Village Well

Name: Village Well
Address: Level 1, 134 Flinders Street, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, AU
Telephone: +61396500080

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(re)connecting people with place Founded in 1992, Village Well is Australia’s leading creative placemaking consultancy.

Village Well works with a range of clients and stakeholders - including property developers and owners, government agencies, community groups and institutions to envisage, facilitate, make and manage places. Over the past two decades, Village Well has refined and developed unique processes of analysis, engagement, innovation, research and project management, tapping into community potential and to discover the DNA of a place that informs its development and use. Village Well’s team has many years of experience in urban planning, design and development and in community engagement and place management. We assist clients, partners and communities to understand the potential of places, to develop and share a vision, to plan and to deliver outcomes ‘on the ground’ and to celebrate success. Village Well’s robust placemaking model has been proven on many projects ranging in scale and complexity. The model includes a critical analysis of place from the five perspectives of people, physical environment, product, program and planet - the 5 Ps of placemaking. Our placemaking recommendations are presented in a series of inspirational, informative and actionable reports that enable the project owners and stakeholders to deliver great places.

08/10/2026

Why is a healthy planet central to creating happy, thriving and inclusive places?

Every place is part of nature, from the soil under our feet to the creeks, trees and wildlife around us. When we design and care for places with nature in mind, both people and the planet are better off.

In our latest blog post, we share the four things we look at in every place:

Caring for nature: do people feel connected to nature here, and do they help look after it?
Nature experiences: can people spend time in nature every day?
Biodiversity: is there room for local plants and animals to live and thrive?
Natural systems: does the place work with its water, soil and climate, or against them?

Link in bio for the full post

28/09/2026

We headed west for a site visit last week and had the good fortune of visiting the Grampians National Park (Gariwerd) particularly spectacular in the springtime, highlighted by the blossoming wild flowers. The region is home to 49 endemic plant species and 970 native flowering species.

24/09/2026

National Trust Victoria | Heritage Advocacy Organisation has just announced the finalists for Victorian Tree of the Year 2026. But the competition isn’t only about the biggest or most beautiful tree. It celebrates the role trees play in our lives: supporting wildlife, cooling our cities, cleaning our air and boosting our mental health.

In that spirit, this week’s blog looks at the value of trees in our cities, the science behind how they improve our wellbeing, and how our efforts to protect and plant them are really tracking.

We look at why people living in neighbourhoods with plenty of tree canopy have lower odds of psychological distress, why Melbourne’s canopy is still shrinking, and why just five extra trees per 100 new homes could be the difference between holding onto our canopy and growing it by 10%.

17/09/2026

What if the places we create were designed to make us feel happier, healthier and more connected?

Where we live, work and play has a profound impact on our health, wellbeing, safety and sense of belonging.

Our Regenerative Placemaking Model puts people at the heart of place, exploring how we can create environments that support healthier lives, strengthen connection and belonging, and empower people to grow, participate and contribute.

In our latest blog, we unpack what Joyful People means within our model and how we’re applying it across housing l, neighborhoods, campuses, main streets, precincts and markets.

Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/gWxu83_T

10/09/2026

In 1971, thirteen women in Sydney had already tried everything. They’d lobbied the council. The local MP. Even the Premier. Nobody would stop a developer from bulldozing the last patch of bushland in their neighbourhood.

So they turned to a union instead. The result? The world’s first green ban — and Kelly’s Bush is still standing today.

That’s just one of the lateral, sometimes unlikely ways communities have fought to protect, create and maintain their own third places — without waiting for government funding to save them.

Swipe through for more:
How a $3M crowdfunding campaign saved a Melbourne music icon
How ten locals pooled their savings to buy their own pub
How a developer built an entire library in exchange for planning approval

Third places don’t have to cost a fortune. Sometimes they just need people who refuse to give up.

This is Part 2 of our Third Places series — catch up on Part 1 (link in bio) if you missed what makes a third place worth fighting for in the first place.

03/09/2026

Third Places 101: What are they? Why do they matter? Why are they under threat?

In his 2018 book “Palaces for the People,” Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist, recounts a humorous interaction about a design competition in which the designers envisioned a new resilience centre where everyone was welcome and would be enthusiastically greeted by staff upon arrival. There would be hundreds of resources anyone could use for free, and a place where people could connect with others or simply be. “Are you describing a library?” Klinenberg responds.

