URBAN DESIGN IN AUSTRALIA

Extracts from Urban Design in Australia: Report by the Prime Minister's Urban Design Task Force 1994, reproduced with permission, for What's Good Urban Design?, the ecoversity workshop at the George Hotel, March, 1996.

"Good urban design:
1. demonstrates design excellence in urban development and architecture;
2. distributes benefits widely in the population;
3. produces environmental benefits;
4. responds to local features and needs;
5. is relevant to the contemporary world;
6. leaves open the possibility for continuing adaptation and change;
7. forges connections with the past."

"The quality of urban design matters. It does so in terms of experience and meaning because of the messages and feelings different places provide us with; functionally for the efficient and effective working of the city; environmentally, for the way it can minimise waste, energy and pollution; socially, as a means of building equitably supportive towns and cities; and for the way it can strengthen economic life and competitiveness."

"Road engineers are not alone in shouldering the blame for many of the failures in the design of cities. Other professional groups share responsibility. Architects and building designers are largely taught to see individual buildings as isolated objects. They do not generally begin by asking: what will this structure do to the urban fabric as a whole? Will it help the public areas? Will it support and encourage street life and activity? Is it ecologically responsible?"

"Ecologically sustainable design is about amplifying and sustaining the quality of life for people. To do so, good urban design needs to cushion the environmental effects of urban development. It can help to reduce heat islands, improve micro climates, prevent contamination of land, protect water supplies, manage urban run-off and storm water, encourage planting, nurture urban environments as diversely life- sustaining settings, and safeguard wildlife habitats. It can support walking, bicycling and public transport, reducing car dependency, and related energy use and airborne pollution."

"Good urban form can be the glue for a community: well-designed and cared-for public space supports interaction and involvement. Shared activities thrive in good places: play, recreation, ceremony, as well as day-to day business, and a good design has an important role to play in making streets and public places safe and secure." '"Urban design world-wide is beginning to be seen as integral to a post-industrial mode of wealth-creation: cultural development. This idea of harnessing environmental and cultural assets on an urban and regional scale is being embraced by an increasing number of cities and lies squarely within the domain of urban design strategies."

"Complex problems such as those of urban design require a contribution from a number of capable individuals and require careful team building, mutual respect and the development of shared values." '"The complexity and pace of twentieth century urban development has put urban design beyond the province of any single profession -- urban design is more than 'big architecture; or 'small planning' or 'soft engineering'."

"The quality of urban areas is unlikely to improve greatly unless there is active interest and involvement from citizens. Especially important are the voluntary associations and bodies, operating independently of governments, which take up issues, comment on development proposals and generally act as environmental watchdogs."

"Australians devote great care to their privates spaces. Yet many Australian cities struggle with a neglected stock of public spaces because of the premium placed on individual choice, and because of inappropriate government and industry structures."

"In our cities, streets must retain their function as the backbone of our society's public domain, and be made attractive for pedestrians, for children's play, for meeting other people, for resting and eating. Like other parts of cities, streets must be designed to serve these purposes well."

"Good urban infrastructure practice is synonymous with excellence in urban design. 'Infrastructure' usually connotes technical networks of transport, energy, water and communications -- but, equally importantly there are human, amenity, environmental, narrative (myth, history, symbolism, maintenance of meaning, inspiration) and organisational infrastructures that are critical in maintaining the fabric of society. Good urban design will at minimum do nothing to harm any of these networks, and at best strengthen each one of them."

"We cannot bring about more pleasing and satisfying cities without a drastic change in transport priorities."

"Privatised malls and plazas, introverted atria and walled-off residential areas are anathema to good urban design and healthy cities."

"Good urban design is essential to creating settlements that minimise environmental damage through good management of development densities, location decisions, mobility planning, area and site design, solar orientation and microclimatic aspects, surface water capture, filtration and recycling, and the protection and building of green networks: forests, grasslands, dunes, wetlands and rivers and lakes as supportive places for flora and fauna."

"The quality of a region's urban environment can be a decisive factor in attracting and accommodating investment and economic activity."

From Urban Design in Australia: Report by the Prime Minister's Urban Design Task Force 1994, reproduced with permission, for What's Good Urban Design?, an ecoversity workshop at the George Hotel, March, 1996.

Fixed March 2004.