The residential transformation of St Kilda Road is set to continue into with more new apartment plans for the sought-after boulevard.

Wing Tai Asia has lodged plans for a major residential tower at 464-466 St Kilda Road, replacing the former VACC House with an 18-storey mixed-use development designed around a retained heritage podium and a sculpted contemporary tower.

The proposal, prepared under Victoria’s Significant Residential Development with Affordable Housing pathway, would deliver 325 apartments and ground-floor retail across the prominent 4,653 sqm boulevard site in Melbourne’s St Kilda Road North Precinct.

The project centres on the adaptive reuse of the site’s heritage-listed VACC Building, an eight-storey office designed by Bernard Evans that has occupied the address for decades. Planning documents state the development would involve “carefully dismantling and conserving off-site the original metal fabric of the podium visible from St Kilda Road,” before reinstating it as the defining frontage of the new scheme.

Above the restored podium, Wing Tai is proposing a curvilinear residential tower. The scheme includes 172 one-bedroom apartments, 63 two-bedroom apartments, 66 three-bedroom apartments, and 24 four-bedroom apartments, alongside two ground-floor food and beverage tenancies fronting St Kilda Road.

The tower has been designed with substantial articulation and variable setbacks to minimise perceived bulk and maintain view corridors along the boulevard. Urbis, which prepared the planning report, said the design “has been significantly articulated through a curvilinear design” with “an interplay with materials, façade expression and depth” to create visual separation and visual interest.

The proposal also includes 254 basement car spaces, landscaped pedestrian links connecting St Kilda Road and Queens Lane, and a biophilic landscape strategy featuring canopy trees, raised planters, cascading greenery and a glass oculus pool overlooking the eastern frontage.

Planning documents confirm the $270.1 million development will contribute 3 per cent of project costs to the Social Housing Growth Fund as part of the application process.

Wing Tai acquired the St Kilda Road property in 2018 alongside Abacus Property Group for $95.38 million, before later consolidating ownership of the site. The property previously served as the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce headquarters for around 60 years.

The transformation of the St Kilda Rd boulevard is already beginning to materialise, with a number of high-profile projects recently completed, launched, or approaching launch as developers continue to back the long-term appeal of the precinct.

Among the most notable recent completions is Louise by Samuel Property Group, just off the strip on Queens Lane, the same pocket Hirsch &amp; Faigen recently launched The Queensbury. Mirvac is too on the same street with The Albertine, which is approaching completion.

Dexus recently secured approval for its slice of St Kilda Road, while Gurner also has approved plans for the precinct.

Joel Robinson

Wing Tai unveils 325-apartment St Kilda Road tower on former VACC House site

Malaysian developer <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/s-p-setia">SP Setia</a> is the latest to jump into St Leonards booming Transport Oriented Development precinct.

The developer, which has previously delivered Sapphire by the Gardens apartment development in Melbourne, identified the Atchison Street site in 2023. It filed a Scoping Report around 12 months ago, and now has revealed the designs for the new&nbsp;40-storey mixed-use tower.

The State Significant Development Application covers <a href="https://next-portal.urban.com.au/projects/14650/summary">20-22 Atchison Street</a>, a 1,374 sqm site positioned between St Leonards Station and the new Crows Nest Metro station.

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/cox-architecture">COX Architecture</a>, the project would deliver 181 apartments, above a four-storey commercial podium, five basement levels, and new public domain works along Mitchell Street. The apartment mix comprises 35 one-bedroom apartments, 39 one-bedroom-plus-study apartments, 85 two-bedroom apartments, and 22 three-bedroom residences.

The proposal has been lodged as a shop-top housing development under the NSW Government’s TOD planning pathway, which allows increased density around key transport infrastructure. The site sits within the recently rezoned Crows Nest Accelerated TOD Precinct.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b799673d-48e2-46b0-801a-0e33a9330100" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/atchinson%20site.png?VersionId=dPh0UfwfaHpbFL1R7H1cbZNbIW0CHbCC" />

SP Setia acquired the Atchison Street site as part of its continued expansion into the Australian apartment market. In comments made to City &amp; Country (The Edge Malaysia) in 2023, SP Setia President and CEO Datuk Choong Kai Wai described the acquisition as “a strategic move” aligned with the group’s post-pandemic market recovery strategy.

“Our target for this exceptional development is local and overseas buyers, including first-home buyers, downsizers and investors,” Choong said.

The tower has been designed as a slender vertical form rising from a mixed-use podium, with COX Architecture positioning the development as a response to the evolving St Leonards and Crows Nest skyline.

“The purpose of the project is to facilitate the delivery of high-quality housing at a strategically located site and deliver a built tower outcome that is consistent with the desired future character of St Leonards and aligns with the TOD controls,” the design report stated.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b1a85eee-76f7-436c-a6da-73ba827b9b13" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/atchinson%20entry.png?VersionId=dA9jHGPMcm.dDbwk4QfxqWiY5bfh3UVt" />

The podium would incorporate retail uses fronting Atchison Street, commercial tenancies, landscaped communal areas, and pedestrian improvements along Mitchell Street. Vehicle access and loading would be consolidated via Atchison Lane.

Residents would have access to more than 665 sqm of communal indoor and outdoor spaces, while the development proposes 96 parking spaces across five basement levels.

The proposal also includes a commitment for 10 per cent of residential floor space to be allocated toward affordable housing through a monetary contribution.

COX said the tower form responds directly to the emerging high-density character of the precinct while seeking to maximise solar access, cross ventilation, and outlook from apartments.

<img alt="First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2163f85c-f63b-4be3-aafa-f8763976cec5" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/Article%20Feature%20Image%20%28Grid%29_5.png?VersionId=WiAmtIKJ6.ZQ41EtYEQ1fol7AeorKBlL" />

“The building is orientated towards north,” the Apartment Design Guide compliance report noted, adding that the tower’s slim form was driven by the constrained inner-urban site dimensions.

The design also incorporates landscaped setbacks and communal open space at podium level, intended to soften the interface with surrounding streets and improve pedestrian amenity.

The project adds to a growing wave of redevelopment proposals reshaping St Leonards and Crows Nest following the opening of the Sydney Metro City line and the NSW Government’s push for higher-density housing around major transport nodes.

Last week Stockland filed plans just down the road. They want to build a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/601-pacific-highway-st-leonards-nsw-2065">52-storey tower on Pacific Highway</a>.

Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/news/nsw/first-look-stockland-plans-52-storey-538-apartment-st-leonards-tower">First look: Stockland plans 52-storey, 538-apartment St Leonards tower&nbsp;</a>

First look: SP Setia targets St Leonards skyline with 40-storey TOD tower

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/urban-property-group">Urban Property Group</a> has revealed plans for a new mixed-use tower at 10 Dangar Street, Wickham, advancing a proposal that would reshape the southern gateway to Newcastle’s city centre with one of the city’s tallest residential buildings.

The State Significant Development proposal, now on exhibition, seeks approval for a <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/bowline-10-dangar-street-wickham-nsw-2293">43-storey tower</a> immediately adjacent to the Newcastle Interchange. The project would deliver around 200 apartments, including 42 affordable housing dwellings, alongside 99 co-living units, a 171-room hotel, retail space, and new public domain integrated through the site.

The scheme marks a significant escalation of plans previously approved for the site. Urban Property Group took over the prominent 2,904 sqm parcel, where excavation and demolition had already commenced under an earlier consent for a 14-storey mixed-use development.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="58a96dd9-407f-4d20-86b4-94e4bfeef74b" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20podium.png?VersionId=LGlf08pdFGAZDzvx_CXC4XakHNZRuEE0" />

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/sjb-architects">SJB</a>, the tower has been conceived as a landmark transit-oriented development anchored to the Newcastle Interchange precinct. The proposal includes 245 build-to-sell apartments across a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom residences, as well as two penthouses. Fifteen apartments and one operational unit are earmarked for NDIS housing. The co-living component would add a further 99 units, while the podium would accommodate retail uses and hotel facilities.

SJB said the site presents “a valuable opportunity to anchor the precinct by setting the standard for design, active ground planes and character at the key southern gateway.”

The architecture responds directly to the site’s position beside major transport infrastructure and within one of Newcastle’s fastest-evolving urban renewal precincts. The tower form sits above a sculpted podium designed to frame new public spaces, including a through-site pedestrian link connecting Station Street to Hannell Street, landscaped plazas, and activated retail edges.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a7bd6ff0-f7db-4ce8-a6dc-ea56e72c6149" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20lanne.png?VersionId=xzf39VADyhj7zBQY2I9fx9vI62u2tuSb" />

The design report describes the project as part of the broader transition of Wickham into “a vibrant, high-quality mixed-use urban precinct” that leverages proximity to the station, open space, and regional connectivity.

