A landmark former orphanage site in Surrey Hills could be transformed into a new residential community under plans lodged by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/antipodean-land-developments">Antipodean Land Developments</a> that would deliver 76 apartments and townhouses while restoring some of the suburb's most significant heritage buildings.

The burgeoninng Melbourne-based developer has submitted plans for the 9,158 sqm site at 1 Kent Road and 24 Durham Road, home to the former St Joseph's Home for Destitute Children, a historic institutional complex dating back to the late 19th century. The proposal seeks to adaptively reuse several heritage buildings while introducing two new four-storey residential buildings set within extensive landscaped grounds.

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/woods-bagot">Woods Bagot</a> and Kerstin Thompson Architects, the project has been conceived as a contemporary residential village embedded within a restored heritage precinct. The development team describes the design approach as "The Village in the Garden," with new buildings positioned among mature landscaping by OCULUS and significant heritage structures.

<img alt="First look: Antipodean Land Developments plans heritage-led apartment community in Surrey Hills" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="44ec8c1b-c0b6-44ae-859e-5811b3e6a023" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%281%29.png?VersionId=p.p1_KFh4iQoV4nisdnPfQBAsWNi7m79" />

The proposal would deliver 76 dwellings comprising a mix of apartments and duplex-style residences, significantly increasing housing supply on one of the largest privately held residential landholdings in Surrey Hills. The development includes 127 car spaces, 24 bicycle spaces and more than 1,000 sqm of communal amenity, with the existing chapel building earmarked for conversion into resident facilities.

According to the planning submission, the project centres on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the site's most significant heritage assets, including the original c.1889 St Joseph's building, the chapel designed by architect Augustus Andrew Fritsch, and the historic brick perimeter walls and entry gates. The proposal also incorporates the retention of other contributory buildings including the former infirmary and school building.

Tract Consultants, in the planning report accompanying the application, said the scheme had been shaped through extensive heritage analysis and design development.

"The shared vision for the Site by the project team has culminated in a scheme which successfully breathes life back into a historic site while delivering upon the objectives of Victoria's Housing Statement in a carefully curated and contextually responsive manner."

<img alt="First look: Antipodean Land Developments plans heritage-led apartment community in Surrey Hills" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7263b7d8-95ea-400f-9531-6ca7d22c3c33" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%282%29.png?VersionId=4cR1tiWOsDpgxEOwZi5vVFcyvvOsYkIE" />

The proposal is being assessed under Victoria's Significant Residential Development with Affordable Housing pathway. As part of the application, three per cent of the project's residential development cost would be contributed to the Social Housing Growth Fund. The development would also provide a diverse mix of one, two and three-bedroom residences targeting a broader range of buyers than typically found in Surrey Hills' detached housing market.

Sustainability initiatives include an anticipated 66 per cent BESS score, natural cross-ventilation to 80 per cent of apartments, 28 per cent deep soil landscaping and a canopy cover outcome exceeding local planning requirements. The proposal also sets aside more than 1,083 sqm for communal indoor and outdoor resident amenity spaces.

<img alt="First look: Antipodean Land Developments plans heritage-led apartment community in Surrey Hills" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="33fad46f-fe26-4d0a-acfd-6b776e1c6a3d" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Untitled%20design.png?VersionId=D9F6WVSyYCtGvSUmith35LRp6R7PQkw_" />

Planning documents describe the property as one of the largest underutilised residential sites in Surrey Hills, arguing it presents a rare opportunity to introduce "missing middle" housing in an established inner-eastern suburb while preserving and revitalising a significant heritage precinct.

Antipodean Land Developments has built a reputation for design-focused residential projects across Melbourne, particularly in the medium-density sector. Previous developments include Neighbourhood in Brunswick East, delivered with Breathe Architecture, and Balfe Park Lane, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects.

They've been very active in site acquisition as they build out their future development pipeline. They recently launched Thornubury House, 45 apartments above a mix of commercial, retail, and food and beverage tenancies, and have plans for a boutique project in Fitzroy and another <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/vic/antipodean-plan-apartments-for-deepdenes-missing-middle-on-whitehorse-road">"missing middle" project</a> on Deepdene's Whitehorse Road.

Joel Robinson

First look: Antipodean Land Developments plans heritage-led apartment community in Surrey Hills

Developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/auyin-property-development">Auyin</a> is the latest to turn to the Victorian Government's Development Facilitation Program in an effort to secure approval for its long-planned, mixed-use project in Elsternwick.

In 2018, Auyin lodged plans with Glen Eira City Council for a 14-storey building, however Council approved a reduced eight-storey scheme. A subsequent VCAT appeal in 2019 upheld the eight-storey height limit.

The project was later amended to nine storeys, but Auyin is now seeking to revive something closer to its original vision. The developer argues that the planning context has evolved significantly over the past decade, particularly within the Elsternwick Activity Centre, where higher-density development has increasingly been encouraged along Glen Huntly Road.

The proposal would transform the 1,239 sqm site at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/7-12-horne-street-elsternwick-vic-3185">7-15 Horne Street</a>, opposite Elsternwick Railway Station, into a 13-storey residential and retail development designed by CBG Architects, with 40 apartments

The site currently comprises three commercial properties.

<img alt="First look: 13-storey mixed-use tower planned for Elsternwick activity centre" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5f465dd4-509b-4082-a669-0253b313914b" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/elsternwick%20podium.png?VersionId=72frWi0SmQ5AVJ3ARRhX5ILUYObhTm7x" />

The proposed apartment mix comprises 25 two-bedroom and 15 three-bedroom residences above 200 sqm of retail space at ground level. Residents would have access to a 90 sqm wellness facility, a 351 sqm communal indoor and outdoor terrace on the third level, and extensive landscaped areas throughout the development. A publicly accessible 135 sqm plaza would be created on the north-east corner of the site, providing seating, landscaping, and a new gathering space adjoining Horne Street.

The design adopts a four-storey podium that references the finer-grain character of the surrounding streetscape, with the upper tower recessed behind generous setbacks on all boundaries.

