Why all street art is not created equal.
A semi permanent installation by mural artist Drez, with lighting by Kitt Webster
By Shaun Hossack, Founder, Juddy Roller
A Built Environment Perspective
Public art has become a highly visible component of the built environment. It now sits alongside architecture, landscape, and urban design as a key contributor to how places are perceived, experienced, and valued over time.
For developers, asset managers, councils, and planners, public art is no longer a decorative afterthought. It is increasingly understood as a form of cultural infrastructure, something that influences identity, dwell time, community sentiment, and long-term value.
Yet despite its growing role, public art, and in particular street art, is rarely held to the same standards we apply to other parts of the built environment. Somewhere along the way, scale and visibility began to substitute quality, intent, and longevity.
If public art is going to deliver real value, socially, culturally, and commercially, it needs higher standards.
NBL Superstars adorn the facade of the new NBL office in Cremorne, Melbourne
Visibility Is Not the Same as Value
Large-scale murals and landmark artworks can be powerful tools in placemaking. When executed with intent, they help define precincts, anchor identity, and create memorable experiences.
But visibility alone is not a measure of quality or value.
In the built environment, we would never judge a building purely by its size. We assess it on how it functions, how it responds to context, how it ages, and how it contributes to the public realm. Public art deserves the same scrutiny.
Work that relies solely on scale often struggles to deliver lasting outcomes. Without conceptual depth, contextual relevance, and technical rigour, large artworks risk adding to the visual noise of the city of precinct - highly visible, but just as forgettable.
Public art should not compete with its surroundings for attention. At its best, it works with architecture and place to create a coherent and meaningful contribution.
Another amazing Silo Artwork with long-term collaborator Smug. The silo depicts a minor in a copper mine circa 1870
The Role of Process and Critique
In architecture, planning, and design, outcomes improve through process. Ideas are tested, challenged, refined, and aligned to context before they are built.
Public art does not always benefit from the same discipline.
Too often, artworks move quickly from concept to installation, driven by timelines, budgets, or the desire for immediate impact. Without structured critique or curatorial challenge, opportunities for refinement can be lost.
Critique is not about limiting creativity. It is about strengthening outcomes.
When artists are supported in interrogating ideas, responding to place, and pushing beyond first instincts, the resulting work is more resilient, culturally and visually, over time.
Adnate is creating a mural at the Wall to Wall Festival in Mordialloc, Victoria.
Public Art Lives With People
Unlike temporary activations or marketing campaigns, public art becomes part of everyday life. Residents, workers, and visitors experience it repeatedly, often unconsciously, as part of their daily movement through space.
This longevity carries responsibility.
Public art should not peak on the day of completion. It should continue to make sense, aesthetically and culturally, years later. In the same way we expect buildings and public spaces to age with dignity, public art should be designed to endure.
Work driven primarily by trends or surface appeal may perform well initially, but it rarely delivers long-term value. Once installed, public art is challenging to remove or rework. Decisions made early have lasting consequences.
An interior mural was integrated into this public eating area to brighten up the space and make it feel more alive
Innovation as a Value Driver
In a competitive development and placemaking landscape, repetition is a risk.
Innovation in public art is not about novelty for its own sake. It is about creating outcomes that feel specific, considered, and challenging to replicate. That specificity is what gives places character and helps them stand apart in crowded markets.
Meaningful innovation requires:
Willingness to move beyond familiar visual solutions
Openness to abstraction, concept development, and experimentation
Alignment between artwork, architecture, and the public perception
Relevance comes from experimentation, not repetition.
The one that started it all. This silo artwork was created in 2015 and led to the start of Australia’s first silo art trail
Context Is Critical
Public art does not exist in isolation. It is experienced alongside buildings, streets, landscapes, and everyday life.
Higher standards mean asking better questions early in the process:
Why this artwork, and why here?
Why is this artist relevant to the site and the surrounding community?
How does the work respond to the site's architecture and context?
What story does it tell about this place?
How will it be read in ten years’ time?
When these questions guide decision-making, public art becomes embedded rather than applied. It shifts from decoration to contribution.
The entrance to The Little, Queens St, Melbourne, was made all the more welcoming with these lifelike macro paintings of poppy flowers
Beyond Familiar Patterns
There is a natural tendency in development and placemaking to favour what is proven and widely accepted. While this can reduce perceived risk, it can also limit cultural ambition and the opportunity for real impact.
A healthy, well-conceived public art strategy allows room for diversity of approach, not just in selecting artists, but also in visual language, scale, and concept. Abstract, conceptual, and experimental works often deliver some of the most enduring public realm outcomes when given the proper context and support.
Higher standards do not narrow creative opportunity. They expand it.
Another mural created on the viewing deck of the Hitlon Hotel
Public Art as Long-Term Cultural Infrastructure
When treated seriously, public art functions much like infrastructure. It shapes behaviour, influences perception, and contributes to long-term social and economic value.
This requires a shift in mindset:
From painting walls to shaping place
From short-term impact to long-term relevance
From marketing outcomes to cultural assets
Developments that integrate public art thoughtfully benefit from stronger identity, improved community sentiment, and clearer narratives around ESG and social value.
Adnate working on one of the most iconic murals produced in Australia, on a 20 story social housing building in Collingwood, Melbourne
Raising the Standard
Public art has enormous potential to enrich the built environment. But that potential is only realised when standards are high and when process, critique, context, and innovation are taken seriously.
Better public art does not happen by accident. It is the result of asking better questions, properly supporting artists, and understanding that what we place in the public realm will be lived with for decades.
If we want better places, we need better conversations about public art. Conversations grounded in longevity, intent, and value.
Public art deserves the same care, rigour, and ambition as every other part of the built environment.
