Australian Urban Design & Heritage

Having recently had the opportunity to further study the European context of urban planning and heritage it brought me back to think about Australia, my current home. Australia is of course much younger and less developed than the highly historic European cities I focused on however heritage is something that is present in Australian society as well.

Europe has a great history and therefore has an incredible amount of heritage to consider when planning. A vast part of the built environment in major European cities, if not destroyed in the war, has a history of hundreds of years. Different periods in history have left their mark, their architectural style, their industrial space, which planners are faced to consider and incorporate in future planning and development.

Australia on the other hand, due to its youth, must not forget or overlook its history and its heritage. Whether it be abandoned industrial land, old ports, landscape or architecure, it should be considered and used to enhance the identity of space to create vibrant and meaningful cultural places.

An example of successful rehabilitation of heritage in Sydney's Paddington suburb is the Paddington Resevoir Development. The original Paddington Resevoir was built between 1866 and 1878 and was a key element in Sydney's early water supply. Through history it evolved into a garage and workshop for the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board in 1899, later a service station, and in 1934 it was aquired by the Paddington Municipal Council and leased as a commercial garage. By 1991 the area was unused and closed off to the public due to the quality and state of the old building.

The City of Sydney has successfully restored an area of industrial heritage by rehabilitating the Paddington Reservoir Gardens and creating new space and cultural facility. The skeleton structure of the site has been preserved and incorporated in the design providing character of the precincts heritage. The City of Sydney was presented with the 'Australian Award for Urban Design' in 2009 for demonstrating excellence and innovation in the built environment.

Good urban design can play a critical role in the evolution of our ever transforming cities, and heritage is a criteria that should be consistently considered and incorporated in urban planning to contribute to enhancing a cultural identity and creating meaningful public spaces.

Photos of Paddington Reservoir:

Civic Experience

Millennium Park, Chicago
"The Bean"

Often times I think that with all this rapid development going on in our ever expanding cities public space is forgotten. Public art and more appropriately civic art in my opinion is imperative in a successful and thriving civilization and culture. Public art can be understood as an openly accessible piece of art in the public domain. However public art can be exclusive, evanescent, temporary like a gallery exhibition. What I am discussing is a type of public art that can maybe be understood better as civic art, inclusive and accessible to all as well as timeless.

Civic art should have the desired outcomes of shaping people, binding them together through memory and connection and creating character in them. It should be celebratory, value adding and play a pivotal role in civilization. It should be timeless and enduring.

A current example of successful civic art is in Chicago's Millennium Park, it is known by locals as "The Bean". A massive sculpture in the shape of a jelly bean, described as an object of its time, which most great pieces of art or architecture in public spaces or squares are known to be. It has proven to be a great piece of civic art through its ability to access an entire population, people of any age, educational background, nationality etc. and its success can be measured by the masses of people that are drawn to it, the amount of time they spend engaging with it and its transcendence.

Some people would ask why public squares and the experience of art in public space is necessary. It is in hopes of with either not much thought or more interestingly a lot of thought, discussion and curiosity that these pieces of art in partnership with society create a strong sense of place and connection as well as enhance culture and character within people.

Book: Great Public Squares

FYI! This book is on my wish list :)
(http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Great-Public-Squares/)

"From the storied piazzas of Rome, Venice, and Florence to the elegant places of Paris via less familiar gathering places in Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Portugal, to the former marketplaces and graceful Georgian-style squares of the United Kingdom, to the most interesting and impressive squares of the New World—Santa Fe, Portland, Boston, and New York—architect Robert Gatje offers new insights, stunning computer-generated plans, and color photographs to convey the spatial experience, supplemented by a brief history of each square and measurements to assess their success in meeting human needs for inspiring outdoor space. There is no other source for this comparative data in one place."

Its a good one!

Below is a photo of Place des Vosges, a famous square in Paris. I have great memories of lovely picnics and macaroons in this park :)

M.

Urban Jewel

"A derelict area beneath a series of overpasses in the West Don Lands is going to be transformed into an urban jewel"

Funny I am coming across all of these great projects going on in Canada, and Toronto in particular. It is really great to read about all that is happening to Toronto as it has often been defined by sprawl and a gloomy, dull appearance.

It is apparent the local government is making a real effort in contributing to urban environments making them more user friendly and enjoyable. The city is home to over 2 million residents and thriving urban centres and urban communities need effective public space. It is the experiences that humans have in the environments they occupy that enables meaningful relationships to be created. The attachment of meaning to 'space' therefore creates 'place'! Moreover the positive interactions people have in their environments encourages a sense of identity. This is what we want, residents feeling a part of the spaces they spend most of their time in!

Do you ever think about the everyday environments you live in? Do they contribute positively to your overall experience? How would you feel without them? How could they offer you more?

Underpass Park as they have named it will be a bright new neighbourhood destination. A part of a promised revitalization project in creating Torontos next great neighbourhood. It will take a derelict, unused space (underpasses often are), and produce an innovative urban park. It will feature a socially engaging park for community members of all ages and abilities, incorporating public art, recreational space, climbing structures, flexible community space, community gardens, and public gathering places. Sustainable best practices will be used in the design as well, including the reuse of granite cobblestones, use of recycled rubber materials for the recreational areas, planting of over 50 trees, and using energy efficient LED lighting to name a few.