<img alt="First look: 13-storey mixed-use tower planned for Elsternwick activity centre" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="e637e763-2abc-4c34-a0aa-5c7ad36fae18" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/elsternwick%20open.png?VersionId=J1AoOpZgTyaF.KeeFSX6lMjEScX8KKRi" />

A key element of the proposal is the reconfiguration and widening of the surrounding laneways. Vehicle access would be retained from Lois Lane, with upgraded pedestrian connections linking Ross Street and Horne Street. The development would provide 58 residential car spaces, two retail car spaces, and 52 bicycle spaces across two basement levels and ground-floor facilities.

Architecturally, the building draws inspiration from the established character of Elsternwick Village. The façade combines dark charcoal brickwork, textured concrete, bronze-toned metal detailing, and extensive planting integrated into podium and tower levels. The design also incorporates a chamfered corner treatment and publicly accessible plaza intended to strengthen pedestrian activity around the station precinct.

Elsternwick's last new development completion was&nbsp;EVA Elsternwick by Pitard late last year. <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/milieu-property">Milieu</a> is working away on its nature-led neighbourhood, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/elsternwick-gardens-by-milieu-8-gordon-street-elsternwick-vic-3185">Elsternwick Gardens</a>, on Gordon Street, with its first stage expected to complete next year.

First look: Auyin seeks mixed-use apartment project in growing Elsternwick Activity Centre

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/otium-parkdale-123-125-como-parade-east-parkdale-vic-3195">Otium Parkdale</a>, the 13-residence boutique development by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/huxtable-property">Huxtable Property</a>, has entered its final stages of delivery, with completion expected within the coming month and more than half of the residences sold.

The Como Parade East project is nearing the finish line at a time when opportunities to purchase new apartments in <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/parkdale-vic-3195">Parkdale</a> remain exceptionally limited. Fewer than 10 per cent of dwellings in the bayside suburb are apartments, making developments like Otium a relatively rare addition to a market traditionally dominated by detached housing.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134974 project_image_fid=5427]

The three-level development comprises 13 residences, including ten two-bedroom apartments and three larger three-bedroom homes, all positioned above a secure basement car park.

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/almeida-architects">Almeida Architects</a> with a strong connection to its coastal surroundings, Otium combines red brick, exposed concrete and dark metal detailing with integrated landscaping and greenery. Expansive glazing, generous balconies and terraces have been incorporated throughout the design to maximise natural light and reinforce indoor-outdoor living.

Inside, the residences feature engineered European oak flooring, natural and reconstituted stone benchtops, Bosch kitchen appliances, ducted heating and cooling, lift access and secure entry systems. The larger three-bedroom residences on the upper level have been designed with house-like proportions, while the two-bedroom apartments prioritise functionality, flexibility and low-maintenance living.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=134974 project_image_fid=5421]

The project is now in its final stages, with <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/builders/labco">Labco</a> completing the remaining landscaping and external finishing works following the completion of the residences' interiors.

Otium's location within the heart of Parkdale continues to underpin its appeal. Residents will be just steps from local cafés, restaurants, shops and the newly elevated Parkdale Station, while the beach is less than a kilometre away.

With the project tracking ahead of schedule, buyers can currently secure a residence with a five per cent deposit and benefit from settlement terms of up to eight months. The advanced stage of construction also provides buyers with the opportunity to walk through the near-complete residences and experience the quality and finishes firsthand ahead of completion.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=134974]

Otium Parkdale enters final month before completion as rare apartment opportunity nears sellout

A new boutique apartment development is entering the market in <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/chermside-qld-4032">Chermside</a>, with Brisbane-based developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/ausdev">Ausdev</a> bringing 33 residences to a well-connected pocket of Brisbane's north.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/parkdrive-apartments-chermside-25-sammells-drive-chermside-qld-4032">Parkdrive Apartments</a>, at 25 Sammells Drive, will comprise a mix of one- and two-bedroom residences positioned within walking distance of Westfield Chermside, The Prince Charles Hospital, and Bradbury Park.

Established in 1989, Ausdev has a long-standing presence across both development and construction, with Parkdrive Apartments representing its latest residential project in Brisbane's northern suburbs.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152125 project_image_fid=363778]

The development has been designed around open-plan living and natural light, with residences featuring stone benchtops, timber cabinetry, BOSCH appliances, and private balconies that extend the living areas outdoors.

Kitchens are positioned as the centrepiece of the homes, incorporating natural material palettes and integrated appliances, while bathrooms have been designed with a focus on functionality and understated finishes.

Residents will have access to a communal barbecue and entertaining area on Level 3, providing shared outdoor space within the development. Secure parking and lift access are also incorporated into the building.

The project will deliver a limited collection of 33 apartments, with one-bedroom residences priced from $749,000.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=152125 project_image_fid=363782]

Beyond the building itself, the location places residents within easy reach of several of Chermside's key amenities. Bradbury Park is around 350 metres away, while Westfield Chermside is approximately 1.3 kilometres from the site. The Prince Charles Hospital is located within 750 metres, and the Chermside Bus Interchange is around 1.5 kilometres away, providing connections across Brisbane.

Parkdrive Apartments adds to the growing residential pipeline in Chermside, a suburb that continues to evolve as a major retail, healthcare, and transport hub for Brisbane's north.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=152125]

Ausdev introduces boutique Parkdrive Apartments to Chermside's growing centre

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/skymark-group">Skymark</a>'s boutique Cronulla development Solis has secured a 10-year Latent Defects Insurance policy through Resilience Insurance, providing buyers of the 16-residence building on Ewos Parade with structural and waterproofing protection that extends a decade beyond the building's completion.

Currently under construction and due for completion in late 2027, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/solis-cronulla-8-ewos-parade-cronulla-nsw-2230">Solis</a> is one of a small number of new developments in the Sutherland Shire to carry Resilience LDI coverage, a distinction that carries increasing weight as buyer confidence in the off-the-plan sector continues to be shaped by how developers stand behind their product.

