The ACT Greens/Labor coalition government has a host of ministers who are making a mess of the planning and development of Canberra’s urban environments. The question asked by the community sectors is where do the ACT Liberals stand on these planning issues. Click here for my piece in City News on this topic.
Category Archives: urban design
Downer residents rally against development push
You can tell when residents are hitting the government where it hurts – when the press coverage from the government turns to spin – and more spin. There is no doubt that this is a response to the successes the pesky residents of Downer have had in getting attention through their brilliant “Don’t Dump on Downer” grassroots campaign. Click here.
West Basin blatantly a property deal
With the Christmas release of the draft City and Gateway Urban Design Framework, the ACT Government’s City Renewal Authority undertook media advocacy during February for an apartment suburb on West Basin. The ACT Government continues with its proposal for West Basin against the opposition of the Canberra community – click here.
Party first, government second… voters a distant third
WHAT happens within the ACT government’s planning and development portfolios points to how the ACT Greens/Labor coalition is travelling. Click here for my piece in City News
Give us this day our daily spin…
It is annoying to constantly experience the culture within this ACT government that delivers a daily onslaught of spin. Who writes this stuff? Don’t they realise how hollow they sound? What do they think this nonsense achieves? click here for my piece on this
Someone save these trees from the developers
This a sad tale of people sitting on the fence while part of the heritage of the suburb of Downer is to be removed. Click here.
Mischievous elves dump on Downer
THE ACT’s muddle-headed bureaucrats keep coming up with planning brochures laden down with alternate facts and marketing spin. Ministers then blindly sign letters to residents based on the bureaucrats’ gobbledygook and then wonder why people get upset. I wrote about what is happening in Downer in City News.
Neglect and shame of the city’s mistreated trees
The ACT government has failed to care for Canberra’s urban forests. We are constantly losing trees. Click here for my City News article on trees.
Planning shock: regulators say no to developers!
In Canberra how developers bend and get around planning rules is a common debate. The ACT Government has several ministers who mess around in planning and development – and all not good at it. See my City News article – click here.
How does the ACT planning minister keep his job?
Here in Dickson we have seen the disgraceful, long-running mess created by planning ministers and bureaucrats about the establishment of a second supermarket in Dickson. This mess is typical of how business is carried out under the current planning minister.
I wrote about this in City News – click here.
ACT Government ignores residents
The ACT Government has a bad reputation in its dealings with residents and their concerns for the future of Canberra.
I have written about this topic in City News – here’s my piece – click here.
Urban Biodiversity
The Conversation on urban biodiversity
The Conversation has an article recommending a change to planning to deal realistically with urban biodiversity.
Dickson Parkland retagged a wasteland
Things some people should not say
It came as a shock to hear a community leader class a community site as a wasteland.
Henry Rolland Park in Canberra
A walk through a new Canberra park
#01
Here’s the official spin on this new park – click here. Watch this space for my thoughts on this park when they are published in CityNews.
Residents vs Bad Planning
Dickson Residents win over bad design
Signs of intrigue within the inner north
First an update on the 2016-2017 ACAT appeal about the proposal to remove the carpark in front of Woolworths and to build an apartment and supermarket complex.
Where to for Civic in Canberra?
I can only guess how many committee meetings have been held to discuss some aspect of how to improve Civic– the traditional urban centre of the city of Canberra.
ACT Chief Minister fails urban basics
Downtown Singapore.
I have just spent three weeks in Singapore.
Smart Cities
Problems with school parking
Comments have been published about how Deakin residents have raised doubts about the development application for a 102-bed aged care facility on the former gallery site near the shopping centre.
architecture and constitution ave
Back in 2013 plans were announced for the next stage of Canberra’s Constitution Avenue.
backyards
Vanishing Australian backyards
leave us vulnerable to the stresses of city life
architecture
“Call us dull, call us sellouts, call us gentrifiers – just don’t call us copycats”
Our lust for originality is wrecking the city, delivering a rash of formally new but ultimately anti-urban hideous skyline baubles reducing city-making to a spectacle of super-size billboard branding gestures while inhibiting the multiplication of good ideas. Click here
post-truth planning
Dr Elizabeth Farrelly is outraged
Dr Elizabeth Farrelly sets the scene for how planning might navigate the post-truth political landscape – click here.
Architecture
The Problem Isn’t Architecture, It’s Urban Design
Interesting read – but I think they let the architects off too easily. Click here.
Tram stop design
There are not too many places that have tram (light rail) stops that are exciting designs. Most are functional and are usually simply places marked where you stand to catch the tram.
Heritage yes – but some stuff should go
Two things to consider: One is that heritage is about to be celebrated here in Canberra with a festival from 18 April till 7 May 2017.
Braddon and that Bowling Club
Braddon is cool – well not quite yet
Braddon should be cool. I said something similar two years ago.
Online Surveys
I have said elsewhere about online surveys – they are useful but caution needs to apply if anyone intends to use them to inform planning. They are not reliable for that purpose.
Haig Park masterplan
There’s a call by the ACT Government for residents to go online and to offer thoughts on the future of Haig Park.
The Griffin Legacy?
From the Guardian: Canberra’s vision of the ideal city gets mired in ‘mediocrity’ by Paul Daley
Architecture: The Goods Line
New Garden Cities
Competition winner: for new Garden Cities
It was announced in the UK that the winner of a competition has proposed that to deal with population growth that new cities should be built nearby established ones. These would be garden cities connected back to the older city by public transport.
Featured Landscape Architect
Recommendation
Looking for a Landscape Architect in South Australia?
We highly recommend calling the great people at outerspace landscape architects
Click on the logo below for more. (or here)
and I am sure that they could negotiate on any job elsewhere in Australia
Featured Landscape Architect
Recommendation
Looking for a Landscape Architect in Canberra?
We highly recommend a call to Harris Hobbs Landscapes.
Click on the logo below for more. (or here)
and I am sure that they could negotiate on a job outside Canberra.
the city and cyclists
re-posted from Gehl Architects:
The City and Cyclists
Their guest blogger reports:
Brussels – a city of cars, Amsterdam – a city of cyclists
By Devon Paige Willis
Devon is doing a Masters program called 4Cities, an Erasmus Mundus Masters that takes students from Brussels to Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid to study cities. Gehl Architects met her when she was interning at the Montréal Urban Ecology Center in 2013.
Education in ecology and biodiversity
The Nature of Cities
Education in ecology and biodiversity
If cities look to stay within their boarders, there is the need to seek acceptable ways to intensify the number of residents within the older suburbs. This requires an intelligent engagement with the present residents of suburban areas on a case by case basis.
Given the need to address climate change within the suburbs as they are being redeveloped and upgraded throws up a host of requirements that should have by now have been built into legislation. Sadly this is not so as most of the re-development and intensification as been left to laissez-faire market forces.
Women and the city
Re-Posted from The Global Urbanist
A woman’s right to enjoy the city
Dealing with the overlooked issue in Urban Design, Women and the City. As part of our series on eliminating violence against women and girls in our cities produced in collaboration with the Huairou Commission, Mumbai architect Pallavi Shrivastava offers a personal reflection on how the threat of violence forces women not only to change our movements but also prevents us from enjoying our cities, and thus from helping to make them the cities we want them to be. click here for the full article.