A detailed public art strategy has also been prepared for the development. The strategy positions the project as “a transit-oriented development of state significance at the gateway to Newcastle’s city centre” and outlines a series of integrated artworks responding to Newcastle’s industrial and transport heritage.

Creative Road’s curatorial framework for the project, titled Unveil, draws on “stratified surfaces, carved volumes, and light-filled apertures” while referencing Newcastle’s transformation from an industrial city into a contemporary education and technology hub.

<img alt="First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s next supertower at Wickham interchange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="77a882bb-14b1-4d28-99ff-9438e39508c0" src="https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public/inline-images/wickham%20site.png?VersionId=cevgo_vN0eKPK78P8YcEu3mKPLkpFqE7" />

The proposal is being advanced through the NSW Housing Delivery Authority pathway after being declared State Significant Development in June 2025. The accompanying scoping report states the development aims to “maximise the site’s proximity to the Newcastle Interchange by delivering transit-oriented development” while increasing housing supply and affordable housing provision within the Newcastle LGA.

Urban Property Group’s plans align with the long-term strategic vision established under the Wickham Master Plan, which identified the interchange precinct as suitable for substantial uplift in height and density. The current proposal would significantly intensify that vision, positioning the tower among the tallest developments proposed for Newcastle.

The site sits immediately north of the Newcastle Interchange, bounded by Dangar Street, Hannell Street, and Charles Street. It is surrounded by a rapidly growing cluster of residential towers and mixed-use projects that have emerged following the completion of the light rail and transport interchange.

First look: Urban Property Group unveils Newcastle’s latest tower at Wickham interchange

Bottega House has completed settlement of a landmark riverfront site in Macquarie Street, St Lucia, representing its first major Brisbane development.&nbsp;

Positioned on the banks of the Brisbane River, the <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/180-macquarie-street-st-lucia-qld-4067">premium site at 180 Macquarie Street</a> features uninterrupted river frontage in one of Brisbane’s most tightly held residential precincts.&nbsp;

The proposed development, currently under assessment with Brisbane City Council, has been designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/plus-studio">Plus Studio</a> with interiors by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/interior-designers/mim-design">Mim Design</a> and will deliver a boutique collection of premium residences positioned specifically for owner occupiers and downsizers.&nbsp;

The residences are set to redefine luxury apartment living in the area, with a focus on architectural quality, refined finishes, landscape integration and elevated amenities including curated wellness facilities, resort-style pools and recreation spaces rarely seen in the local market.&nbsp;

Exclusive sales for the project will be led by Keenan &amp; Byrne, ahead of an anticipated launch later this year.&nbsp;

Bottega House Managing Director Nick Malloch said the project reflects the group’s ambition to deliver a highly curated residential offering within one of Brisbane’s most tightly held precincts.&nbsp;

“This is an incredibly rare riverfront opportunity and one we have approached with a long-term perspective,” Malloch said.&nbsp;

“Our vision from the outset was to create a boutique collection of residences that feel more like private homes than traditional apartments, with generous proportions, refined finishes and exceptional amenity throughout."

Malloch says there is a&nbsp;lack of premium owner-occupier stock of this quality in the market, particularly for downsizers wanting space, privacy and a true lifestyle offering without compromise.&nbsp;

"Demand is expected to be strong given the scarcity of premium riverfront opportunities of this nature within Brisbane’s inner-west."&nbsp;

Bottega House secures landmark riverfront site in St Lucia 

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The arrival of the first piling rig officially marks the commencement of construction at SIERA’s new beachside apartment development, Exhale, in Northcliffe.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/exhale-surfers-paradise-8-enderley-avenue-surfers-paradise-qld-4217">Exhale</a>, a glass-encased tower featuring 54 large-scale apartments at 8 Enderley Avenue, is SIERA’s third Gold Coast development. It follows the recently completed PIPIS Bilinga beachfront project, which achieved suburb-record prices, and the soon-to-be-completed Chevron Island development, Tapestry.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=359603]

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/siera">SIERA</a> Founder and Managing Director Brent Thompson said the arrival of the piling rig represented a significant milestone for the development, which is scheduled for completion in late 2028.

Over the next month, around 260 piles are expected to be installed as work progresses on the basement structure. The building is anticipated to rise above ground level early next year, before unveiling its sculptural glass curtain wall, developed in collaboration with specialist façade engineers.

“The façade was designed to maximise panoramic coastal views while creating a distinctive architectural identity,” Thompson said.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=355935]

Designed by BDA Architecture, Exhale will comprise just 54 two- and three-bedroom residences across 26 levels, a level of low-density living rarely delivered in this beachside pocket between Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

The project has been conceived as a resident-only building, with no short-stay accommodation permitted. SIERA says the model is intended to appeal to long-term owner-occupiers rather than transient holiday demand.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=361052]

Residences have been designed with large-format layouts and expansive glazing, with most apartments featuring more than 30 metres of glass frontage to maximise natural light and ocean views.

The amenity offering spans two levels and centres on wellness and lifestyle, including a heated magnesium pool, sauna, yoga and Pilates studio, gymnasium, private dining facilities, cinema lounge, and dedicated surfcraft storage.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=112661 project_image_fid=359607]

More than half of the apartments have already sold. SIERA has also opened a sales gallery for Exhale at its Chevron Island commercial premises, near its Tapestry tower and the site of its second Chevron Island apartment development, which is slated to launch in early 2027.
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[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=112661]

SIERA kicks off construction at Northcliffe tower Exhale

Urban Design

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<h2>OPINION:</h2>

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the limitations of historic urban design, putting the pressure on urban planners and property developers to rethink the way we build our communities. I believe new directions are required to design, develop and promote masterplanned communities, to suit the needs of people both now and into the future Masterplanned communities are wonderfully designed for self-contained living, with all the local amenities residents would need right on their doorstep. However, traditional planning has focused on connectivity, not just through sentiment, but through physical design and landscapes and there are still design changes within our communities that we need to consider for a post-COVID world.

For developers like us at AVID, the challenge now is finding a solution to an integrated philosophy of ‘connection’ while creating built environments and community spaces that allow for physical distancing. Three key areas for reimagining the urban design of communities include: streets, parklands and home designs.

<h2>1. Building wider paths and narrower roads </h2>

In the past, engineers would design streets predominately with vehicle-use in mind. Now we need to consider design that allows for the movements of people. Reports continue to show that more people are using walking and cycle pathways since COVID-19 with an increase of <a href="https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/2020/04/16/swap-our-streets-for-cycleways-to-keep-people-riding/">up to 79% in some areas</a>.

The narrow paths and wide roads of today <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/art-architecture-design/how-streets-could-become-more-liveable-and-inclusive-post-coronavirus">don’t allow enough space to allow movement of people with safe social distancing</a>. We need to adapt our built environment for more pedestrian and cyclist dominant movement over vehicular focused streets to prepare us for new waves of COVID-19 or similar future health pandemics.

It has also become clear that we need the foresight to create dedicated zones to allow safe pedestrian and cyclist traffic, which could also include a separate zone for more intense use of pathways for fitness. This would be one way that we could manage safe social distancing requirements under movement restrictions, such as the 5-kilometre radius rule.

<h2>2. Innovating park designs and recreational spaces</h2>

People have a need for fresh air and open spaces to manage their health and wellbeing, especially under the trying times of COVID-19. For people living in Melbourne, the lack of open parklands is impacting people’s mental and physical health with recent reports indicating that 340,000 people don’t have sufficient access to open space, <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-12/thousands-of-melburnians-no-parkland-within-5km-coronavirus/12547050">with only between 0 to 4.5 square kilometres of parkland within 5 kilometres of their home</a>.

While parklands are an essential feature of masterplanned community design, our recreational spaces will need to change. They are typically hubs of activity and social interaction for families and new innovative designs need to be explored that include surfaces that don’t have to be touched or cleaned every day to be enjoyed. We need to think outside the box and look to more sensory experiences as opposed to hard landscape.

At AVID we are asking ourselves, ‘what does a more sensory and immersive play area look like?’ In some of our own communities, plans are already underway to integrate these new design ideas into our communities to future proof our projects.

<h2>3. Changing home designs and living spaces</h2>

Another added benefit of masterplanned communities are close partnerships with builders who we can work with to provide building designs that meet the changing living arrangements of Australians. Changing home designs have been very much under discussion in the construction, building and design industry.

We are seeing design trends that provide a more comfortable living experience as we spend more time in our homes. For example, designs with additional light and space, larger backyards for private outdoors spaces and gardens, home office spaces or nooks and more options to keep homes hygienic and germ-free, are <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e6b9a8ff-0812-49ad-9eae-84125433ad4b">trends being seen across the industry globally</a>.

<h2>Final thoughts</h2>

As we look to innovative ways of community development, we would need to retrofit existing communities. But with proper urban planning and rigorous investigation into how we can best meet the needs of a changing world, we can strategically design these new requirements right from the beginning of new projects.