Latent Defects Insurance, which entered the Australian market in 2022 when Resilience Insurance was approved to offer the cover, protects buyers against major structural or waterproofing defects for ten years post-completion. Unlike traditional statutory warranties, it operates as a first-resort policy, if a covered defect arises, the insurer responds directly, without the buyer needing to pursue the builder or developer through a lengthy claims process.

Resilience Insurance CEO Corey Nugent has noted that the product addresses something fundamental to the new apartment market.

"The overarching feedback from prospective buyers in the new development space is that they want more confidence and assurances around the quality of the build," Nugent says.

"Resilience Insurance Latent Defects Insurance not only gives them complete peace of mind for 10 years, but it shows the developer they are buying from is standing by their product."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150499 project_image_fid=370898]

For Solis, the Resilience LDI policy adds a meaningful layer of accountability to an already considered project. The development comprises nine two-bedroom and seven three-bedroom residences, including one dual-level three-bedroom apartment, across a five-storey building on Ewos Parade, positioned between Shelly Beach and South Cronulla.

Garden apartments connect directly to private landscaped courtyards, while upper-level homes capture beach views to the east from level four and above.&nbsp;

All 16 residences include at least one balcony or courtyard, and select apartments on the upper floors feature bar areas and secondary flexible living spaces.

Hiba Sander, Managing Director of Skymark, says Solis offers a rare balance, nestled between the quiet beauty of secluded beaches and the lively charm of South Cronulla's esplanade.

"It's a place to choose your pace and live gracefully, seaside'," Sander says.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150499 project_image_fid=370900]

The architecture, designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/ida-design-group">IDA Design Group</a>'s Michael Trinh, draws from the natural erosion patterns of <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/cronulla-nsw-2230">Cronulla</a>'s sandstone headlands, translating the organic forms of the coastline into soft curves, pavilion-style massing, and a material palette chosen for longevity in a salt-tinged environment.&nbsp;

Textured natural stone, soft renders, and timber-look battens reference the tones of the surrounding cliffs, while the building has been oriented to maximise natural light and passive ventilation, with primary living spaces facing north and east to capture morning sun and sea breezes.

"At Solis, our aim was to create architecture that feels quietly confident, grounded in natural materials like stone and timber, and elevated by light and landscape," Trinh says.&nbsp;

"The buildings are designed to sit gently within their coastal surrounds, with expansive glazing and abundant greenery creating a seamless dialogue between inside and out."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150499 project_image_fid=370897]

Interiors by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/hot-black">Hot Black</a> carry the same material language through to every room. Kitchens feature integrated Gaggenau appliances, sculpted stone benchtops, and Lo &amp; Co joinery, while bathrooms feature natural stone, timber, and brushed metal finishes.&nbsp;

Hot Black Founder and Design Director Sophie Safrin describes the intent as one of considered restraint: "At Solis, every detail has been thoughtfully considered to create a timeless coastal retreat, calm, refined, and effortlessly liveable. From natural finishes to seamless indoor-outdoor flow, Solis offers a quiet elegance that's deeply connected to its surroundings.

The landscape, designed by Julian Brady of <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/landscape-architect/sitedesignstudios">Site Design Studios</a>, treats green space as an integral part of the resident experience rather than an afterthought.&nbsp;

"Gentle curves and layered native plantings mirror the ebb and flow of the ocean," Julian Brady says, "creating a serene connection between architecture and place."&nbsp;

Coco Republic has provided bespoke furniture packages tailored to the project's coastal palette.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150499 project_image_fid=370899]

Skymark has an established track record in the Sutherland Shire, with a portfolio spanning Cronulla, Woolooware and Burraneer that includes Isla, Sylva, Bask, Shells, Sula and Mist. Securing LDI on Solis reflects a broader shift in how the developer is positioning its buildings to buyers, at a time when Resilience Insurance expects the policy to become mandatory in New South Wales by 2028.

Sales at Solis are launching soon through Ray White Projects, with an official event scheduled for 11 June. Enquire for more information.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150499]

