Nathalia is a town of 1495 people. Once renowned as a centre for the river redgum timber industry, it has survived the decline of this industry. It is the town acknowledged with the lowest rainfall of any town in Victoria, yet it is surviving the drought and remains renowned as a major agricultural area. It was rocked with job losses and income when it lost its status as the shire seat at the time of Jeff Kennett’s changes of council borders, yet has gone on to create a streetscape and amenity second to none for a town its size.
It embarked in (2004) on an economic and social Strategy Plan, built a new library (2006), a new police station (2007), is currently building a new hospital (2008-2009), is the subject of a town Planning Strategy, and has commissioned (2007-2008) Romaldo Giurgola AO to produce a ‘test’ Master Plan, with Pamille Berg Consultants for a proposed Living Arts/Rural Arts Centre. It is a town which has creatively sought to acknowledge and build upon its assets.
The preliminary program includes: travel from Melbourne (including airport pickup for interstaters) to Nathalia on Friday morning; welcome to country, a day of presentations and discussions; and an evening bonfire barbecue, catered for with delicious local produce.
Saturday will include a full day of presentations and discussions, with a conference dinner at Brereton’s Bakery (hosted by Tammy Muir, ‘world champion yarn spinner).
On Sunday we will travel south to Shepparton for another day of presentations and discussions, returning to Melbourne and the airport (for interstaters).
]]>The entire mall is zoned Commercial One, but with the appropriate encouragement, living areas could be created. Immediately I can hear those of a mercenary nature crying about the cost of integrating living areas with an expensive Commercial One zone, but it is those very living areas that bring life, vitality and, importantly, safety to a mall that is near deserted as darkness descends.
The key word is integration ñ if those who live and understand urban design, and so the workings and life of cities, are invited to be involved they will ensure a workable blend, enabling the community to become vital and strong as it grows. The rating structure for residential areas in the Commercial One zone need to be considered by the Council to make the creation of a living community in the mall financially feasible.
Cities of any size find their health, zest and well-being in communities, from small groups of neighbours who band together to those of larger and more diverse areas that have a common interest underpinning their ambitions. The City of Greater Shepparton is nothing more, or less, than a patch-work of communities and now we need to work at adding another, based on our Maude Street Mall.
]]>The Cycling Resource Centre provides direct links to relevant cycling information on Australian state and territory government agency websites, national and international news articles and research covering Australia and New Zealand. For more information see www.cyclingresourcecentre.org.au.
]]>It seems that other global urban regions have not felt the need to specifically include 'mild temperate' or 'hot arid' as requisite criteria in their city making strategies. Perhaps they have intuitively assimilated the phenomenon of climate and place in their design and planning thinking.
Are we sure we are not looking for a cosmetic effect to create a more distinct image. If it is promotion and marketing driven, there are likely to be more direct and overt devices we can use. Did this 'movement' emanate from the city's previous 'City Image' concerns for some kind of competitive edge? If subtropical expression and qualities are intended also to respond to cultural landscape issues, we have a long way to go. The concept of cultural landscape is not new. Why have we not embraced it before?
If it is local character we are seeking, there are other means and routes to it than the narrow path of 'subtropicality'. The geography is as much a part of place heritage as any built element. Yet, we seem to have considerable difficulty in responding to our local geography and topography.
After attending to what we can do within public territory, too much depends on the quality of architecture. Contemporary modernism seems to be too internationally homogenised to be capable of supporting a distinctive and broadly based local expression. How dedicated are the architecture schools to a search for subtropical character? We are still in a desperate plight to credibly respond to the built Queensland heritage, let alone the shadowy figure of subtropicality.
Our climate is changing and the signs that we might be able to arrest that change are not very promising. There is a possibility that in another 20 or so years, SEQ could be in a different climatic zone. How confident can we be that we are backing the right horse? Would it not make more sense to pursue the objectives and practices of sustainability and give it primacy in all our planning and urban place making? Urban design education in Queensland is and has been in a parlous state for many years. A Centre for Subtropical Design (CSD) has been established within Queensland University of Technology. This dissipates the already scarce resources and intellectual energies further. Would it not bring a higher dividend if they were utilised to broaden the front of disseminating general urban design knowledge and understanding which is more fundamental to high urban quality than merely promoting one aspect of it?
