Urban provocations - apologies to lovers of the Big Merino

Apologies to lovers of the Big Merino.

Our colleagues at David Lock Associates in the UK collect examples of what they call ‘urban provocations’ – featuring some of the most provocative examples of urban development – and turn them into a series of postcards.

And by provocative, we think they mean terrible! 

Essentially people haven’t looked at the big picture or seen the possibilities (or maybe the risks) in the way they have built or developed their bit of the world.

A recent call for some local input had us rifling through the photo collections and we found a few amusing examples (unless of course you happen to live in the area!).

Billboard in Southbank 
Melbourne, circa 2006

Always consider the rear interface
The Big Merino (Sheep), Goulburn NSW, circa 2012

Infrastructure Priority (instead of Pedestrian Priority)
Dandenong VIC, circa 2006

Where's the lift? (Dumb leading the Blind)
New Thomastown train station, circa 2012 

Working around the problem
South Melbourne, circa 2007 

Our UK team will soon have a new set of Urban Provocations postcards and we suspect there might be a few Australian examples. If you’ve seen something equally silly or appalling, post it on Twitter and tag us with @DLA_Australia or send it to us by email info@dlaaust.com

The team also looks for examples of excellence too, so if you’ve seen good examples we’d also love to see those. David Lock Associates in the UK also post their examples on Twitter every month, so you might want to follow them for ongoing examples https://twitter.com/DavidLockAssoc

Photo Credit: Alastair Campbell