Skymark takes out 10-year Resilience Insurance LDI at Solis Cronulla

City Design

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Thirty years ago today Queen Elizabeth II opened the World Expo in Brisbane, Australia. The six-month event attracted more than 15 million people to the city’s South Bank. World expos have a long and prestigious history as urban development vehicles, and the 1988 edition helped to shape Queensland’s capital.
Expos remain popular even if the basic premise – nations gathering in one place to display their technological innovations – now seems outdated. Expo 88 was an event in both senses of the word. It was a planned occasion with a specific theme, but it was also a pivotal moment – a point from which things were never the same again for the host city.
This article explains the significance of Expo 88 and outlines why other cities should pay attention to this example of event-led urban regeneration.
A ‘free-enterprise expo’
Expo 88 was conceived hastily after Brisbane hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games. The success of the Games had impressed Queensland’s pro-development leadership who were keen to reposition their capital as a world city, rather than a regional centre.
Brisbane’s A$645 million World Expo was part of Australia’s bicentennial celebrations, but the project was conceived and organised at the state level. The Queensland government’s support for the project came with one proviso: this had to be a “free-enterprise expo”, one that paid for itself. Perhaps surprisingly, given the track record of big events like expos and Olympic games, this was achieved.
Expo 88 was a success, not just because targets for participating nations, corporations and attendees were exceeded, but because the event was genuinely loved. People liked the pavilions and the formal entertainment, but they loved the riverfront setting, the animated walkways, and the festive atmosphere.
An academic study 15 years after the event found that memories were both strong and positive. One participant summed up the general feeling: “I remember being happy.”
It’s hard to find anyone in Brisbane who has a bad word to say about Expo 88. Given that most mega-events tend to divide opinion, that’s a considerable achievement.
Sustaining the spectacle
Expo 88 was a temporary event but it changed Brisbane culturally and physically. It redefined the city as one oriented towards culture and leisure, turning citizens into cosmopolitan consumers. The expo also helped to create South Bank Parklands – a 40-hectare site that is now the city’s most popular leisure precinct.
However, the relationship between Expo 88 and South Bank is more complicated than is often assumed.
The original legacy plan was to sell the riverside expo site to developers. They wanted to create a tourist precinct typical of those that now dominate the world’s post-industrial waterfronts.
But the expo raised expectations and created a public appetite for a South Bank that could replicate the sociable festivity that people had enjoyed in 1988. The expo was now part of the city’s psyche.
This forced the (new) government to change the plans. A revised master plan was conceived – formulated by a company that specialised in theme park design – with half of the site retained as open space.
The behaviours, emotions and expectations engendered by Expo 88 influenced the reconfiguration of the site.
Time to think again
The parklands that opened in 1992 were a success at first, but flaws in the master plan, a failure to attract a broad range of users, and the lack of commercial revenue forced a rethink. The development corporation responsible for the site adopted a new vision – one to which contemporary cities should pay close attention. By designing a place that appealed to locals, and that was properly integrated into the surrounding area, officials assumed that tourists would be attracted too.
The revised plan worked. South Bank Parklands is now a much-loved and heavily used part of Brisbane.
This is not a relaxing and tranquil space; it does not provide a way of escaping the city like Central Park in New York does. This is a precinct that hosts playgrounds, picnic lawns, event venues, urban beaches, paddling pools and cafes. It is Brisbane’s playground – used by locals and visitors – providing free fun by the bucketload.
Behind the carnival mask
Before touting Expo 88 as an exemplar for future projects, it is important to note less positive aspects that might be conveniently forgotten in oversimplified policy lessons.
Like many other mega-event projects and waterfront schemes, the development of Brisbane’s South Bank displaced low-income groups and “scruffy” industries which were swept aside by a growth regime intent on property development and new investment.
To justify the project, the existing site had to be denigrated. The Expo 88 souvenir program described it as “an area of derelict dockyards, unacknowledged brothels and disreputable hotels”. Only by representing South Bank as an area that was decaying, depraved and worthless could such large–scale transformation be justified.
Cities pursuing mega-projects today continue to use this dubious tactic.
Lessons for other cities
Expo 88 offers multiple lessons for urban authorities contemplating similar projects. Three stand out:
<ol>
<li>
Revenues from ticketing, sponsorship, merchandising and property sales funded the expo – proving that mega-events don’t have to leave governments indebted.
</li>
<li>
Expo 88 demonstrated that temporary events change public expectations of urban space, which can drive permanent changes to the cityscape.
</li>
<li>
The case highlights an important urban design principle: successful tourism spaces can be created by focusing first on attracting locals.
</li>
</ol>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95430/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">This World Expo project was hastily conceived, and legacy plans had to be changed several times, but the creation of South Bank Parklands means Brisbane is still partying like it’s 1988.
Andrew Smith, Reader in Tourism and Events, University of Westminster
Judith Mair, Senior Lecturer in Event Management, The University of Queensland
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/celebrate-88-the-world-expo-reshaped-brisbane-because-no-one-wanted-the-party-to-end-95430" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

The ’88 World Expo reshaped Brisbane because no one wanted the party to end

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Loneliness is a hidden but serious problem in cities worldwide. Urban loneliness is connected to population mobility, declining community participation and a growth in single-occupant households. This threatens the viability of our cities because it damages the social networks they rely on.
One response to these trends involves “third places”. These are public or commercial spaces that provide informal opportunities for local people to mix socially on neutral ground.
The concept of third place, developed by Ray Oldenburg, is distinct from first and second places. A first place is the private space of home. Second places are where people spend significant time, often formally. These include schools, universities and workplaces.
Common examples of third places in cities include community gardens, libraries, public swimming pools, cafes, men’s sheds, farmers’ markets and dog parks.
Researchers at the Cities Research Institute are investigating whether these “third places” can reduce urban loneliness. Here, we report and discuss some insights from that work.
How can third places reduce loneliness?
There is growing understanding of the negative outcomes and costs associated with loneliness. These include fractured communities, declining trust, stress, depression and disease. Clearly this is neither desirable nor sustainable.
More than a century ago the sociologist George Simmel observed how mobility disrupts social connection and creates isolation. The urban migrant leaves behind their own social ties and often struggles to connect to their new community. This challenges both the migrant and their new neighbours.
Third places can help by creating or enhancing a sense of community on a smaller, more human scale – a relief from the overwhelming sensory experience of a large and unfamiliar city. The village-like feeling of third places can reduce people’s anxieties and make them more comfortable with trying a new social experience.
Third-place interactions encourage conversation in a homely atmosphere. Regulars who are local to the area often help with this.
In third places, people are free to come and go without obligation. The status and backgrounds of users are largely irrelevant. These places are generally designed to be accessible, accommodating and inviting for all ages, low-profile, comfortable and conversational.
Third places bring people together based on shared spaces, which become more important than individual histories. This can reduce wariness of strangers and create social connections. Third places can lead to more resilient and better-connected communities, building up social capital, while reducing loneliness.
Providing quality third places
There are steps that can be taken to design and safeguard third places. Local councils and urban planners have important roles, given their central place in directing land uses.
Perhaps the most important thing is to understand the valuable social capital that successful third places offer. Once planners understand the value of third places, they can actively work to support them.
Walkability is an important factor. Third places encourage familiarity through repeated incidental interactions between locals, both regulars and newcomers. Ideally, people connect within their local neighbourhoods. Being able to visit without needing a car can encourage more people to use a place.
Space for third places can be designed into neighbourhoods and urban areas. Sections of parkland can be given over to public facilities such as outdoor gym equipment, dog parks or skate parks. Dedicated trading areas can be provided for farmers’ markets.
Third places are most effective when they encourage interactions between locals. Providing facilities and activities creates a purpose to interactions and reasons to start chatting.
Local councils can support citizen-led activities such as community gardens and men’s sheds. They can also provide activities such as Tai Chi classes.
Protecting existing third places is as important as providing new ones. For example, a local council may be tempted to allow housing to take over the site of a community garden. While there may some be reasons to support that idea, it should be carefully considered against the loss of social capital and the risk of entrenching social isolation.
Valuing and promoting third places
We live in an age of urban mobility with no historical comparison. Many of us have been strangers in a new city. Loneliness is an unwelcome and growing feature of this urban mobility. Third places offer a useful and tested model for reducing loneliness by improving community.
Yet many city dwellers see these spaces but don’t use them. In this sense, perhaps the biggest barrier is our willingness to make the time to seek out and participate in third places. For those people who do, banishing loneliness could be one of the greatest benefits.
Tony Matthews, Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith University
Joanne Dolley, PhD Candidate, Griffith University
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/many-people-feel-lonely-in-the-city-but-perhaps-third-places-can-help-with-that-92847" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Many people feel lonely in the city, but perhaps 'third places' can help with that