Lead image: Bloomdale community development, Victoria. Credit: AVID Property Group
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Olivia Round

3 ways urban community design needs to change post COVID-19

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We are entering an era of profound change in how we work, learn, socialise and live with COVID-19.
Many people will adjust to this new world order and work remotely at home if they don’t have to attend an office or other workplace. This, in turn, will create an opportunity to adapt unused buildings, which were needed for the previous economy, for the new ways of living and working. Buildings could be transformed or redeployed through adaptive reuse for much-needed housing.
We already have the technology and the capacity to work and live remotely from an office or institution, if we choose to.
For some people, working-from-home models have become the norm during the enforced COVID-19 isolation periods of 2020. Many of them are likely to choose alternative work patterns as an ongoing model in preference to daily <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-12/jobs-boom-in-cbds-leaves-a-long-commute/11198142" target="_blank">commuting to the traditional central office</a> in busy cities.
If we approach figures like those of earlier recessions, employment will fall even <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-todays-economic-statement-143088" target="_blank">more dramatically than it has already</a>. Reduced trade will slow the economy for many years. The burgeoning numbers of unemployed and low-income citizens will find it difficult to find affordable homes.
The people who suffer most during this period, the “new poor”, will struggle to pay for even basic housing, let alone homes that provide space for occupants to work and live at home. Public and subsidised housing will have to fill the gap.
<h2>Silver linings to the COVID cloud</h2>
Some positives are appearing from this new world order.
Some professions will find themselves comfortably working away from the traditional workplace. They will be able to manage work and family more easily.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349494/original/file-20200727-23-tkty56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349494/original/file-20200727-23-tkty56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt="Apartment block converted from former telephone exchange and post office building at 118 Russell Street, Melbourne."></a>
The building that formerly housed a telephone exchange and post office at 118 Russell Street, Melbourne, has been converted into apartments. Author provided
As well as offices becoming redundant, delivery services like Amazon, Deliveroo and Uber Eats might replace many traditional retail outlets, including shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. Many buildings housing such businesses might not reopen.
Buildings that are no longer fit for purpose, or not required in a new detached working environment, could be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Theo_Van_der_Voordt2/publication/235289905_A_new_life_Conversion_of_vacant_office_buildings_into_housing/links/00b49515082bc04d42000000/A-new-life-Conversion-of-vacant-office-buildings-into-housing.pdf" target="_blank">repurposed as housing</a>. Empty <a href="https://ggwash.org/view/61871/abandoned-office-buildings-can-become-new-housing" target="_blank">office blocks</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/a-case-for-turning-empty-malls-into-housing" target="_blank">shops and stores</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrosowsky/2020/06/22/how-does-a-pre-pandemic-building-inventory-serve-a-post-pandemic-university-whats-next-for-campus-spaces/#7a625eb61da4" target="_blank">unused teaching facilities</a> could all be recycled for social and community low-cost rental housing.
Of course we will need to retain many resources, such as distribution warehouses, places of worship, hospitals, childcare centre, kindergartens and primary schools, laboratories, workshops, manufacturing factories, prisons, bakeries, farmers markets, personal health and hygiene salons – for hair, massage, wellness and mental health. Other places such as transport hubs, sporting facilities, theatres, tourist accommodation, cafes, bars and restaurants will be maintained too.
But underused office buildings will not be needed as offices. They can become part of the new model for blended home-and-work operations.
Families who have experimented with shared responsibilities during COVID-19 lockdowns may continue this routine as a new “normal” and select <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/adaptive-reuse" target="_blank">newly adapted old buildings</a> for accommodation.
<h2>Commercial buildings can be easily converted</h2>
One advantage of reusing a commercial building is the relative openness of its plan. New living areas can be planned and fitted into the office open space, using simple lightweight partition walls.
Usually large open office spaces surround a service core. The core contains lifts, plumbing, ducts and risers, fire stairs, bathrooms and equipment.
Wet areas such as kitchens, bathrooms and laundries would be located against the core. Here they can be connected easily to the building services and systems.
Commercial buildings are usually solid constructions. They are built to last, so their recycled concrete, steel and glass suits reclamation.
These buildings are generally spacious, with a floor-to-ceiling height of about three metres (not the miserable norm of cheap apartments, which is less than 2.5 metres).
It is even possible for some old office building floors to have part of their outside walls removed and refitted inside the floor slabs, which creates open-space balconies and gardens.
The environment would benefit too
As a byproduct of repurposing old buildings, we’d benefit the environment. Re-use conserves natural resources and minimises the need for new materials. That’s because these adapted buildings are effectively <a href="https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid%3A48305aea-75d8-4285-aa5d-0056fe5305d0" target="_blank">already half built</a>.
Building construction, maintenance and use produce about a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318754386_From_leaders_to_majority_a_frontrunner_paradox_in_built-environment_climate_governance_experimentation" target="_blank">quarter of Australia’s emissions</a>. Maybe the world could largely meet its <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement" target="_blank">Paris Agreement</a> emission-reduction targets before 2030 by making better use of existing buildings as well as increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy’s market share.
COVID-19 might eventually be eliminated, but the impacts will roll on for many years. A long-term benefit of this disaster could be a focus on no longer needing to duplicate so much space to live and work in. The result would be reducing consumption of building materials as the world tightens its environmental belt.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142897/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/norman-day-228477" target="_blank">Norman Day</a>, Lecturer in Architecture, Practice and Design, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767" target="_blank">Swinburne University of Technology</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/unused-buildings-will-make-good-housing-in-the-world-of-covid-19-142897" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Unused buildings will make good housing in the world of COVID-19

