Community doesn’t just happen automatically. It needs to be built.
Geoff Pound
About Project Vertical Villages
Project Vertical Villages is an initiative of the ‘Together For Ryde’ network of Church leaders. In the midst of seeing the rapid city and urban development happening on our doorstep, the Together for Ryde network starting wrestling with the question, “How can we be a part of the creation of cities where all can flourish – spiritually, physically, emotionally and relationally?”
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
Jeremiah 29:7
In exploring this growing reality of densification and urbanization, further questions arose including:
- What will be the quality of life for those residing in our growing cities?
- How will city dwellers in high density towers engage in healthy spirituality and life giving relationships?
- Where will urbanites gather together to build meaningful connections with their neighbours?
- What can be done to support and nurture sustainable communities in these vertical villages?
- How do we as a Church disciple people and build community as a Church in these different environments?
The Together for Ryde network believes that the Church can play an important role in creating and nurturing communities that include a mix of diverse cultures in medium and high-density developments. But the network discovered that the challenges and opportunities posed by this growing densification and urbanisation was under-researched and poorly understood by many in the contemporary Australian landscape.
This led to the formation of Vertical Villages Project group who entered into an Enterprise Partnership Scheme between Macquarie University, Churches Housing (supported by a grant from the Salvation Army) and Baptist Care to undertake research entitled: Vertical Villages: Community, Place and Urban Density Pilot. The final Research Report and Toolkit is available under Resources.
The journey is now just beginning as we seek to live out that research and apply it in the local context, building healthy community in a highly urbanised ecosystem and finding relevant and compelling faith pathways that celebrate the gift that density brings.
We hope you will join us on this journey as we foster a learning community on this site, sharing stories, practices, and resources (both theological and practical) that help us navigate the changing landscape we are experiencing in our cities.
If you would like to explore being or feel called to be a neighbour in place in a Vertical Village, then reach out to us at info@verticalvillages.org.au
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood.
John 1:14 The Message Translation
Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us.
Henri Nouwen
THE DESIGN
The logo is made up of two groups of stylised high rise buildings which can also be seen as a community of people (the circles being their heads). Each building/person is a different size, colour and shape which represents the diversity and multiethnicity within each community that is focussed on within the project.
The buildings are tall and thin, to emphasise ‘vertical’. They are sitting at varying heights, almost similar to that of a sound wave. The idea behind this, is that each city has a rhythm of sorts – the regular coming and going of people, repetitive activities, everyday life as a community.
The two groups of buildings/people are connected to each other by a cross shape ‘shadow’ or ‘path’. The cross symbolises the faith based aspect of the project, and its ultimate goal, to grow God’s kingdom – that people living in these communities will not only grow in their relationships with others around them, but also with Jesus.
The bottom edge of the logo is shaped like two letter V’s, subtly conveying the name ‘Vertical Villages’.
THE LOGO