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GUEST OBSERVER
Metropolitan planning has a surprisingly long pedigree in Australia. Practices have evolved steadily in response to shifting large-scale urban problems. However, capital cities today present a suite of complex issues that challenge planning systems and demand better alignment between problem and response.
In major cities across Australia, there’s a stark contrast between lofty planning goals and the sprawling reality on the ground. Central to the story of each capital city is the evidence, after three decades of market-driven development, of a divide in access to opportunities and experiences.
In Sydney it has been dubbed the “latte line”. This is the divide between inner suburbs (affluent, dominating knowledge economy jobs, more likely to benefit from urban design initiatives) and outer suburbs (declining manufacturing employment, poor access to services and high car dependency).
The dominance of metropolitan development is not unique to Australia. Metropolitanisation has been described as “one of the most powerful trends shaping worldwide systems today”.
In The Metropolitan Revolution, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution notes the fundamental importance of the urban in national affairs. This rests on a “simple but profound truth: cities and metropolitan areas are the engines of economic prosperity and social transformation”.
This global trend has led to calls for a global “Metropolitan Compact” to advance the UN’s New Urban Agenda. These are based on the need to strengthen connections between government, civil society, industry, academia and media.
This has obvious relevance to Australia. The major cities dominate settlement patterns and population growth. Two-thirds of Australians live in a capital city.
Taking stock of urban divides
Some of Australia’s leading urbanists have contributed to a new book, Planning Metropolitan Australia, with essays examining the spatial strategies governments have used to try to manage Australian metropolitan development in the 21st century.
These strategies are set against a dynamic background of economic change, spatial restructuring and a more diverse population with rising social and spatial inequality.
The book identifies a broad planning consensus about making metropolitan areas more compact and resilient. But there is a persistent gulf between the high-level aims of such strategies and our growing understanding of the complexity and diversity of the communities in which most people live.
So, what has been done in recent times?
Recent planning system reforms have been similar in most capital cities. These include:
<ul>
<li>simplified planning instruments across local council areas</li>
<li>reduced rights of appeal</li>
<li>a limited role for local councillors in assessing development proposals</li>
<li>a correspondingly increased role for state agencies or expert professional bodies.</li>
</ul>
As for the achievements of metropolitan plans, these too are increasingly similar. A wider variety of dwellings is being built in a range of locations. High-rise apartments (of variable quality) are increasingly evident in the central and inner city as plans seek higher density targets.
But metropolitan plans have generally failed to provide affordable housing. Most have also fallen short of their aspirations for higher use of public transport. This is largely because of inadequate investment in infrastructure. Where public transport use has increased, this has mostly involved journeys to the CBD or within the better-served inner suburbs (where most increases in walking and cycling are also observed).
Employment in middle and outer suburbs remains sparse. Poor access to job opportunities in these areas has generally added to labour market inequalities.
Rethinking neoliberal governance
In 2006 Clive Forster observed that Australian metropolitan plans were not sufficiently informed by the findings of urban research. He noted: "The existence of parallel urban universes: one occupied by metropolitan planning authorities and their containment – consolidation – centres consensus; the other by the realities of the increasingly complex, dispersed, residentially differentiated suburban metropolitan areas most Australians live in."
In a concluding essay to Planning Metropolitan Australia, Brendan Gleeson picks up the notion of “parallel universes”. He suggests Australian cities under weak metropolitan planning arrangements have made little progress towards long-held aspirations for sustainable resource use, social justice, inclusive and innovative economies, and more compact urban forms.
Rather, under neoliberal governance regimes, other forces have largely shaped our metros this century. These include national immigration, tax and finance policies, disruptive technological innovations, cultural shifts and increasingly dominant market power.
As we move deeper into the “metropolitan century”, more effective, nuanced, evidence-based metropolitan planning and governance arrangements become ever more urgent.
Robert Freestone, Professor of Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW. 
Stephen Hamnett, Emeritus Professor of Planning, University of South Australia.
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-cities-and-their-metropolitan-plans-still-seem-to-be-parallel-universes-87603" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Photo: The right side of the ‘latte line’ in Sydney, looking across Paddington towards Bondi Junction and the eastern suburbs. R. Freestone, Author provided.
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Australian cities and their metropolitan plans still seem to be parallel universes