It seems pretty silly in this day and age, amid what has been described as a social isolation epidemic, that our beloved “third places” should be closing for lack of funding worldwide. So, just what is a third place? And why is it important? And why are they at risk despite visitation numbers rising?

Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase “Third Places”; if home is your first place and work your second, then where do you spend the rest of your time?

We look at the work of Oldenburg this week and how our Australian third places, as we know them, are currently under threat.

Link to the blog in bio

27/08/2026

It was a pleasure to attend the Living Cities Forum on Tuesday. The line-up of speakers was considered and inspiring in equal measure.

Themes of bravery and leadership at every level to inspire change were felt throughout the day, across every speaker — so much so that we felt compelled to write a blog post about it this week.

All the speakers offered tremendous insight, and although we couldn’t include everything in the blog, we knew from Sarah Lynn Rees’ opening remarks alone that it was going to be a great day.

We think most of us would agree there’s a better way to build homes that are embedded in place, that feel special, that mean something to the people who live in them and the communities around them.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost belief that change to our cities and systems is even possible. But change is the only constant.

We must believe that change is possible and commit to it, knowing the path will be harder than business as usual. It takes the right people in the right room — people willing to be brave, to challenge convention, to build the shared belief that eventually becomes systemic change.

Mentioned in the blog: Dan Hill (MSD), Shannon Peach (Milieu), Anupama Kundoo, and Finn Williams - Thank you for your insights.

Follow the link in our bio to read the full blog.

Leadership VillageWell

20/08/2026

Great markets aren’t just about produce, footfall or trader numbers — they endure because they stay local, independent and woven into everyday life.
After 35 years working with some of Australia’s best markets, we’ve distilled what makes them thrive into six qualities: they belong to the local first, anchor their precinct, empower traders as their superpower, earn everyday rituals (not just events), create value beyond the transaction, and evolve without losing what makes them, them.

Markets prove commercial success and community value aren’t competing ideas — they’re the same idea, done well.
What makes your local market special? 👇

Link in bio

13/08/2026

Places don’t build community on their own. The systems, governance, and everyday interactions we design around them do.

At Village Well, our regenerative placemaking model looks through the hardware (the physical spaces and infrastructure) and software (the relationships, culture, and sense of belonging that bring those spaces to life) of place. Our Flourishing Cultures and Communities Pillar draws on more than 35 years of experience to identify four foundations for places where people thrive: Sense of Community, Partnerships and Collaboration, Place Programming, and Governance and Management.

Real community isn’t built through consultation alone, but when people feel heard, when partnerships respond to real needs, and when governance is flexible enough to evolve with the people it serves.

Read more about how we help communities create lasting, meaningful connection to place.

Link in bio!

30/07/2026

Walking, in its simplest form, is an act of joy. A celebration of movement that opens the door to understanding our surroundings. It can be both a profound experience and a gentle reminder of our place within the world.

Place is ever becoming and should be considered a rich patina of time and countless unfolding experiences and knowledges. Each layer tells its own story, best appreciated not through plans or photographs, but through the act of walking. To truly know a landscape is to immerse oneself in it over time. Place embodies all. Familiarity with place develops gradually, much like our relationships with people, each visit adds depth to our understanding, allowing us to connect on a more intimate level.

“Place owes its character to the experiences it affords to those who spend time there – to the sights, sounds and indeed smells that constitute its specific ambience....it’s this relational context of people’s engagement with the world....that each place draws its unique significance.”

Tim Ingold

Walking triggers a powerful chemical response in the brain — serotonin eases anxiety, dopamine and anandamide spark creativity and lateral thinking, and norepinephrine sharpens focus, while a quieted prefrontal cortex loosens habitual thinking and invites a state of flow. This same shift is what makes walking such a powerful tool for placemaking: it expands our perspective, helps us see our surroundings in a new light, and sparks a genuine, embodied sense of connection and purpose — moving us from simply observing a place to actively acting on its behalf.

Address

Level 1, 134 Flinders Street
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Telephone

+61396500080

Website

http://www.villagewell.org/

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