The Laneway Project is a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to bringing laneways to life.
We are urban planners, designers and placemakers, and we work with public, private, and community-level stakeholders to transform laneways and other neglected public spaces into complete, living public places: building collaborative teams, implementing best practices and catalyzing policy changes.
Why we do this?
Laneways have a huge amount of untapped potential. While currently acting primarily as utilitarian service corridors, with strategic upgrades they can become fully-integrated and multi-purpose parts of our public space network, delivering extensive cultural, economic, social, health and environmental benefits. They can play a role in creating engaging, lively and richly textured places where people want to live, work and visit.
Improvements to laneways can create:
Improved local walkability and connectivity
Increased local space for informal physical activity
Local-scale midblock green spaces
Opportunities for gentle intensification
Opportunities for patios, pop-up shops and micro-businesses
Space for pop-up and permanent public art
Space for community events and entertainment
“Back alleys, neglected courtyards, and stairways may escape our notice…yet if they are claimed, and owned, and developed, they can be harnessed to strengthen and enrich their communities.”
