concert space. 

Mr Beyerle said the studio would facilitate a drawing space so people could draw their ideas, or they could just talk about what they wanted from the hall. 

“An idea could be about the function, the environment or atmosphere, how it might be run, how it might be staged financially, or how the space at the front should be used.

“We might end up with two concepts that look the same but have different business models.” 

He said the studio was at the start of a three-phase process. 

It plans to collect 300 ideas, reduce them to 10 designs, then five, then  submit a final three designs to council. 

“Each stage should take about four months,” Mr Beyerle said.  

“Right now, we’re really collecting ideas – and all sorts of ideas. 

“We also want to have discussions about differences and conflicting ideas. We need to see the value in the differences and what’s important in the conflicts. ” 

Mr Beyerle said progress would be submitted to the council after each phase. The  final three ideas would be submitted on November 10.  The studio will open Tuesdays from 9am to 5pm, Thursdays from noon to 7pm and on the first Saturday of the month from  9am to noon.