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GUEST OBSERVER
When it comes to planning better cities for the future there’s one simple rule: connect people to places, people to transport and people to people.
The quality and efficiency of our connections have a major impact on how we experience city living. Too often when a city plans for connectivity the needs of people are neglected. We forget the deceptively simple principle that we must ensure that people are at the centre of how we plan, where we live, how we travel and how we get to work.
Despite our obvious need for connectivity, many of us are living in a state of “urban disconnect”. Cities have been designed for cars rather than people. Urban disconnect and discontent grow on the back of, and are compounded by, increasing pollution, depleting fossil fuels, rising fuel prices, traffic congestion and traffic fatalities.
As we become more disconnected, we suffer the consequences. These include greater inequality, a rise in obesity and social alienation – not to mention lost economic opportunities.
How to diagnose connectivity
Bringing the people and place connections to fruition requires an accurate diagnosis of current levels of connectivity. Connected places have three key attributes:
<ul>
<li>
People connectivity — this exists where a place promotes social interaction and community engagement; where there is a sense of place, identity, community attachment and social diversity; and where people from all walks of life come into everyday contact with each other. This builds social capital and empathy across the social-cultural spectrum.
</li>
<li>
Place connectivity — this involves land use that provides easy access to a mix of neighbourhood activities, enabling short-distance travel. This brings place A and place B closer together.
</li>
<li>
Transport connectivity — this exists where low-impact modes of travel allow for sustainable mobility, which enhances the quality and liveability of places, making the journey between place A and place B safe, efficient and enjoyable.
</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Connections between people and places are what makes attractive urban places. Picture by Tommy Wong, Author provided
Place and people connectivity encourages place-making and creates vibrant, liveable and attractive urban places.
Place and transport connectivity, on the other hand, is about urban function and describes how accessible urban places are. High place and transport connectivity means that places A and B are brought closer together, or it is faster and easier to travel between them.
To measure the connectivity attributes of places and the success of strategies to meet people’s needs, I developed an audit tool for continual quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The tool can be used to measure the “before and after” situation of a place to assess whether strategies to improve connectivity have been successful.
The audit tool incorporates five key dimensions:
<ul>
<li>
city and neighbourhood structure
</li>
<li>
diversity
</li>
<li>
walkability and cyclability
</li>
<li>
place-making
</li>
<li>
transport.
</li>
</ul>
A case study in connectivity
As an example of using the audit tool, we assessed how King Street in San Francisco performs against the diversity dimension.
Embarcadero Boulevard in San Francisco (which becomes King Street) replaced the elevated Embarcadero Freeway after the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
King Street provides a direct east-west connection between Embarcadero and the I-280 on and off ramps at Fifth Street. The Fourth Street station is a stub-end terminal with six rail platforms. The section I studied runs from the San Francisco Bay Bridge to Fourth Street (highlighted in red in Figure 1).
Figure 1
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Geographical setting of King Street and Mission Bay. Image adapted from Google Earth, 2016, Author provided
Table 1 illustrates the diversity dimension of the audit tool as applied to King Street.
Table 1
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
 i) A lot is a land parcel within a block. There could be number of lots under different ownerships within a block. Drawn on maps from Google Earth, 2016. Adapted with permission, Author provided
Diversity of block sizes has resulted in a neighbourhood housing information technology companies, media houses, financial institutions, car rental, pharmacy, fire department, retail stores, bowling alley, art stores, design studios, dry cleaners, cafeterias and restaurants. This creates an opportunity for a diverse demographic mix.
Students from the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco, a centre for health research and education, together with the mix of office goers add to the diversity and create demand for a number of demographically specific functions and services. Private investments have been attracted to the neighbourhood. Other benefits include jobs, residential growth and increased land prices.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
A quiet corner of the busy Kings Street. Picture by Reena Tiwari
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Diverse travel modes and a mix of retail, recreation, office and apartments offer a place to work, live and play. Picture by Reena Tiwari
The presence of AT&amp;T Park, home of the Giants Major League Baseball team, plazas and parks enhance the recreational character of the place. This diverse mix of functions attracts people to visit, run businesses, work, shop and live. The result is a vibrant neighbourhood character and economy.
Various medium and high-rise residential condominium projects have been built on King Street. There are also multi-family residential buildings. The different types of apartments are a pull factor for all age groups and family sizes.
This has also resulted in an increase in public transit commute trips. Walking-to-work trips, measured in the influence zone of the streetcar-served Embarcadero Boulevard, have increased by 1.6%.
Similarly, I applied the audit tool to the other four dimensions of connectivity attributes for the boulevard.
A well-connected place scores high on many, but not necessarily all, of the variables. Generally, it is a mixed-use place, of medium to high density with fine urban grain. Importantly, people are able to connect to an efficient and well-integrated transport network with easy access to destinations.
By involving users and residents in place-making, a connected place reinforces the community’s positive identity and sense of ownership.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86214/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">Reena Tiwari is the author of Connecting Places, Connecting People: A Paradigm for Living in the 21st Century (Routledge, September 2017, ISBN 9781138213067).
Reena Tiwari, Professor and Fellow of the Curtin Academy, Curtin University
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-city-that-forgets-about-human-connections-has-lost-its-way-86214" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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A city that forgets about human connections has lost its way: Reena Tiwari

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GUEST OBSERVER
The way cities are portrayed reveals and shapes public perceptions of the city. For young people, in particular, the media inform and disseminate the most elemental images of the city and the society that inhabits it.
The media can be an important didactic tool – often the only one available to much of the population. But, increasingly, broadcast and social media aim to entertain the public. So how do these media depictions shape how we think and feel about the city?
Most analyses of the role of media take a city-by-city approach, rather than one based on theoretical paradigms. By contrast, we analyse how three urban theory paradigms – postmodernism, sustainability and politics – translate into movies, TV series and TV ads.
Postmodernism
Feature films such as Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, paint a city in which virtual reality and cyberpunks, known as replicants, have taken over humanity. The Blade Runner city is a darker and futuristic version of the LA depicted by Mike Davis.
Los Angeles, as the archetype of the postmodern city, became a lab for urban theorists in the mid-1980s. Postmodernism applied to urban theory refers to the increased privatisation and social polarisation of the city.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017), as well as the first one (1982), features dystopian city landscapes that remind us of postmodern urban theory. The movie conveys a message about society today. Virtual reality, a fragmented society and the sense of isolation felt by individuals in the contemporary city translate into the aesthetics of the movie. The movie creates a solipsistic universe – there are no social encounters of any value in the Blade Runner city.
Movies from the “neo-noir” genre offer a dystopian vision of the city. This genre includes animation movies such as Paprika (2006), which takes place in a fantasised city considered as Tokyo. David Lynch’s movies or sci-fi thrillers such as Strange Days (1995) all feature a “neo-noir” vision of Los Angeles’ urban landscapes.
Sustainability
Movies typically show a more negative side of cities and suburban life in contrast to TV, which tends to portray a more favourable view. Feature films (Erin Brockovich, Koyaanisqatsi, Avatar) and even comedies/animations (Idiocracy, WALL-E) depict a dystopian present/future of depleted resources, corporatism and “dog-eat-dog” ruthlessness.
Unfortunately, as most films dealing with sustainability get relegated to the documentary genre (An Inconvenient Truth, Cowspiricy), only a few films get to tell this message to the masses. Good sometimes, but not always, triumphs over evil.
Alternatively, over the past several decades, many TV series (Wonder Years, Home Improvement, Will &amp; Grace) have portrayed cities and suburbs as great places to live. They rarely engage or even mention pollution, traffic congestion, suburban sprawl or other negative aspects of suburban life.
In part this is due to the fact that most TV shows (although Netflix and Amazon productions are changing this imperative) need to attract viewers to be able to sell advertising. This means the shows rarely deal with any topic that might turn viewers away.
This positive theme carries over to TV commercials, particularly car ads, which further this favourable view of cities. Most car ads show cars in nature and on uncongested roads – they are doing this to combat the view that cars pollute and create traffic congestion. “Thelma and Louise” images of women in convertibles speeding down car-free, tree-lined roads with their hair blowing in the wind are iconic of the false representations of the city in car commercials.
Politics
Again, we see split representations.
On the one hand, the city is depicted as the epicentre of glamour, excitement, opportunity and prosperity. Serials such as Sex and the City epitomise this approach.
The “sitcom city” is another version: it’s a friendly, happy place, saccharine even, with minimal conflict. In shows like Friends and Seinfeld, even New York appears to be homely and “suspiciously affordable”, as Maria Bustillos puts it.
By contrast, animated sitcoms (The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad!, South Park) are satirical and subversive. While centring on daily life in bland small towns, they offer stark insight into issues that other sitcoms normally sweep under the rug: religious bigotry, alcoholism, drug use, violence, weak morality, and hypocrisy.
On the other hand, the broadcast media render the city as the locus of crime, unemployment, exclusion, or injustice. Shows like The Wire embrace the realism of struggle, injustice and decay in poor urban ghettos.
Since the 1990s, a sub-genre has emerged in Eastern Europe and China to represent the post-socialist city. In European films (Good Bye Lenin!), the images of the city are grim but hopeful.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85533/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">In contrast, Chinese films (Suzhou River, Sunshine and Showers) depict the city as a gritty or uncanny place, thus challenging the glitzy and wholesome representations produced by state propaganda and private developers.
Sebastien Darchen, Lecturer in Planning, The University of Queensland.
Dorina Pojani, Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland.
Neil Sipe, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Queensland.
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/movies-and-tv-choose-to-tell-us-different-stories-about-the-cities-of-today-85533" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Photo of Blade Runner 2049 courtesy of Alcon Entertainment. 
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Movies and TV choose to tell us different stories about the cities of today

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GUEST OBSERVER
Smart cities promise efficiency and resilience in urban design to combat climate change, population growth, transport congestion and other wicked problems. The processes that run a city may be abstracted into algorithms that feed on big data, their design optimised for efficiency, commuting, work and other purposes.
This is a positive development for urban spaces, but does this approach overlook other human needs?
While research centres and urban designers are installing sensors, trackers and cameras on every street corner, game designers and artists are using a cornucopia of technologies to bring back an old idea – playing on the street. I have developed one such game for Melbourne International Games Week.
Everyone knows what play is, but as adults we often forget how to play or trivialise its significance. Play is a particular way of being, a different way of seeing the world.
The idea of play as pointless fun is challenged by the designers of serious games who remind us that it is fundamental to learning. We play with possibilities, see how something plays out – this allows us to explore alternative realities and to see familiar situations in a new way.
Play also creates social bonds, connection and community through these shared experiences. Play activates cities and engages people. It appropriates and takes over urban space, changing what it means to people.
Playful citizens can then see their town or city in a new way, feeling a new sense of connection, and sensing new ways it could be.
Not entirely a new idea
While children used to play routinely in cities before the age of digital distraction, adult play in cities is not entirely a new idea. The emergence of the modern city in the 1900s led to changes in how people engaged with and experienced public space in the form of promenading and other social play.
Last century, the playground was invented as a site designed for play. During the 1960s, the Situationists deployed play in cities as a strategy for subversion. And in the 1970s the New Games movement developed outdoor play as a community-building process.
More recently, the interventions into public space of playable cities have revitalised earlier strategies for urban play. Technology has enabled urban play to introduce new modes of engagement.
What is a playable city?
Play creates alternative ways of seeing the world. This involves not only changes in data, but changes in attitude and how we feel in cities. These are things that are harder to achieve with other design strategies in public spaces.
We all know what a game is – we are living in a time with the highest level of play literacy. Participation in games continues to rise, with 68% of Australians playing video games.
Play is often structured through technology. We may recognise that the city has rules, but those rules become changeable through an invitation to play. Games provide new rules of engagement.
Cities are in process, in flux. Although on the surface they are made of concrete, data, steel and glass, they are equally made of people and culture.
Rather than creating playgrounds for adults, playable cities transform spaces that adults already occupy into playful experiences.
A new creative platform
Playable cities appropriate smart cities infrastructure to engage people with their city and with one another. It’s a form of “hacking” urban space. Through a shared sense of community and ownership, visitors, residents and workers in playable cities may then become part of the conversation about urban design.
In this way, smart cities and playable cities may inform each other and provide a new creative platform for artists and designers. Developing encounters in a playable city blends disciplines such as urban design, public art and game development into a hybrid practice situated in urban space.
Technologies like augmented reality sit alongside live theatre, as players move between looking at the screen of their mobile to one another, observing the spaces of the city, or drifting through information architecture.
Invitations to be citizens of play
This approach recognises the multilayered nature of urban space, its complexity, possibilities and how these can be remapped into a playful experience. This happens through mobile phones, signs and ciphers hidden in laneways, large public screens and through the changes in the behaviour of players and the attitudes of those who watch them play.
Cities have always been melting pots of possibility, places that we go to rediscover ourselves - some of their major contributions to the cultural economy are community, connection and creativity.
If that sounds too utopian as we reach peak popularity in dystopian fiction, then perhaps all this play is simply training for the apocalypse – zombie survival runs are a popular genre in street games.
Playable cities do not delineate sites of play but blend this activity with the daily operation of the city itself. Sometimes it is overt, where player behaviour challenges existing rules and conventions of public space and, as a result, transforms the meaning of the site in question. More often than not it is covert, play in secret.
In this way, play persists in cities despite mass surveillance and urban alienation. It’s emerging in opposition to these as a coping strategy that draws attention to the many tensions in cities today: connection and alienation, actual and virtual, digital and analogue, public and private, civic and corporate. Come and join the big game.
Troy Innocent is City of Melbourne knowledge fellow 2017-18 and senior lecturer in games and interactivity at Swinburne University of Technology.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85756/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">You can experience Melbourne as a playable city with <a href="https://ludea.net/wayfinderlive/" target="_blank">Wayfinder Live 2017</a>, a mixed-reality mobile game that explores Melbourne’s laneways and streets to unlock a hidden city. The author developed Wayfinder for <a href="https://www.gamesweek.melbourne" target="_blank">Melbourne International Games Week</a>, Asia Pacific’s largest digital games festival, from October 22-29.
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-an-old-idea-for-smart-cities-playing-on-the-street-85756" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Photo provided by author.
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Bringing back an old idea – playing on the street: Troy Innocent 

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/57114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
Back in the 1960s, the influential urban planner and journalist Jane Jacobs put American cities under the microscope. Jacobs was aiming to explain, and suggest ways of remedying, the hollowing out, or “doughnut effect”, which left previously well-functioning city centres rundown and devoid of new blood.
The effect was less dramatic in Australian cities, which had few, if any, residential populations in their central business districts until comparatively recently. And many of the innermost suburbs that surrounded the CBDs were industrialised and yet to feel the decline of manufacturing.
Of course, today the situation is completely reversed across Western cities. The emergence of the service economy and explosive growth of professional classes are promoting gentrification and squillion-dollar property values.
Jacobs’ conditions for a vibrant city life were that districts must serve at least two functions to attract persons of different purposes around the clock. Further, blocks must be small, with many opportunities for pedestrians to interact and a diverse range of buildings. Finally, there needed to be reasonable density. The idea was that “vitality” had a lot to do with chance encounters.
<h2>Digital entanglement</h2>
Jacobs’ encounters have now been supplemented if not entirely supplanted by social media. Enter some Italian researchers who hit upon the idea of mining “big data”. In this case, they used mobile phone calls cross-referenced to satellite-derived records such as Open Street Map to gauge where precisely this feverish activity was happening across six of Italy’s large cities. (In corroboration of Jacobs’ thesis, the best places were found to be “day end points” with concentrations of office workers at large, as well as small streets and blocks with historic buildings.)
There’s a sense that this “interconnectivity” is becoming a signal of city vitality/vibrancy. The two elements are becoming entangled like subatomic particles.
Moreover, it’s a natural fit with the vogue for blending IT with strategic planning. The new ministerial portfolio, cities and digital transformation, exemplifies this.
<h2>Smart city buzz</h2>
You don’t have to venture far into urban policy space before coming across the idea of the “smart city”. There’s a near-continuous run of conferences on the topic and even a Turnbull government plan. The plan features, among other measures, a blend of big-data thinking, with “better benchmarking of city performance”, and the prescriptions set out in Edward Glaeser’s 2013 book, Triumph of the City.
Glaeser views cities as places where human ingenuity can flourish and skills are developed and refined – a combination driving economic and technological advance. He believes increased densification, including a “vertical city” with yet higher stacks of buildings, is integral to achieving these objectives.
Glaeser, however, illustrates complexities in this debate. Jacobs opposed the view that high-rise cities create beneficial interactions. And concern is growing that increased reliance on digital communication will radically reduce urban human interaction.
<h2>Reckoning with a cantankerous planet</h2>
Smart cities need to be “resilient” if they’re to counter, for example, Paul Gilding’s “great disruption”. This includes life-threatening heat, desiccation and killer peri-urban fires. High-rise cities may prove to be the least adaptable human constructions in an era of fundamental change and add considerably to the urban heat island effect.
Should an economic perspective – like this, for instance – remain the main if not the sole focus for cities? This in a year when atmospheric carbon reached an irreversible 400ppm; the Great Barrier Reef’s coral is bleaching; wildfires have destroyed towns and cities in Canada; India has recorded its hottest day on record 51°C;  Paris has been heavily flooded; and sea-level rise threatens to inundate Silicon Valley, the spiritual home of start-ups – not to mention our home-grown variety of storm surge, erosion and flooding.
Is there something we’re missing? In the rhetoric surrounding smart cities it’s difficult to unearth specific reference to the natural world and its current plight. And when there is, it’s often a few throwaway lines about the value of green space in protecting biological diversity and threatened species.
Contrast this with the growing awareness of the benefits to our psyche of exposure to the natural world (even acting as a boost to productivity in the workplace).
Set these observations against the revelation that today’s children – the inheritors of the smart city – are spending less time outdoors than prisoners. This has occurred in a generation for whom the environment is unlikely to be mainstream given that their reality is ultimately what appears on a screen. Digital connectivity in low-amenity vertical communities is likely to prove a poor substitute for the kind of city Jacobs advocated.
Reconnecting kids and others requires rejigging our perspective, as well as starting to look out for vestiges of wildlife that has sought refuge in our cities. And providing for local food production is as big as big data itself, but that’s something for another day.
Peter Fisher is adjunct professor, Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-fisher-20629" target="_blank">here</a>.
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