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GUEST OBSERVATION
You may mock the national anthem by singing “Our land abounds in nature strips” but what you might not know is how true that is.
In Melbourne, for example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866719300718" target="_blank">more than a third of all public green space is nature strips</a>. (That figure includes roundabouts, medians and other green bits of the street.)
That’s a remarkable amount. The nature strip is everywhere. A million small patches combine into a giant park spanning the city, making it a significant player in our urban ecosystems.
A second remarkable thing is that the nature strip is <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2007/11/apo-nid60258-1105966.pdf" target="_blank">public land that private citizens are required by law to maintain</a>. Councils manage the trees, but we residents mow the lawn.
What are the rules on nature strips?
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296146/original/file-20191009-3872-1i673y4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296146/original/file-20191009-3872-1i673y4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Succulents, Agapanthus and Gazanias are the most common plantings on nature strips. Adrian Marshall CC BY 4.0, Author provided
Many residents go further and plant a street tree or some garden plants – succulents, Agapanthus and Gazanias are the most common. But the chances are that, whatever the garden on the nature strip, it’s against the rules.
The rules on nature strips vary from council to council. Some councils don’t allow any plantings. Others restrict plantings by height or allow only plants indigenous to the local area. In some areas, nature strips can only be planted to prevent erosion on steep slopes.
Some councils disallow food plants, for fear of historic lead contamination from leaded petrol. Others insist on no plants within a metre of the kerb and two metres of the footpath.
These bylaws are inconsistent and illogical. For instance, councils that insist on indigenous species nevertheless plant exotic street trees. Councils that say plants must be less than 30cm high to ensure they don’t block drivers’ sight lines still allow vehicles to park on the street, blocking sight lines.
Bylaws deny us many benefits
To have council bylaws restrict or disallow gardening in the nature strip flies in the face of common sense. Street greenery, whether it's trees, shrubs or lawn, provides many benefits. The science is in on this.
Urban wildlife uses street greenery for habitat and food and as green corridors for movement.
Even for those who mow, the lawns of nature strips are not just turf grass. They are home to over 150 species of plants, based on my yet-to-be-published survey data for nearly 50 neighbourhoods, confirming <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-009-0098-7" target="_blank">earlier studies</a>. Many of these, like the clovers, provide important resources for pollinators.
One <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/55816" target="_blank">US study</a> showed that changing from a weekly mow to every three weeks increased the number of flowers in a lawn by 250%. Less mowing is good news for bees and butterflies.
An unpublished recent survey by the author and colleagues found gardening in the nature strip adds native plants to the streetscape, increases biodiversity and add structural complexity (more layers of plants, more types of stuff), which is important for many species.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296397/original/file-20191010-188823-3m94cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296397/original/file-20191010-188823-3m94cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
The greater the diversity of plantings, the greater the benefits a nature strip can provide. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedxmelbourne/9642464172/in/photolist-hj8dyc-skaU1u-dREut-eJsU1F-ffLmZK-indYV3-cLiW2J-vB2sc-7NsaK4-4VkF3d-yGjbRF-beH7sn-6Y5uUZ-rxC4mN-6LgaCq-8uZkP8-fFMrYB-fFMzz6-959BCc-fFMqN6-9XyM3R-8uZkQZ-fG59Eh-fG55kj-MdakbU-zKkV6-9A3mjp-2hgzR2Y-2gLLfma-2gLM1dK-2gjDcaq-fG56q1-V4CxJS-2EepMw-AJYA3h-8PLEFM-2Nnv4q-3HCckP-8LfDb6-F9XHNG-fG5dib-9hzViT-d5L2G-fG57A5-7tQdTT-vh8B5S-2d9eEDd-2gtBYEp-fFMxhv-6tVDoj" target="_blank">TEDxMelbourne/Flickr</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC-ND</a>
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/1135097" target="_blank">Street greenery helps</a> water <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27094440" target="_blank">soak into the ground</a>, filtering out pollutants, recharging aquifers and making rivers healthier. It <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26828172" target="_blank">cools streets</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204614002503" target="_blank">helps counter the urban heat island effect</a>. It also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953613003742" target="_blank">promotes a sense of community</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140518303281" target="_blank">encourages walking</a> and lowers the incidence of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140518303281" target="_blank">heart disease</a>, <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2524191" target="_blank">diabetes</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-living-in-green-neighbourhoods-are-less-likely-to-develop-asthma-96190" target="_blank">asthma</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204614002941" target="_blank">depression</a>.
But councils tend to be risk-averse. They worry they will be sued if someone trips on groundcover or stubs their toe on an out-of-place garden gnome.
Fortunately, this risk aversion isn’t universal. For instance, the <a href="https://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/residents/environment/environmental-sustainability/news-events/adopt-a-verge.aspx" target="_blank">City of Vincent</a> in Western Australia is so keen for residents to convert lawn to waterwise plantings that it will remove turf and provide native plants.
But, as climate change looms, stubbed toes are not the main risk we should be worrying about. Rather, we must urgently remake our cities and our culture for sustainability and resilience.
Gardening becomes a neighbourly act
One of the great things about gardening in the nature strip is that people are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866719302535" target="_blank">more likely to do it if their neighbours do it</a>. It’s contagious, a positive-feedback loop creating a greener street.
Our recent survey found residents who garden in the nature strip have a greater <a href="http://www.communityscience.com/news-detail.php?news=114" target="_blank">sense of community</a> than those who don’t.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296997/original/file-20191015-98653-wopjbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296997/original/file-20191015-98653-wopjbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
A well-designed street garden, fully covering the nature strip, allowing pedestrian access to cars and using indigenous plants. Adrian Marshall CC BY 4.0, Author provided
Interestingly, the benefits nature strips provide are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866719302535" target="_blank">not equally distributed across the city</a>. For instance, newer neighbourhoods have more nature strip than older neighbourhoods (though their trees are younger). People garden the nature strip more on minor roads than major roads, and in more socially advantaged neighbourhoods.
Almost a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1618866719302535" target="_blank">quarter of residential properties</a> in Melbourne have some sort of nature strip gardening. If councils were to encourage this activity we might achieve more street greening with little cost to our cash-strapped councils. Such encouragement would also free many residents of their sense of frustration at being required to maintain the nature strip but forbidden to do anything more than mow.
Given that more than a third of our public green space is nature strip, the many small actions of residents can add up to substantial positive change.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124781/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
Adrian Marshall, Lecturer, Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, University of Melbourne.
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-land-abounds-in-nature-strips-surely-we-can-do-more-than-mow-a-third-of-urban-green-space-124781" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Our land abounds in nature strips – surely we can do more than mow a third of urban green space

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Humans have a long history of living on water. Our water homes span the fishing villages in Southeast Asia, Peru and Bolivia to modern floating homes in Vancouver and Amsterdam. As our cities grapple with overcrowding and undesirable living situations, the ocean remains a potential frontier for sophisticated water-based communities.
The United Nations has expressed support for <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/dsgsm1269.doc.htm" target="_blank">further research into floating cities</a> in response to rising sea levels and to house climate refugees. A speculative proposal, Oceanix City, was unveiled in April at the first <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/dsgsm1269.doc.htm" target="_blank">Round Table on Sustainable Floating Cities</a> at UN headquarters in New York.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276269/original/file-20190524-187176-ooh8cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Life on a floating city, Oceanix. <a class="source" href="https://oceanix.org/media/" target="_blank">OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group</a>
The former tourism minister of French Polynesia, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marccollinschen/" target="_blank">Marc Collins Chen</a>, and architecture studio <a href="https://big.dk/#about" target="_blank">BIG</a> advanced the proposal. Chen is involved with the <a href="https://www.seasteading.org/" target="_blank">Seasteading Institute</a>, which is seeking to develop autonomous city-states floating in the shallow waters of “<a href="https://www.seasteading.org/about/vision-strategy/" target="_blank">host nations</a>”.
While this latest proposal has gained UN attention, it is an old idea we have repeatedly returned to over the past 70 years with little success. In fact, the Oceanix City proposal has not reached the same level of technical sophistication as previous models.
A brief history of floating cities
The architecture community was fascinated with <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602360500285641" target="_blank">marine utopias between the 1950s and ’70s</a>. The technological optimism of this period led architects to consider whether we could build settlements in inhospitable places like the polar regions, the deserts and on the sea.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276277/original/file-20190524-187176-jxhgel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Plan for Tokyo Bay by Kenzo Tange, 1960. <a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism_(architecture)#/media/File:Tokyo_Bay_Plan_by_Tange_1960.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia</a>
<a href="https://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/metabolism/about/index" target="_blank">The Japanese Metabolists</a> put forward incredible projects such as Kenzo Tange’s 1960 Tokyo Bay Plan and the marine city proposals of Kikutake and Kurokawa.
In the West, <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/253750/happy-birthday-buckminster-fuller-1895-1983" target="_blank">Buckminster Fuller</a> proposed Triton City, which would be connected to the mainland via bridges. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/nov/18/archigram-60s-architects-vision-urban-living-the-book" target="_blank">Archigram, a neofuturistic architectural group</a>, proposed underwater sea farms.
These proposals were directed at solving the impending urban crises of overpopulation and pressures on land-based resources. Many were even <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602360500285641" target="_blank">sophisticated enough to be patented</a>.
The arc of this global architectural discussion was captured during the first UN Habitat conference (“Habitat I”) in Vancouver in 1976. In many ways, the UN has returned to the <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43620457?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank">Vancouver Declaration from Habitat I</a> to “[adopt] bold, meaningful and effective human settlement policies and spatial planning strategies” and to treat “human settlements as an instrument and object of development”.
We are seeing a pivoting that began in 2008 with Vincent Callebaut’s “<a href="http://vincent.callebaut.org/object/080523_lilypad/lilypad/projects/user" target="_blank">Lilypad</a>” - a “floating ecopolis for ecological refugees”.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rJmB-dtt_qI?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" width="440" height="260"></iframe>
Where floating cities were once dismissed as too far-fetched, the concept has been repackaged and is re-emerging into public consciousness. This time in a more politically viable state - as a means of addressing the climate emergency.
The technology and types of floating city structures
No floating settlements have ever been created on the high seas. Current offshore engineering is concerned with how cities can locate infrastructure, such as airports, nuclear power stations, bridges, oil storage facilities and stadiums, in shallow coastal environments rather than in deep international waters.
Two main types of very large floating structures (VLFS) technology can be used to carry the weight of a floating settlement.
The first, pontoon structures, are flat slabs suitable for floating in sheltered waters close to shore.
The second, semi-submersible structures (such as oil rigs), comprise platforms that are elevated on columns off the water surface. These can be located in deep waters. Potentially, <a href="http://wcfs2019.floatingsolutions.org/2018/11/07/repurposing-jack-ups-semi-submersibles-and-super-barges-into-offshore-and-nearshore-settlements/" target="_blank">oil rigs could be repurposed for such floating cities in international waters</a>.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273724/original/file-20190510-183103-13tbuou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Transforming oil rigs into liveable structures. Ku Yee Kee and Hor Sue-Wern’s entry in the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. <a class="source" href="http://www.evolo.us/transforming-abandoned-oil-rigs-into-habitable-structures/" target="_blank">Ku Yee Kee &amp; Hor Sue-Wern/ eVolo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY</a>
Oceanix City is based on the pontoon structure. This would restrict it to shallower waters with breakwaters to limit the impacts of waves. This sort of structure could serve as an extension of a coastal city, as a life raft for island communities inundated by rising waters, or to <a href="http://wcfs2019.floatingsolutions.org/2018/11/12/design-guidelines-for-upgrading-living-conditions-in-wetslums/" target="_blank">provide mobile essential services to residents of flood-prone slums</a>.
Sovereign floating cities and micronations
While some early marine utopian proposals were responses to emerging urban issues, many proposals conceptualised <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13602360500285641" target="_blank">“seaborne leisure colonies”</a>. These communities would be independent city-states allowing inhabitants to circumvent tax laws or restrictions on medical research in their own countries.
This sort of floating city was conceived of as a micronation with sovereignty and ability to provide citizenship to its occupants. The example was set by the <a href="https://www.sealandgov.org/" target="_blank">Principality of Sealand</a>, off the coast of Britain.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276282/original/file-20190524-187157-1cx6cb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
The Principality of Sealand is a micronation situated on Roughs Tower, a platform off the coast of Britain. <a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/octal/487066477/in/photolist-K3kTT-K3cX8-K31B9-fEWY5s-dmuTKL-9BwfaP-8X9owh-6xepMg-4xuCns-mxvpNS-T2YyAS-KhLYkp-TPVe7P-4dQzQe-9ydsV8-dU6HSQ-59RH1W-4xqrdM-4xuCQC-6TTFv1-juStE-py5QQM-o8tHuy-4xqqMM-4xuBG1-6TTCp9-9YAPn7-6SQ1iy-g5hj1h-TGjue4-hNEcW1-7wbpKR-7wbS5V-252v7aW-e5apAk-o66jYb-5VPqK2-28gwVUz-WadBt6-xoQ3G-fUP67E-2eiBc2R-6ZEjEb-oZ81Ys-oQ9bBu-7RL9xE-bn7XhF-5GpwHF-mxvv2N-5Gpxea" target="_blank">Ryan Lackey/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY</a>
None of these proposals have succeeded. Even modern attempts such as the Freedom Ship and the Seasteading Institute’s plans for an autonomous floating settlement under French Polynesian jurisdiction have stalled. A recent attempt at creating a sovereign micronation (seastead) off Thailand led to its proponents becoming fugitives, <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-18/bitcoin-couple-face-death-penalty-in-thailand-for-seastead/11031336" target="_blank">potentially facing the death penalty</a>.
A viable project?
Technology is not a barrier to floating cities in international waters. Advances in technology enable us to create structures for habitation in deep sea waters. These schemes have never really taken off because of political and commercial barriers.
While this time round proponents are packaging floating cities in a more politically viable concept as a life raft for climate refugees, commercial barriers remain. Apart from the UN, few organisation have the economic and political influence or reason to deliver a satellite floating city in the ocean.
In my view, the future of ocean cities is in technology campuses and in tourism. Given the significant risk of a community in extreme isolation in international waters, the solution to bringing people together in mid-ocean requires us to think about what connects us: technology, work and play. In these three elements we see, perhaps, the two lowest-hanging fruits (or the most buoyant of possibilities) for ocean cities.
The first is in floating tech campuses where large technology companies set up floating data centres and campuses in international waters. Situated outside national jurisdictions, these campuses could circumvent increasingly onerous privacy regimes or offer innovative technological services without having to negotiate regulatory barriers.
The second prospect is a return to the seaborne leisure colonies of the past. Companies like Disney could expand on their cruise offerings to build floating theme parks. These resorts could be sited in international waters or hosted by coastal cities.
Given our fascination with living on water, even if Oceanix City does not suceed, it won’t be long before we see another floating city proposal. And if we get the mix of social, political and commercial drivers right, we might just find ourselves living on one.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116511/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276291/original/file-20190524-187143-9fjuu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
The Disney Cruise Line could potentially develop seaborne leisure colonies in future. <a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dieguico/6711417377/in/photolist-be4LyH-GF3ZEQ-fgkwZ9-bDyhSP-eb3ppx-dJC5yy-dvknz-UnsmHH-bCighc-J167Cv-4YcMpZ-eLQt3N-6mNWvF-4JNMYm-4x1Ykd-fg67VX-4YcMkZ-fHxtck-pyXdDW-5fXWZk-cbqhLw-223Sqgb-dVUAxZ-badfuK-4MUNA6-24pEDpa-yomb3-7mmExM-bfWuU2-5XZhQw-fNSsK6-2dCgPj8-24pE8Rx-a8wRQk-jhpovE-5ZhepL-24pE87r-24pECq6-24pE8D8-RfJ9ik-agoZ6A-86eVfe-4YKXgB-2a4aKE3-dayZLx-4YcMGx-agoBFu-fqtGUb-agp9sw-o2At4d" target="_blank">Diego Villuendas Pellicero/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC</a>
Brydon T. Wang, Research Assistant and PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/floating-cities-the-future-or-a-washed-up-idea-116511" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Main photo: Oceanix, a proposed floating city, has captured the attention of the UN. <a href="https://oceanix.org/media/" target="_blank">OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/brydon-t-wang-441848" target="_blank"> </a>
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Floating cities: the future or a washed-up idea?