A refreshing, creative use of space. I look forward to following its progress and want to hear the reviews!

Toronto goes green

Canadian city Toronto has turned an empty unused rooftop to great use! City Halls rooftop/podium which has been closed since the 80's has turned into an 11,000 square metre GREEN, public park! It includes 65 species of plants for people to enjoy. A new urban ecosystem that will contribute to a more sustainable city.

go green

Have you ever seen a living wall? I have recently been noticing an increasing amount of green walls lately through my travels, however I am yet to see one in Australia but thats probably because ive restricted myself to the Sunshine Coast for too long . Im sure they are blooming throughout the cities!

The purpose of these living walls is not only to be innovative, creative, and trendy but they have real positive impacts on the environment (when outside) and on air quality (both indoors and outdoors). Naturally plants absord pollutants out of the air so these walls are contirbuting to less carbon emissions floating around!Indoors they can lesson noise and increase acoustics, be used as insulation, and of course add to the aesthetics of an indoor or outdoor facade.

With all of these benefits and considering how lovely they are to look at lets hope that we will see more vertical greenery in the near future. How about incorporating them into all government buildings?! parliament?!

Another way of 'greening' our surroundings is with roof top gardens. If such dense areas as cities would have more rooftop gardens (to absorb sunlight/rays and pollution) they could decrease the impact of the urban heat island..

Ill write more about rooftop gardens another time...

Back to living walls, Vancouver airport has a great one you can see as you walk out of the airport towards the Skytrain (see my photo below).

The photo at the top of the post is an example of a living wall in Madrid, Spain, a beautiful public display of tropical plants! The next photo is of green tiles that a Spanish company has invented. I think they are awesome!! They can be aranged by designers to add to the character of a building. So cool. I saw a few apartment buildings in Milan that featured vertical greenery, also a chain of fairtrade coffee shops (Bridgehead Coffee) in Ottawa, Canada has incorporated living walls in a few of their locations. I know they can be a bit challenging to upkeep indoors (probably from the lack of sunshine in some cases) but they really are uplifting and refreshing to see especially when you are enjoying a morning coffee and the paper.

I hear PiperDM is thinking of adding some green to their office... or is this a rumour? Go for it!

Ottagono

Ottagono is one of my favorite magazines and magazines are one of the most exciting things I look forward to buying when I travel. Living in a small town I dont have the plethora of international publications at my fingertips so when I am overseas its a treat to flip through the latest editions of my favorites.

When I was in Milan briefly in February it was edition 226 of Ottagono that featured Viaggio in Italia- Liguria. It featured the state of Liguria that is found in the north western region of Italy. Ottagono is a magazine of reference for anything design related and it also regularly features city planning. Naturally after reading the featured booklet on Liguria I was keen to visit and experience the architecture and newly planned and revitalized port of Genoa and surrounding area.

So I did! and I will post photos and my sightings in a future entry...

If you are at all interested in the world of design, from urban to architecture find this magazine in your nearest specialty newsagent, I would hope they stock it! Also lucky for us it features bilingual texts (Italian and English).

Paris- La Cite de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine

It was a cold and gloomy winter day in February this year when I decided to visit La Cite de l'Architecture & du Patrimoine in Paris. http://http//www.citechaillot.fr/exposition/temporary_exhibitions.php?id=92.

Phillipe my Architect friend had never been and so together we hopped on the metro not knowing what to expect but hoping to discover something new and interesting. Little did we know we would spend 3+ hours loving every moment of the gallery and museum! Paris, such a historical city unfolded bit by bit through the displays of its planning history.



If you are lucky enough to be in Paris before the 1st of July 2010 you must stop through and visit the temporary exhibition 'Towards New Social Housing'. It features 16 recent (less than 5 years old) architectural works in France which represent a revival of social housing.



It was awesome, and inspiring! It made me excited for my future career and made me hope to be involved in such a creative, sustainable, social housing project one day.

Not to mention it had some of the most stunning views of the eiffel tower!

Lucky Kids

I live in Peregian Beach and the kids in the neighbourhood were lucky enough to get a brand new playground! I had a good look at it (and was dragged through the tunnel!) the other day while visiting with my little buddy Jake. It made me think about what makes a playground a 'good' playground.

Unfortunately often times older playgrounds are torn down to sadly be replaced with much simpler versions, minus the swings (for safety reasons), and less enjoyable than the last! The playground is meant to be a learning experience that includes trial and error, if you take away what challeges the children then they are no longer stimulated and the space is left empty of true experience.

Landscape Architects are however creating great play places that inhibit learning in children and steer away from some of the less successful modern 'asphalt-desert' playgrounds. Peregians new playground is mostly made of timber that is meant to last the beachside, salty conditions. It is colourful, fun and incorporates the true feeling of the village adding to the current strong sense of community. It includes a swing set, viewing platform, climbing nets, slides, tunnel, activity walls and more.

The only critique I have is the sand replacement. The pit is topped with bark which is meant to be soft on a fall. It looks great but sand is easier to clean up after. Otherwise I say its a success, and the kids seem to love it (the getting filthy with bark part too)!