According to the CSD web site, it intends to:
Some early research on this broad topic has been done by Drs. Danny O'Hare and Bishna Bajracharya for their paper 'Integrating subtropical design in transit oriented developments of South East Queensland' (see http://urbandesignaustralia.com.au)
I submit that their findings support the uncertainties expressed here. It also confirms that subtropical 'expression' is little more than merely good urbanism (which by most definitions responds to the breadth of qualities of place, including climate).
Let's just get on with educating more people to not only design good places but also commission them, discriminate for quality and see enough value in them to invest appropriately.
]]>It was also encouraging to note that many were in the early stages of their professional careers. One way or the other, clearly the ACNU community is growing and many are at least interested to find out what is going on. It is my regular lament that those who ought to hear a conference message usually are not there. Nevertheless, the delegates list is always very illuminating. On this occasion, 117 delegates - close to a third - represented local authorities or public institutions. This is an encouraging number if only as a sign that more of our arms of government are taking notice of urban design. However, teaching institutions in the main had chosen to remain aloof with only six representatives registered. Ipswich City Council takes the 'biggest contingent' prize with 14 and Waitakere City Council (NZ) a close second at 10.
When there is a rich three-day feast, served up by some of the world's most highly credentialed and skilled cooks, it is difficult to filter out the most interesting and nourishing morsels. In the end, each 'diner' will take what they came for or wanted to sample. Here are the special bits that I savoured.
The conference was officially opened by Colin Jensen, Coordinator General, Director General, Department of Infrastructure and Planning. Regrettably some of the images were a little off target for this conference audience. In Queensland, planning has now been divorced from the Local Government Department and coupled with Infrastructure. This writer has reservations about the wisdom of this union.
Evan Jones produced the first sermon with a sobering prognosis. 'We are only 30 years away from climate catastrophe, fossil fuel depletion and an aged and almost stable population. This means that the decisions we make in the next 10 to 20 years [and I think we have already missed the start] will dictate the shape, liveability and sustainability of Australian cities for the whole of the 21st Century. There is no second chance'.
Yet, most of our major policy makers seem to be asleep at the wheel! Paul Murrain opened his presentation with David Engwicht's mantra that 'the purpose of the city is to facilitate and maximise exchange while minimising the need for travel'. This axiom deserves to be tattooed on the forehead of everyone with any kind of role in the making and management of cities and towns so that they see it in the mirror every morning. I will also carefully file away a few other of Paul's metaphors and epigrams: many development strategies are obese; the DNA of towns is the streets; the grid is still the fundamental element of the urban buzz; we should know more about The Social Logic of Space (look it up on the net if this leaves you puzzled); don't let the architecture fight in the street.
Peter Richards gave an overview of where New Urbanism has been in Queensland, especially in the south-east. Moved we have, but it seems ever so frustratingly slowly. Peter reminded that, above all, the major stumbling block for lots of people is developing the right mind set - to think/imagine a town instead of merely infrastructure, property, traffic or markets.
While some delegates were doing a quick inspection of South East Queensland's more significant recent greenfield projects, Chip Kaufman and crew lead us through a quick New Urbanism Primer. It all seemed a little too obvious ñ well interconnected neighbourhoods with their own walkable-distance local amenities. However, I particularly warm to the idea of schools not only being on smaller sites but located so that they can actually be more convenient for everyone and treated as one of the most important elements of the urban fabric. It is absurd that around 3pm, the local roads get choked worse than peak hour and there is little chance the drivers can do another errand while picking the kids up from school.
Victor Dover observed that while initially New Urbanism was largely intuitive, as time has passed we now have research results which confirm most of the basic concepts and principles. Victor also assured us that the New Urban ideas are not just for greenfield locations [just as well] but also for urban regenerations and applicable to other urban problems. However, to this fan, Victor excels in his graphic communication of what is possible with his seductive and highly credible 'before' and 'after' illustrations.