Laurence Dragomir

CAR WARS: To maintain its liveability Melbourne needs to change its attitude towards car use

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GUEST OBSERVATION
<a href="http://cur.org.au/project/national-liveability-report/" target="_blank">Recent studies</a> show <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2018/04/26/revealed-australias-fastest-growing-suburbs" target="_blank">Melbourne’s and Sydney’s fast-growing outer suburbs</a> <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/why-5-million-australians-can-t-get-to-work-home-or-school-on-time-20190215-p50y1x" target="_blank">lag behind other parts of the city</a> in <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/homes-in-new-suburbs-four-years-away-but-services-to-take-much-longer-20190215-p50y46" target="_blank">access to urban design, employment and amenities and services</a> that foster liveability. The National Growth Areas Alliance of local councils launched a national campaign, “<a href="https://ngaa.org.au/catch-up-with-the-outer-suburbs-campaign-launch" target="_blank">Catch up with the outer suburbs</a>”, on Monday. But what is it really like to live in these areas?
<a href="http://cur.org.au/project/living-liveable-the-lived-experiences-of-life-on-the-urban-fringe/" target="_blank">Living Liveable</a> is a short documentary film produced by RMIT University researchers showcasing the lived experiences of residents in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. The film includes interviews with 11 residents that highlight their perceptions and experiences of liveability in their suburbs. This article explores their reasons for living where they do and recounts their experiences of life in the outer suburbs.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/315541276" frameborder="0" width="500" height="281"></iframe>
Living Liveable, a documentary produced by RMIT researchers.
Why all the fuss about liveability?
Liveability and its underlying indicators have been the subject of substantial research. Most well-known liveability indices produced by the private sector — such as the <a href="https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/quality-of-living-rankings" target="_blank">Mercer Quality of Living Ranking</a> and the <a href="http://www.eiu.com/topic/liveability" target="_blank">Economist Intelligent Unit’s Liveability Index</a> — rank cities against each other. And most Australian capital cities are ranked relatively high in such global liveability indices.
These measures overlook inequities within cities between established inner areas and newer outer suburban areas. Many of these urban fringe suburbs are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549175.2017.1363077" target="_blank">experiencing rapid population growth</a>. <a href="http://cur.org.au/project/national-liveability-report/" target="_blank">RMIT researchers</a> have developed spatial liveability indicators, showing that residents in outer suburbs <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/why-5-million-australians-can-t-get-to-work-home-or-school-on-time-20190215-p50y1x">lack access to basic amenities</a> that inner-city residents take for granted.
Yet residents’ perceptions of their neighbourhoods and their lived experiences are often unheard in such measures. The interviews show that a combination of factors shapes decisions to live in an outer suburb. These include perceived affordability, people’s aspirations for a good life, and access to public transport. As one resident said:
"I was looking for an affordable area where I can, you know, buy a decent-size house within a decent budget and all those things. So, this area probably suits me, which is nearest for public transport, but yeah, it’s a bit far from the CBD area, which is alright." – male resident of Wyndham
Access to green spaces and a sense of community were among the things residents loved most about living in their suburb:
"We live opposite a beautiful park … it’s right at our doorstep. We feel very, very lucky to live opposite this beautiful park, it’s very well maintained by the local council and it’s highly utilised. So even just out there walking, I’ve got to know people in my neighbourhood." – female resident of Wyndham
Traffic makes life worse
However, traffic volumes and poor access to daily living destinations and public transport had negative impacts on residents’ lived experiences. While current liveability indices usually consider access to daily living destinations – such as food outlets, schools, hospitals, and public transport – traffic is often overlooked. Yet, 10 out of 11 people mentioned traffic, in 30 separate instances, as something that makes their neighbourhoods less liveable.
A painter living in the City of Casey described how increasing traffic in recent years was forcing him to wake up half an hour earlier and get back home half an hour later in the afternoon:
"I’m a painter, so I work anywhere from here to the city. The Monash [freeway] … I call it my driveway. So I’m on that every day, and it just depends which exit I’m taking for the day.
"So, I get up at the moment at 4.50am. I get up to beat the traffic, which starts at about 5.20, and then I get to the job, and then I might have a bit of a snooze in my car or eat breakfast. And that’s just all just to beat traffic. And I can stay there for an hour before I have to, you know, knock on the client’s door, and say, “Oh I’m here to start.”
"And, yeah, then at the end of the working day, which is 4pm, after I’ve done my eight hours, I just have to grind with the traffic on the way home… I might get home at about 6.10pm." - resident of the City of Casey
For some, the traffic has affected their mental health and increased stress levels.
"We’ve lived in this house for 16 years and just the buildup of traffic … I was used to getting from A to B very quickly. I now have to plan, embed in my day, more time to get from A to B. I think that’s the biggest negative.
"And it’s certainly one that impacts my husband. He doesn’t work locally. He works in the eastern suburbs and he also has to travel around a lot for his work. And that’s becoming a bit of a nightmare for him and actually creating a bit of stress." – female resident of Wyndham
Lack of access to daily living destinations, including employment and supermarkets, means residents depend on their cars. This adds to their cost of living and reduces neighbourhood liveability.
Lack of public transport or infrequent services also has negative impacts on residents’ quality of life and well-being.
"I take my hubby to work in Derrimut and so that normally takes me … about two hours easy; just over two hours. … he doesn’t drive. He can’t use the train simply because the train doesn’t go anywhere near where he works. There’s nothing. No public transport to take my husband to work.
"S0 … we’ve got no choice. So, if something happens to me, uh, we’re in a load of trouble. That’s where it’s difficult. We need more public transport. We really do." – female resident of Wyndham
Planners need to hear what residents say
The film highlights the gaps in current measures of liveability. For example, future liveability indices should consider including traffic and car-dependency indicators. Increasing traffic, the time spent travelling, and the financial burden of car dependency can detract from some of the key reasons residents choose to live in Melbourne’s outer suburbs – namely, affordability and sense of community.
We need to engage with communities and hear from them about their lived experience to better understand and measure their quality of life, their health and their neighbourhoods’ liveability. Objective measures of the quality of access should be accompanied by insights from residents about their lives in the suburbs. The voice of residents needs to be included in the planning of our cities as they grow, as well as the metrics of how successful we are in delivering equitable cities that foster healthy, affordable and prosperous lives for all.
Leila Mahmoudi Farahani, Research Fellow in Urban Studies, RMIT University
Billie Giles-Corti, Director, Urban Futures Enabling Capability Platform and Director, Healthy Liveable Cities Group, RMIT University
Cecily Maller, Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Melanie Lowe, Lecturer in Public Health, Australian Catholic University
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/living-liveable-this-is-what-residents-have-to-say-about-life-on-the-urban-fringe-111339" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Living ‘liveable’: this is what residents have to say about life on the urban fringe

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Transport, mobility and congestion continue to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-new-pm-wants-to-bust-congestion-here-are-four-ways-he-could-do-that-102249" target="_blank">hotly debated topics</a> in politics, the media, academia and soon at the <a href="http://www.urbanmotion.com.au" target="_blank">Urban Motion</a> conference in Brisbane. And rightly so.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/9309.0" target="_blank">19.2 million registered motor vehicles</a> in Australia as at January 31 2018. While the human population grew by 27% since the turn of the century, vehicle numbers <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/if-car-ownership-keeps-growing-australians-will-be-outnumbered/news-story/92f65fe440421d9ede7155e895db723c" target="_blank">increased by 43%</a> and continue to grow in all states and territories.
The Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities recently released a comprehensive report, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/ITC/DevelopmentofCities/Report" target="_blank">Building Up &amp; Moving Out</a>, on its inquiry into the Australian government’s role in the development of cities. The committee recommends:
"… the Australian Government, in conjunction with State and Territory Governments, undertake the development of transport networks which allow for fast transit between cities and regions, and within cities and regions, with a view to developing a more sustainable pattern of settlement based on the principle of accessibility at a local, regional and national level. The Committee further recommends that the development of a fast rail or high speed rail network connecting the principal urban centres along the east coast of Australia be given priority, with a view to opening up the surrounding regions to urban development."
The committee further recommends the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-30-minute-city-how-do-we-put-the-political-rhetoric-into-practice-56136" target="_blank">30-minute city</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cycling-and-walking-are-short-changed-when-it-comes-to-transport-funding-in-australia-92574" target="_blank">active transport</a> and a more sustainable urban form (Recommendation 11).
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ciJEHGMtpWc?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" width="440" height="260"></iframe>
Global Mobility Index by the World Economic Forum and MIT Senseable City Lab, showing how people move in 100 cities around the world. Congestion levels calculated using real-time traffic-monitoring data, commuting time and the estimated percentage of trips that could be shared if citizens were willing to wait five minutes to share a trip.
Leading up to the report’s launch, many of the inquiry’s submissions and expert witness accounts stressed the need to arrest urban sprawl and heed well-established research advice. All levels of government often ignore this advice to appease voters, but more roads and more lanes make matters worse.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transport-lies-opinion-piece-graham-currie-ftse/" target="_blank">Transport research</a> provides clear evidence that increasing road capacity is a shortsighted band-aid that increases car travel. It also promotes driving dependency and ultimately makes congestion worse.
Many of the report’s transport-related aspirations point in the right direction. Yet many of them are not new and come with their own set of challenges.
Proposals to solve Australia’s mobility crisis appear to be dominated by technocentric optimism – a strong belief that new technology and disruptive innovation will somehow make it all better. Contenders for the transport panacea include car-sharing and ride-sharing platforms, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trackless-trams-are-ready-to-replace-light-rail-103690" target="_blank">trackless trams</a> and more efficient traffic flow systems enabled by smart city investments in IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, big data analytics and urban science. Let’s debunk some of this.
More disruption?
The notion of disruptive innovation is often believed to bring about change for the better. One of the most commonly mentioned examples is Uber and similar commercial ride-sharing platforms. They certainly disrupted the established taxi industry. But cabs are no longer their main competitor.
Uber launched the “<a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/will-melburnians-dive-into-real-ride-sharing-with-uberpool-20180607-p4zk08" target="_blank">Pool</a>” feature, which optimises routes so more than one rider can share the same car. As a result, the cost per ride now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/13/uber-lyft-cars-public-transport-cities-commuting" target="_blank">competes with public transport</a> rather than just cabs. And this risks making inner-city traffic <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/07/25/a-new-study-says-services-like-uberpool-are-making-traffic-worse/" target="_blank">worse</a>.
More driverless cars?
Another often-cited disruptive innovation involves autonomous vehicles and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-race-for-driverless-cars-63874" target="_blank">driverless cars</a>. While they may come with <a href="https://theconversation.com/driverless-cars-could-create-new-jobs-in-a-welcome-boost-to-australias-motor-industry-89972" target="_blank">economic</a> and <a href="https://www.theiet.org/resources/books/transport/lowcarbmob.cfm" target="_blank">environmental</a> benefits, there are as yet <a href="https://theconversation.com/driverless-vehicles-could-bring-out-the-best-or-worst-in-our-cities-by-transforming-land-use-84127" target="_blank">unresolved issues</a>.
For example, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-cats-and-cliffs-the-ethical-dilemmas-of-the-driverless-car-49778" target="_blank">ethics in AI can cost people’s lives</a>, road usage funding and taxation are unclear, and the average car occupancy can drop below one. As a result, without regulatory intervention, self-driving cars will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/technology/driverless-cars-congestion" target="_blank">not reduce congestion</a> but <a href="https://www.ptua.org.au/myths/robotcar/" target="_blank">add traffic</a> to the roads.
More efficiency?
Transport offers vast room for improvement, so it is not surprising that optimisation is a low-hanging fruit. The <a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/growth-within-a-circular-economy-vision-for-a-competitive-europe" target="_blank">Ellen MacArthur Foundation</a> identified significant structural waste not only in fuel tank-to-wheel energy flow but also in road utilisation.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242864/original/file-20181030-76413-arqq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242864/original/file-20181030-76413-arqq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
<a class="source" href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/growth-within-a-circular-economy-vision-for-a-competitive-europe" target="_blank">Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Growth Within: a circular economy vision for a competitive Europe</a>, Author provided
Researchers at MIT and ETHZ propose a <a href="https://dusp.mit.edu/transportation/news/death-traffic-light" target="_blank">slot-based intersection</a> that would double the usual capacity and herald the “death of the traffic light”.
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MIT Senseable City Lab has developed slot-based intersections that could replace traditional traffic lights, greatly reducing queues and delays. Sensor-laden vehicles pass through intersections by communicating and remaining at a safe distance from each other, rather than grinding to a halt at the lights.
These efficiency gains are welcome. Yet, considering the ever-increasing demand for mobility, these measures on their own will not solve our mobility crisis.
Wanted: leadership!
What is seldom questioned is the need to travel in the first place. The right to mobility and freedom to move locally and globally are undoubted. But it is worth asking what regulatory instruments and economic shifts can produce sustainable mobility.
Some examples that have started making their way into the mobility debate include the impact of <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/96279/" target="_blank">nomadic work</a> practices on transport demand and distributed <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/116358/" target="_blank">co-working spaces</a> to reduce the need for CBD commutes.
Progressive policy interventions, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/traffic-congestion-is-there-a-miracle-cure-hint-its-not-roads-42753" target="_blank">road congestion charges</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/german-cities-to-trial-free-public-transport-to-cut-pollution" target="_blank">free public transport</a>, lack the backing of political leadership in Australia.
Longer term, there is an urgent need to seriously consider even bolder policy innovation. We can learn from overseas examples, such as the six-hour work day, the four-day work week and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-create-cities-for-slowing-down-75689" target="_blank">slow city</a> movement, which is more about slowing down the “hamster wheel” of life than traffic. We should also evaluate <a href="https://greenagenda.org.au/2018/06/ecological-human-settlement-theory/" target="_blank">new approaches to human settlement</a> as well as what impact <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-support-universal-health-care-so-why-not-a-universal-basic-income-91572" target="_blank">universal basic income</a> or <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/igp/news/2017/oct/igps-social-prosperity-network-publishes-uks-first-report-universal-basic-services" target="_blank">universal basic services</a> can have on reducing traffic congestion.
There are opportunities to join this debate at the <a href="http://www.urbanmotion.com.au" target="_blank">Urban Motion</a> conference in Brisbane on November 19-20 2018. We also invite participants to support the <a href="http://lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au/FutureCities" target="_blank">Future Cities CRC</a> bid recently <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/karenandrews/media-releases/applicants-shortlisted-deliver-new-industry-focused-research" target="_blank">shortlisted</a> by the Australian government.
<hr>
Marcus Foth, Professor of Urban Informatics, Queensland University of Technology.
This article is based on the presentation “Smart Cities are Slow Cities” at the <a href="http://www.real-world-futures.qut.edu.au/future-living/" target="_blank">QUT Real World Conversation</a> forum on August 2 2018.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105959/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/smart-mobility-alone-is-no-substitute-for-strong-policy-leadership-105959" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Most transport resources are being used inefficiently. The Canberra Transport Photo shows the road space required to move 69 people using public transport, bicycles and private motor vehicles. <a href="https://www.cyclingpromotion.org/canberra-transport-photo" target="_blank">Cycling Promotion Fund</a>, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY</a>
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Smart mobility alone is no substitute for strong policy leadership: Marcus Foth