With the graphic technology at our disposal, why do our planners and policy-makers still waste everyone's time using language-based surveys and 'consultations' which mean a different thing to every participant rather than employ more graphic/virtual reality examinations of what is possible and might be? We truly need to be re-imaging our cities and towns. However, words do also have power. Victor used the expression 'mixed income housing' instead of affordable, welfare, etc. This kind of relabelling is sometimes called social marketing, but do we not need more mixed income housing? What does 'affordable' really mean? Is it a euphemism for cheap?
Day 1 was wrapped up by Stephen Bowers, the ever present conference chair and chief conductor. To Stephen, the only way to 'do' urban design is through the enquiry by design (EbD) process because any other way of engaging with the community is 'doing planning by exhaustion'. Of course, it does not matter if you exhaust the EbD leaders!
To him, the accelerating development delivery vehicle is the charrette, dramatically illustrated by an intergalactic vehicle in full flight! Stephen's testimony was given added credibility as he represents a sector of the development industry.
The following two days logged and reviewed the spectrum of projects and successes claimed under the New Urbanism banner. Regrettably, insufficient time and intellect was applied to strategies on how and where the broader message of the concepts, principles and structures of a better way of putting together our cities and towns can be broadcast and implemented. The core material of a conference of this kind ought to be taken on a tour of all of our cities and provinces every year. Urban design education (in all senses and levels) is too dispersed and a very feeble level for an occasional conference to make the kind of difference that this country badly needs.
Of the various round-up comments, the one that stuck in my memory is Paul Murrain's 'For consumer capitalism, certainty is more important than truth' - worth pondering. As long as you give them certainty and predictability, you may be able to get more than you expect?
We will not arrest global warming and its consequences! Our non-renewable energy will decline and exhaust itself. Our demographic and social change cycle will not be reversed for at least another couple of generations. Helping our cities to cope with the inevitable should be our primary mission. Whatever your own 'confession' to urban design, we need it more now than ever. For a cohesive approach to these challenges, the ACNU agenda seems to be the best insurance to minimise the pain.
An assuring sign of the acknowledgement of urban design importance and the ACNU route to it was the impressively large number of major sponsors, including Queensland Government's Department of Infrastructure and Planning. Let us hope that this means a genuine embrace of better urban practice and not merely a marketing opportunity.
This reporter is probably not the most appropriate to reflect on the feast, having been selling this cuisine for two decades. However, while I did not experience any new 'road to Damascus' revelations, I did come away encouraged that the last 20 years have not quite been for naught: that urban design is moving ahead, however slowly; that there are still people with zeal and passion for urban quality; that a strong message is being broadcast. As for ACNU, in the absence of any other strong voices or championing from our universities and other institutions, it is the only coherent message in town.
]]>I have a choice of three supermarkets within a five minute walk. I usually shop at the closest one, which is also the most upmarket. It has a very wide range of groceries from around the world, including almost everything I would get at a supermarket in Adelaide. It does miss out on Vegemite and Twisties, but makes up for this by stocking mangosteens, camel milk, many varieties of dates, and lots else besides. The weather here is always extreme ñ extremely hot in summer, extremely pleasant now. Winter temperatures are not cold, just nicely warm. No need for coats or even jackets. No rain to worry about either!
The easy living in winter helps to make up for the brutal conditions in summer. The decree establishing the Urban Planning Council and its powers was handed down last September. As well as setting the strategic vision for all spatial development of the emirate, we will:
This makes us, theoretically at least, the most powerful spatial planning agency that I know of in the world.
The UPC has a consultant budget for the period September 2007 to December 2009 of over $25m, and an intention to start over fifty-five projects in that time. These range from strategic plans for large districts of the city, through design guidelines for new urban areas, development regulations for the entire city, redesign of two of the major roads, to vastly improve pedestrian conditions and general amenity.
We recently had a week-long charrette with an international team of planners and designers, this time to design Al Ain, a city of 300,000 people with the incredibly low density of less than one household per hectare. Led by the loquacious and ever-energetic Larry Beasley, formerly head of planning at the City of Vancouver, the charrette produced an excellent vision for Al Ain, including largely avoiding more sprawl and instead creating greater density in the existing city area. The charrette was immediately followed by our first Urban Design Review Panel, a team of five international experts to review eight of the biggest projects here. The smallest project is the population size and $ value of the redevelopment of the Adelaide port area, the largest for several hundred thousand people.