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GUEST OBSERVATION
On my way to work, I walk across the intersection of Knuckey and Wood streets. Most days a homeless man on his haunches is mouthing bureaucratic platitudes:
"Let’s workshop this? We need to have meeting about this! Can you give me the heads-up on this? Do we have numbers on this? Has a C/B been done?"
Is he an old bureaucrat? Or is he just a parable of planning – platitudes, words and little action? Wishes, words and workshops are not the currency of urban design; skilled drawings, urban history, science and continuous public dialogue are.
The concern in most Australian cities, and particularly in Darwin, should be with the public form of the city – with building frontage, with the streets, squares and parks, and with what is needed to make them safe, cool and enjoyable. Such street-form-based planning should replace “tidy town” zoning planning and code-based roads that ignore heat, landscape and the public.
July 2018 in Darwin was 2℃ hotter than any previous July and the record heat has continued in recent months. Surveys show that people are leaving Darwin because of the heat.
What has gone wrong?
In the city centre, every second shop is closed and dark. Shops, offices and apartments have a 50% vacancy rate. There is no appreciation of the urban history of the decline: the growth of outer urban shopping malls, the closing of Woolworths in Knuckey Street in 2010; the changing in 2012 of the key Smith Street Mall – removing trees, installing canopies and dark pavement, and thus increasing temperatures.
The decline has not happened overnight but has been accelerated by the completion of a vast LNG project, by new shopping malls and chain stores, and by the impact of internet shopping. The Waterfront (mixed uses with a crocodile-safe “plage”) finished in 2013 is subsidised at a cost of millions every year. It is cut off from the city centre.
Traffic is reducing while more roads are being built. Darwin is over-roaded with roundabouts, pedestrian “seagull” median islands and refuges.
I have calculated that over 35% of the city centre is unshaded blacktop bitumen, which lifts ambient and surface temperatures. There is only 14% green canopy compared to nearly 50% in tree-loving Singapore.
Every day the temperature rises above 30℃. The city centre can be up to 6℃ hotter. The bitumen surfaces reach temperatures of 66℃!
What can be done about this?
Professor Mat Santamouris of UNSW and the Northern Territory government has been studying heat in central Darwin for the past year using drones and 15 weather stations on light poles. Ambient heat, surface heat, humidity and wind have been mapped, eight heat islands (6℃ above ambient) and four heat sinks (cool areas below ambient) have been identified for the northerly (The Wet) and southerly (The Dry) weather regimes.
A predictive computer model has been built to evaluate proposed strategies to reduce heat impacts. Santamouris has recommended across the city centre:
<ul>
<li>fountains and pools (very effective up to 50m away)</li>
<li>white roofs, and green roofs and walls</li>
<li>coating streets, footpaths and surface parking to make “cool pavement” (very effective)</li>
<li>increases in green canopy shade (effective in the right location).</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241190/original/file-20181018-41147-1gxwlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
An extensive cooling vine-covered shade structure is being erected in Cavanagh Street. Glenn Campbell, Author provided
The government is using one block of Cavenagh Street as a heat mitigation trial. The 30m-wide street is the hottest street in the city centre. Due to lack of shading, surface temperatures in the afternoon exceed 60℃. The street also acts as a breezeway, “ducting” to the inner blocks hot, dry winds in the dry season and hot, humid winds in the wet season.
Black bitumen surface will be treated with more reflective cool pavement coatings and more trees will be planted. At the southern end a long cooling vine shade structure I have designed (with the structural engineer Max Irvine) is being constructed. Equivalent to 24 trees, it completely spans the roadway with a huge curved stringybark lattice prefabricated by the Gumatj in northeast Arnhem Land.
This large living shade structure has advantages over trees. It can be built in four months, does not interrupt underground services and resists cyclones. The vines will cover the roadway in 18 months. Trees take five years.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240716/original/file-20181016-165891-c4eubi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
The vine shade structure will be equivalent to 24 trees but will shelter the street in months rather than taking years to grow. Author provided
But Cavenagh Street is only one of 30 blocks in Darwin. If the proposed mitigation strategies were fully implemented across the city centre, ambient temperature could be reduced by 2.7℃. This would not only make the city more comfortable for commerce but save lives and energy.
Principles for a cool Darwin
Like most cities, there is no overall urban management and coordination at the street level. Darwin’s centre is formed by the NT Planning Scheme. But within the scheme, public servants can play by their own rules: Planning, Transport, Roads, the Waterfront Authority, the City of Darwin (the council) and PowerWater. The result: Darwin streets are series of accidents.
I propose these administrations be replaced in the city centre by a Cool Darwin Authority (small with highly qualified people, and with a Larrakia elder), to develop and implement, with genuine public dialogue and discourse (not so-called “consultation”), an urban design plan.
The first principle of this plan should be reducing the ambient temperature by 2.7℃. Heat stops walkability and wandering past shops.
This could be accompanied by a second principle – a “toolbox” for cool street design. This would including limiting bitumen area.
A “toolbox” for shop regeneration would be among other important principles. This would involve limits on chain stores, disincentives for landlord keeping shops empty, incentives for filling them (even with temporary uses) and support for historic businesses. Shop closure is contagious. Where shops are empty and streets deserted yoEmpty shops and deserted areas lead to graffiti, sleeping rough and dilapidation.
Streets are central to urban cooling. There is over 300,000m2 of black unshaded bitumen. Shading and street canopies (that do not trap heat) should be ubiquitous.
The urban order and scale from the 1869 Goyder Plan have been lost, as has the central square that would give an urban focus. Cities with closely spaced intersections seem to thrive more than cities with bigger grids. It seems the more corners the better; people bump into each other more often. There is “propinquity”.
Darwin has worked hard over many years closing its arcades and cross streets (Peel, McLachlan and Lindsay). The centre needs more effective interconnection: the high town (the mall/State Square) and low town (Waterfront) with a grand flight of stairs; the mall/State Square to Old Hospital Site/Myilly Point with a cooling lineal park, via a new (old) central square.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240722/original/file-20181016-165903-1tdjxil.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
A view of proposed waterfront stairs providing a shaded link between the high town and the low town. Author provided
Streets are the music of the city. The buildings are the lyrics. Both should come together as a musical or an opera. The music can only begin if there is a network of shade, greenery, easy walking and buildings of all types interacting with the street.
Requiem or renewal? Darwin sees itself as a laid-back larrikin city with crocs and barra. Renewal and a new character can emerge by the implementation of principles. We cannot wish for a new character.
What might emerge? Perhaps a cool-in-both-senses city: a cosmopolitan tropical capital with tree canopy, vine shade structures and fountains. Perhaps a cool international waterfront city – an eight-hour voyage by fast ferry from Indonesia. Perhaps the full urban recognition of the Larrakia, the saltwater people, and their places: beaches, fish traps, middens, yarning circles, meeting places and cultural centres.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102839/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
Lawrence Nield, Professor of Practice, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/requiem-or-renewal-this-is-how-a-tropical-city-like-darwin-can-regain-its-cool-102839" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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How a tropical city like Darwin can regain its cool

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GUEST OBSERVATION
The poorer you are, the harder it is to participate in and contribute to society. My experience as a practising urban designer and my research in the area have led me to conclude that the way people’s surroundings are designed reflects and amplifies this profound injustice.
Busy and fast roads, for instance, encourage driving while at the same time deterring walking and other forms of street life, isolating people from their neighbours.
Physical activity, interacting with others, setting and meeting challenges, and experiencing nature are all essential to our well-being. But humans aren’t good at prioritising our needs. We often make decisions that deny us these and other essential experiences.
This is particularly the case in poorer communities where shared and public spaces – the settings for many of these essential activities – tend to be poorly maintained, mundane and utilitarian.
Indifference without invitation
In such generic or inappropriately designed places, indifference or avoidance becomes more likely. Faced with the lukewarm appeal of these places, and sometimes active deterrence, people are more likely to be seduced by “easier”, but not needs-fulfilling, ways to spend their time. They may choose to drive rather than walk, or play on screens rather than in the open with others.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234381/original/file-20180831-195307-zh6xqv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Places like this offer little invitation to walk, play or exercise. Jenny Donovan, Author provided
If these people are to escape the call of the TV and computer, the “heavy lifting” will need to come from personal motivation to fill the gap left by the paucity of invitation from their surroundings.
In such places, if someone does choose to walk, cycle or play or participate in any of the activities that support health and well-being, they are doing so because they are determined to, rather than because their surroundings offer the pulling power to motivate them.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234382/original/file-20180831-195325-hw994i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Making the same street friendlier makes meeting needs easier and, for some people, possible. Jenny Donovan, Author provided
Many people do somehow overcome even the most difficult circumstances and thrive. But many others find this prohibitively difficult or are unaware of the need to make different choices. Their surroundings lead them to inadequate physical activity, isolate them from others, limit potential to find like-minded people around which community can coalesce, offer little enjoyment of nature and few opportunities to set and meet self-determined challenges.
We can see the effects of these issues through increased rates of obesity, loneliness and many diseases that diminish people’s quality of life.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234376/original/file-20180831-195328-11vjsbb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
A conducive environment helps people meet their needs, thrive and fulfil their potential. Jenny Donovan, Author provided
Repeated over a neighbourhood or a city and concentrated in poorer areas, this can create arbitrary barriers that make winners and losers of their inhabitants. Extended over many years, these effects create huge social and health costs and can lock people into disadvantage.
These places deny people the inspiration of the crowd. If you rarely see someone else play on the street, run or cycle, you are less likely to consider it among the choices open to you.
Beyond the suburb
Disadvantaged communities lack the ability to influence the design process, make positive change happen themselves or protect what they value. Research has found people in communities with low socioeconomic status get left out of the decision-making process. When they do receive attention it is not as wholehearted or appropriately applied as it would be for wealthier communities.
We wear our surroundings like a cloak. Poor physical and social conditions often reflect poorly on their inhabitants, contributing to lower expectations of those people. This soft prejudice even means they are less likely to be considered for jobs that don’t match perceptions of what people from that postcode are like.
People with less buying power end up in less supportive environments, priced out of more nurturing places. Poorer people are getting pushed out of former working-class inner-city neighbourhoods that attract people and investment. This leaves less attractive places as the realm of concentrated poverty.
So, what can we do about it?
The obvious answer is to invest in design and the design process. But this is only part of the solution.
We need to reassess what good urban design is. Good design will need to be inexpensive to avoid lumbering communities with debt and ensure it can be spread widely. It needs to be tailored to provide the right invitations to those who most need it. It gives greater weight to designing for the social landscape of the community, and less to the aesthetic values of the designer and client.
Good design enables those who are being designed-for to participate in the design and creation of their surroundings wherever possible. This allows them the experience of developing and realising change, taking responsibility and exercising self-determination.
This takes time. The emotional capital this process demands of the designer and the community are immensely powerful but volatile resources. The designs that arise may not immediately be recognised by many designers as good design.
But if our present approach leaves people isolated and uninspired to do the things they need to do to thrive, we must reassess what good design really is and see it not as a luxury but as a right.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98561/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
Jenny Donovan, Urban Designer and Sessional Lecturer, La Trobe University
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-urban-environment-doesnt-only-reflect-poverty-it-amplifies-it-98561" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Our urban environment doesn’t only reflect poverty, it amplifies it: Jenny Donovan

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Woods Bagot has designed a new $31 million pier and lift structure which form key elements of the Urbis-led Master Plan for the Rockhampton Riverside Precinct. The project seeks to revitalise the riverside district by maximising the potential of the previously neglected area and transforming it into a hub of community activity.

The riverside pier employs materials that reference the community’s historical past of gold, silver and copper mining in a contemporary way, but just as importantly also represents an economic and cultural rebirth following the damage caused by Cyclone Maria in 2015.

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public//pictures/article-images/150193_n17_screenhd.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="The riverside pier and lift structure which form the Rockhampton Riverside Precinct. Image: Florian Groehn"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/150193_n17_screenhd.jpg?itok=YuetYOO8" title="The riverside pier and lift structure which form the Rockhampton Riverside Precinct. Image: Florian Groehn" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>The riverside pier and lift structure which form the Rockhampton Riverside Precinct. Image: Florian Groehn</figcaption></figure>According to Woods Bagot, the riverside precinct has become a destination in its own right not just within Rockhampton but also regional Queensland. As part of the Master Plan, the site has become a public urban park comprising a playground, playful water features, amenities, local artwork, terraced landscaping, and places for shade and outdoor seating.

As part of the design response, the architects drew on and incorporated multiple influences from nearby sites, natural landscapes, and local industries which combined to form the overall composition of the two-story public building.

The 300 sqm building features a public landing on the lower ground level, while the main concourse accommodates a modern restaurant serving fresh seafood and seasonal produce. 
Additionally, the design also draws on the local vernacular forming a direct relationship with the quintessential ‘Queenslander’, with its large overhanging roof providing solar shading while allowing for uninterrupted views of the natural landscape.

The building’s linear shape and industrial aesthetic draw heavily from the steel Fitzroy Bridge to the North, while Mount Archer’s mining history inspired the form of the rich, earthy colour scheme.

The natural materials palette of stone, timber, metal, and glass allowed local craftsmen to assemble elements by hand using traditional methods. Profiled weathered metal 'blades' flank the building and allow for views of the surrounding 19-hectare parkland while providing respite from the sun’s heat.

The 'breezeway' as the name suggests allows cool breezes to flow through and ventilate the building naturally, while the building’s vertical lift responds to the location’s subtropical climates and flood-prone coast, acting as they way-finder to the site, alluding to the masts of ships.

Clad in Corten steel, the lift's robust exterior reflects the rich tones of the landscape and the history of copper, gold and silver mining in the area.

Solar panels on the roof generate green electricity which is fed back into the local power grid, while electric vehicle charging and bicycle maintenance stations are available throughout the park.

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public//pictures/article-images/150193_n11_screenhd.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="The design draws on the local vernacular and landscape. Image: Florian Groehn"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="410" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/150193_n11_screenhd.jpg?itok=vZoRH4G_" title="The design draws on the local vernacular and landscape. Image: Florian Groehn" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>The design draws on the local vernacular and landscape. Image: Florian Groehn</figcaption></figure><h2>What they say</h2>

<blockquote>
Rockhampton Riverside Precinct has become a destination for everyone to visit, occupy and enjoy. The vision of restoring the energy from the gold period has been realised along with the aim to provide the people of Rockhampton with a world-class civic and recreational space.

The finished design delivers over 30,000 m2 of public space, tripling the amount of civic and open space that previously existed.

Putting people at the centre of the design process is always where we start, and this is exactly the outcome we planned for – creating a special place for community gathering and to drive a groundswell of local pride in the city.

- Mark Damant, Woods Bagot Principal
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Urbis worked with Rockhampton Regional Council on the redevelopment of the Riverside Precinct, a world-class waterfront area on the shores of Queensland’s Fitzroy River. 

The design incorporates playground areas, river lookouts, shaded walkways and gathering spaces. A streetscape along iconic Quay Street integrates the city’s edge with the riverbank parklands.

(The) design will revitalise and activate Rockhampton’s iconic riverside precinct by establishing a high quality realm space that will be widely celebrated and used by the community. 

- Urbis
</blockquote>

 
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