For those interested in more detail, see www.pricetags.ca/pricetags/pricetags98.pdf. This edition of the urbanism emag from Vancouver reproduces a talk Larry Beasley gave recently on his work in Abu Dhabi. It gives a background to what I am doing here.
]]>Childers Street 'Arts Heart' public realm upgrade is the outcome of this visionary planning study for City West. The Authority considered it paramount in developing the 'Arts Heart' brief that the solution epitomise the aspirations of the master plan. The Authority's goal for the public realm, in partnership with EDAW, is to create an innovative urban design framework for a multifunctional, shared-use zone to support incremental mixed-use development and assist in generating a dynamic precinct. The design encapsulates the synergies between the ANU, community, arts, commercial and residential activities of the City, bringing 'town and gown' together.
The urban design-led response is based on a paradigm shift in planning, design and use of the public realm in Canberra. The aim is to raise design standards through innovation and testing standards and guidelines. The design challenges usual perceptions by taking an integrated approach to streetscape elements - furniture, lighting, artwork and water sensitive urban design - to establish a unique, 'funked-up' suite for the precinct, and demonstrates versatility for application in the rest of the City centre. With increasing awareness of climate change and drought affecting urban landscapes, the design demonstrates responsiveness to the environment by capturing runoff from the street in rain gardens to naturally irrigate plants.
The built outcome achieves these goals, and the water sensitive urban design measures in the public realm are a first for the City centre. Given a significant percentage of the modest $6.5m budget was spent on redirecting services, the 'Arts Heart' design is a remarkable outcome. The 'Arts Heart' officially opened with a street party in February 2007. Canberra Central Movement Study by Intelligent Space (UDF79 September 2007) reinforces the role of pedestrians in the precinct, and gives the impetus for the design of a park and remaining streets to complete the public realm upgrade in 2009.
The ANU Exchange is a major catalyst for development of sites in the precinct. This partnership between the ANU and ACT Government is delivering in part on the City West Master Plan, with accommodation completed for 500 students, and more on the way. New apartments nearby are seeing more people permanently residing in the City centre. These new choices in housing offered are contributing to making the City a more vibrant and interesting place.
]]>The Rudd initiative of the April Australia2020 Summit: great to see some blue sky thinking by the new government toward a fresh national agendaÖbut something seems to be missing from the list. It became pretty apparent to me in Europe that quality cities are now recognised as the prerequisite for progressing lots of other policy objectives. This doesn't seem to have registered here yet ñ or are we blinded by the myth of 'liveable city' superiority from seeing that most new development is abysmal?
What can we do to raise the profile of an agenda like: 'Competitive and Sustainable Cities: quality platforms for prosperity, equity, innovation and environmental balance' for the Summit?
]]>The Box Hill site is subservient to its context. It is bounded by a newly constructed mall and bordered by two main roads - Whitehorse Road and Station Street, in the heart of the Box Hill CBD. The laneways are in a prime position for improved pedestrian movements and within a stone's throw of the transport interchange and institutional, medical, educational precincts and mass development occurring in this Principal Activity Centre and Transit City.
The approach to enlivening the laneways is minimalistic. It is woven with an Asian influence ñ an existence that dominates the immediate surrounds and offers additional importance to maximising use of the lanes. The project involves a series of activations that respect the urban architecture and landscape forms. The activations will be staged and will harness various local and state project partners - local artists, local education institutions, the youth of Box Hill.
The approach provides a rearticulation of space. Provision of niche activities. Activations through Summer events. The creation of colour concentrations. The channelling of movements. The plans envisage vibrant entry gateways for maximum contrast against the monotonous urban backdrop, seasonally changed ephemeral artworks, permeations of colour and lighting for excitement and enthralling, seasonal night cinemas, hawker night markets, produce day marketsÖ to simply bring life to the lanes.
The project is evolving, and community consultation is underway to allow Council and its community to reclaim dead space, and encourage people to venture beyond the known.
]]>In January this year, Bill Kelly became the most recent recipient of an Order of Australia award. The official citation says: For service to the arts as a visual artist, and to urban design. Kelly literally grew up in four of Olmstead's parks and, as a very young artist, created small drawings and paintings on site in each of them. He has since exhibited his art in over 20 countries and 100 cities from Melbourne to New York City to Durban to Tokyo. Much of this work reflects his commitment to human rights, social justice, reconciliation and peace - acknowledged by his receipt in 2006 of the Courage of Conscience Award (USA) - values also reflected in his urban design work.
Though always an artist first, Bill puts great credibility in the relationship of public space and architecture to culture and to the evolution of community, and believes firmly in the power of true collaboration to achieve positive outcomes.
He was a founding member of Urban Design Forum, collaborated on the design of Westgate Park, All Nations Park, was artist consultant to the Docklands Authority for eight years, artist collaborator on Balaclava Community Housing (City of Port Philip), and a member of the team for Inkerman Oasis which won the Stockholm Prize for planning toward sustainable development.
In June 2007, Rob Adams was made a Member of the Order of Australia. The official citation was 'For service to urban design, town planning and architecture through the implementation of programs, projects and policies that have transformed the City of Melbourne.'
Rob was a founding member of Urban Design Forum. Rob has played a central role over the past two decades in making Melbourne one of the world's most liveable cities. He has consistently taken a proactive and highly professional role, displaying leadership as well as responding to public and political concern in a career that has reshaped Melbourne and set an example for cities throughout Australia.
Crucial to this is Rob's understanding that making a good city requires not only bright ideas, but the work of many talented and creative people capable to turning ideas into reality and capable of maintaining the qualities that make a city liveable. Testament to this is the 100 design awards won by the City over the last 15 years.
Rob also was the recipient of the SACS Local Government Award 2007 and the Committee for Melbourne's Achiever Award 2007
In January 2007, Juris Greste was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. The official citation was: 'For service to urban design, particularly through raising community awareness of the need for high quality and sustainable environments, to professional associations and to education.'
Juris has been a long standing senior committee member of the Australian Institute of Urban Studies (Qld) and the Urban Design Alliance of Queensland, active as a community representative and urban design advocate, writer and educator in Queensland.
Following 20 years as a practicing architect, Juris moved to education. He taught design and a range of other subjects at Queensland University of Technology as a full time academic member of staff for over 10 years, and continues to teach part time. He has a Master of Arts degree in Urban Design (with Distinction) from the Joint Centre for Urban Design, Oxford Brookes University. and was a Queensland recipient of '2004 Year of the Built Environment' exemplar award.
Juris has extensive knowledge and experience in urban design and development both as an employed senior urban designer and as a consultant. After leaving QUT, he worked with some of Queensland's largest architectural firms designing a range of large local and international projects. He is a regular contributor to Urban Design Forum.
]]>Geographically, Peru is divided into three regions La Costa, La Sierra and La Selva (the coast, the mountains and the jungle). The coast is a narrow desert plain, with occasional valleys that served to establish numerous cities and ports. The mountains, or highlands, are the cradle of the Incan Empire and reservoir of the country’s major assets, minerals and agriculture. The jungle is the largest region and is covered by the Amazon Rainforest, which protects a large number of rare species of flora and fauna.
The variety of societies and cultures this geography has produced was further enriched by the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th Century. Under colonial rule, Africans and Spaniards arrived in large numbers.
After the country gained its independence in 1821, there was a gradual immigration from other European countries, and later, in 1850, by the Chinese. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide array of orders; social, spatial, and organizational; which can be infinitely explored in Peru’s capital city of Lima.
Lima was founded by the Spaniards in 1535, and consequently a typical European rectangular grid was established; a grid that didn’t expand or swell with the city, but morphed and sprawled with its people.
The authorities have always been unable to control or direct urban growth and the city constantly expands in every direction, shape and form, inevitably producing the best and worst urban environments.
This expanding city is the home of nearly 13 million people, and is roughly half the size of Metropolitan Melbourne. Unfortunately it is often described as chaotic, cluttered, unsafe grey and horrible; hasty perceptions for the fascinated spectators of urban drama, who might agree that this juxtaposition, overlaying and overlapping of social, cultural and spatial orders indicate a complex multiplicity. It is this diverse fabric which has produced different layers in the city and on its dwellers, enriching the streets, public life, and artistic expressions.
The city’s and nation’s wealth lies in the complexity and coexistence of these differences, more often than not overlooked and denied by the general population and authorities which, in a struggle to define themselves, draw boundaries between each other encouraging isolation.
Evidence of this is the eternal proliferation of informal settlements, the forever pueblos jovenes, or ‘’young towns” occupied by the less fortunate; the enclave within enclaves of enclaves occupied by the more affluent classes; the rapidly vanishing middle class; and the uncontrolled sprawling.
Consequently, Peru will cease to be a vagabond the day we realize the value of a golden stool; the day we no longer find it, uncomfortable, or a burden; but rather a unique, useful and beautiful commodity. The day we notice how it sparkles under the sun.
]]>The principles of good urban design revolve around people and how the built environment will serve them, but many escape to the long held ideal that first you build the project making it convenient in every sense for motor vehicles while assuming that people will integrate as the project is finalized.
Good urban design ensures that all developments are as walkable as possible with public spaces being beautiful, and so inviting. Those public spaces can be, besides being attractive, restful and inviting, a plausible alternative to the spacious and palatial houses now being built in Shepparton’s new estates. Those same public spaces can be designed and built in a way that makes them a resource for the entire community - and yet scant users of water and so largely drought tolerant. Shepparton, like most other Victorian cities of a similar size, continues its development in a mode that had currency a few decades ago, but the times have passed it by – we now wrestle with drought and climate change, and together they demand a different way of living.
Few live in the heart of Shepparton, many live in older nearby residential areas and an increasing number (thousands) are moving into the new subdivisions on the city’s edges. Those same subdivisions are frequently five and more kilometres from the city centre, public transport is less than good, making the use of cars imperative and so, in a global warming scenario, absolutely the wrong approach. Most of the new homes have generous sized gardens and despite the fact that the occupants seem water conscious, they still demand large expanses of lawn and complex plantings of various flowers and bushes.
Although the inner-city area, designed and built correctly, could not accommodate half those people, it could still constructively contribute toward the creation of a city in which the urban designer was the first port of call for anyone contemplating a development project.
Beautiful public spaces ease the need for people to create what are effectively mini-botanic gardens in private yards and so improve the city’s broader water economies. Those same public spaces make living where you live more satisfying and so resolve the need, largely, for people to travel extensively to inject some new colour into their lives.
]]>Robin Kevan, a 59-year old retired social worker was fed up with the rubbish on the streets. He started picking it up. Then he started cleaning up the hiking trails in the mountains nearby. Word spread. Now known as “Rob the Rubbish”, he was invited to clean up Ben Nevis, the UK’s biggest mountain and most recently Everest Base Camp. (see www.robtherubbish.com)
Ryan Hreljak was six years old when he heard that one billion people did not have access to clean water. So he started raising money to build a well in Africa. With his parents help, he set up the Ryan’s Well Foundation. He has now built over 300 wells, and made a difference to the lives of nearly half a million people. Ryan is an inspirational water activist encouraging other young people to get involved. (see www.ryanswell.ca)
Rob and Ryan are quite ordinary people; who have done extraordinary things. Each one of us has the same power to create a better world. To harness this energy to make the world a better place, I suggest that we need to do three things:
Whatever we do, we should be enjoying it. There’s no point trying to change the world if you are not having fun. For anyone concerned about the future of our cities, our strategy should be to encourage active communities – which means encouraging people to take that crucial first step, to pick up that one piece of litter, to get started on mobilising resources to build that first well. Once started, you never know where your journey might lead. Small actions will lead to bigger actions.
We need people with ideas and enthusiasm if even the simplest problems are to be addressed. I believe that planners and policy makers should be INVESTING in INDIVIDUALS and their IDEAS. I call this the three I’s of social change. In the UK, I was instrumental in establishing a foundation, that was endowed with £100 million of lottery money, which makes awards to individuals with ideas where there is some public benefit. We operate only in the UK, but we are keen to encourage others elsewhere to start something similar. In 2008, we will be launching something similar in India.
People come to us with their ideas; we assess the person rather than their idea; but the idea must be feasible. We then give them up to £5,000 towards their project costs, plus six days of support from our staff team. The support is often more important than the money, as is the networking of our award winners who find, perhaps for the first time, that there are other crazy people out there with their own crazy ideas!
I want to end with these two thoughts: