City Design

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GUEST OBSERVATION
The dramatic recent shifts in the use of public space have led some to claim the coronavirus pandemic will permanently change cities. Among its many other impacts, COVID-19 has upturned established patterns of ordering city space.
Personally, the vibrancy of my local park has delighted me. It seems to be filled at almost any time of day by a wide variety of activities. I’m encouraged by the proliferation of new <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-30/coronavirus-queensland-neighbourhood-street-stalls-popular/12189132" target="_blank">street stalls</a>and entertained by the creativity of my neighbours’ efforts to maintain their gym routines: elastic bands attached to light posts, free weights carted to the park in shopping trolleys, a cross-trainer in the front yard.
I have been frustrated but also heartened by the six-week wait to get my daughter’s bike serviced. And I’m thrilled by the elevation of pedestrians and cyclists. Streets have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/world-cities-turn-their-streets-over-to-walkers-and-cyclists" target="_blank">closed to cars</a>, and time has been automatically allocated for pedestrians in the traffic-light cycle – no need for “<a href="https://www.governmentnews.com.au/sydney-traffic-lights-automated-to-combat-covid-19/" target="_blank">beg buttons</a>”!
Since at least the 1970s oil crisis, and especially since the more recent recognition of the global climate crisis, there have been calls to rethink the allocation of public space, and streets in particular, to produce more inclusive, resilient and <a href="https://www.c40.org/ending-climate-change-begins-in-the-city" target="_blank">sustainable forms of development</a>. Compact city policies have been adopted (albeit unevenly) across Australia, yet implementation <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2017.1319869" target="_blank">has been slow</a>.
Might COVID-19 provide the impetus for more rapid change? Whether lasting changes do indeed eventuate will depend in large part on whether the pandemic has shifted popular expectations.
<h2>Public space is political</h2>
Public space is the quintessential site of politics. And it’s not just as a site for marches and assemblies where rights are demanded and disrupted. It’s also the everyday expression of collective decisions about how we live together, about who gets access to which space, and for what purposes, about the role of the state and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Those collective decisions are often highly contested, so the relative rights and responsibilities of citizens and their cities are subject to ongoing negotiation. The pandemic restrictions have brought issues like these to the fore. The rapid enactment of regulations to support social distancing has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-policing-needs-to-be-done-with-the-publics-trust-not-confusion-135716" target="_blank">generated concerns</a> about wide <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/covid-19-lockdown-fines-eroding-public-confidence-top-cop-warns-20200413-p54jfk" target="_blank">official discretion</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-know-what-weve-got-till-its-gone-we-must-reclaim-public-space-lost-to-the-coronavirus-crisis-135817" target="_blank">compounding inequality</a>.
Yet the rules that regulate streets, parks and other public and semi-public spaces are always uneven. Popular understandings about the kinds of use (and users) that are and are not legitimate in public space significantly influence the ways those <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lasr.12347" target="_blank">rules are interpreted</a> – and sometimes amended.
Understandings can shift. In the mid-20th century, for example, streets changed rapidly and radically: from shared spaces (for travel by pedestrians, streetcars, horses and carriages, but also for commerce, play and other forms of social exchange) to spaces reshaped around the needs of the car.
The rights and responsibilities of citizens and the state shifted too. Expectations about engineering for automobility overshadowed expectations of things like safe spaces to walk, cycle and gather, or comprehensive public transport systems
<h2>Who owns the city?</h2>
An important determinant of expectations about public space are understandings about ownership. <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0964663917701304" target="_blank">Ownership</a> encompasses not only the formal property rights that councils and other landowners use to control public space, but also the informal sense of ownership or belonging that enables certain users to control (or influence the control of) public space.
Ownership is closely connected to understandings about rights in public space, as well as agency and political voice in other settings. Some of the strongest <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-is-my-beach-fence-doesn-t-deter-sydney-swimmers-20200325-p54dul" target="_blank">resistance to COVID-19 restrictions</a> has been from people claiming the public space in question is “theirs”.
While ownership shapes activities in public space, those activities can also play a role in reshaping ownership. Even <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jols.12081" target="_blank">small-scale interventions by citizens</a> and community groups can lead to significant shifts in understandings of ownership and legality. This in turn leads to changes in the regulation of urban space by planners, policymakers, police and other officials.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332188/original/file-20200504-42935-m1o9wy.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/332188/original/file-20200504-42935-m1o9wy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Exercising in Moore Park, Sydney, under coronavirus restrictions. What people choose to do in public spaces can influence understandings of what these spaces are for and how they are regulated. Amelia Thorpe, Author provided
Our cities won’t be the same again, but the shape of the “new normal” remains unclear. Whether COVID-19 will lead to more inclusive or sustainable cities will depend on how its disruptions are experienced.
Will shifts in the allocation and regulation of public space be understood as temporary inconveniences, or will they prompt a more fundamental re-evaluation of who “owns” the city? Might people take back the streets?<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137703/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/amelia-thorpe-15408" target="_blank">Amelia Thorpe</a>, Associate Professor in Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-1414" target="_blank">UNSW</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/reclaiming-the-streets-we-all-can-have-a-say-in-the-new-normal-after-coronavirus-137703" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Reclaiming the streets? We all can have a say in the 'new normal' after coronavirus

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GUEST OBSERVATION
The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have reminded us of the vital role public space plays in supporting our physical and mental well-being. We need to move, to feel sunlight and fresh air, and to see, talk and even sing to other people.
Lockdowns and “social distancing” have limited our participation in public life and public space. As a result, cities around the world are reporting declines in health and well-being. We are seeing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2020/04/08/coronavirus-lockdown-is-taking-a-toll-on-mental-health-especially-womens-study-finds/#6b181ee02d1f" target="_blank">increases in depression, domestic violence, relationship breakdowns and divorces</a>.
What about the well-being of our cities? Avoiding walking and public transport in favour of cars <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/what-do-we-want-life-in-melbourne-to-look-like-on-the-other-side-20200424-p54mvw" target="_blank">could kill cities</a>.
The trajectory of the pandemic suggests physical distancing could remain in place for some time. The subtle “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Relations-Public-Microstudies-Order/dp/141281006X" target="_blank">step and slide</a>” that people ordinarily use to negotiate their way through crowded urban spaces has given way to the very blunt act of “stop and cross”, as people try to avoid one another on <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/too-close-for-comfort-when-a-walk-in-the-park-is-no-walk-in-the-park-20200415-p54k46" target="_blank">footpaths that are too narrow</a>.
We need to act swiftly to retrofit our public spaces so they are both safe and support social activity. Our goal must be to avoid a long-term legacy where people fear cities and other people. This is where approaches known as <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/informal-urbanism/projects/temporary-and-tactical-urbanism" target="_blank">temporary and tactical urbanism</a> come in as a way to quickly reconfigure public spaces to create places that are both safe and social.
As COVID-19’s impacts on public life become more evident, so has the abundance of street space left vacant by the substantial drop in vehicle traffic. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/opinion/coronavirus-tips-new-york-san-francisco" target="_blank">Recognising this opportunity</a>, cities around the world have begun repurposing street spaces for people.
<h2>A global public space revolution?</h2>
Leading urban theorists, such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X" target="_blank">Jane Jacobs</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/07/together-richard-sennett-review" target="_blank">Richard Sennett</a>, have long argued that social interaction is the lifeblood of cities. The COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as an attack on urbanity itself.
But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/social-distancing-coronavirus-physical-distancing/2020/03/25/a4d4b8bc-6ecf-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story" target="_blank">social/physical distancing</a> should not preclude social interaction. Major cities around the world are responding by reclaiming street spaces for people to safely walk and cycle. They are acting quickly, because the need to increase public space for people is more urgent than ever.
How can this be done? After all, urban design proposals usually take months or years to realise. Tactical urbanism approaches overcome this by drawing on a palette of low-cost, widely available and flexible materials, objects and structures to quickly create new forms of public space.
In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/14/london-pedestrians-and-cyclist-may-get-more-space-on-roads-during-coronavirus-lockdown" target="_blank">London</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/world-cities-turn-their-streets-over-to-walkers-and-cyclists#maincontent" target="_blank">Berlin, Bogota, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Vancouver, Mexico City</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/milan-seeks-to-prevent-post-crisis-return-of-traffic-pollution" target="_blank">Milan</a>, paint and traffic cones are being used to <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9f47ef654c7841e1a8d35034088d75b7" target="_blank">create bike lanes</a>. In <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/coronavirus-dublin-city-council-to-implement-emergency-social-distancing-measures-1.4231576" target="_blank">Dublin</a>, parking spaces and loading bays are being reclaimed in the city centre to provide more space for pedestrians. At a national level, New Zealand has created a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/04/13/new-zealand-first-country-to-fund-pop-up-bike-lanes-widened-sidewalks-during-lockdown/#69c8e43a546e" target="_blank">tactical urbanism fund</a> for emergency bike lanes and footpath widening.
So what’s happening in Australia? Not much at present. Yet we <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/too-close-for-comfort-when-a-walk-in-the-park-is-no-walk-in-the-park-20200415-p54k46" target="_blank">face the same problems</a>, prompting <a href="https://theconversation.com/physical-distancing-is-here-for-a-while-over-100-experts-call-for-more-safe-walking-and-cycling-space-137374" target="_blank">calls for urgent action</a> to reclaim public space for <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/property-observer" target="_blank">walking</a> and <a href="http://www.weride.org.au/announcement/australian-health-and-transport-experts-call-for-space-for-safer-walking-and-cycling/" target="_blank">cycling</a>.
Despite this, there has been little examination of locally specific design and implementation approaches that can rapidly deliver the urban spaces people need right now.
<h2>Making it happen</h2>
Temporary and tactical urbanism isn’t new to Australia. We’ve been doing it since the 1980s when <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2016/09/imagine-a-city-swanston-st-party/" target="_blank">Melbourne’s Swanston Street was transformed into a green oasis</a> overnight. This helped to reimagine the city centre as a place designed for people, which shaped <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-three-decade-remaking-of-the-city-revived-the-buzz-of-marvellous-melbourne-91481" target="_blank">its long-term social and economic regeneration</a>.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.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/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
The Greening of Swanston Street in 1985. Victorian Ministry of Planning
This, and other <a href="http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/guides/tactical-urbanism-volume-4/" target="_blank">more recent projects</a>, have proven temporary and tactical urbanism adds value beyond physical activity and social interaction. Successful schemes can increase the vitality of streets and neighbourhoods, engage local communities and enhance a local sense of place.
<a href="https://www.townteams.com.au/" target="_blank">Social enterprises</a> and community groups are well placed to deliver such projects, because of their enthusiasm, agility and local networks. Governments also have a crucial role in enabling other actors and maximising public benefits. Every weekday between midday and 2pm, the City of Melbourne temporarily closes Little Collins Street between Swanston and Elizabeth streets with a removable bollard, giving over the street to pedestrians – it’s that easy!
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331887/original/file-20200501-42962-11lwnih.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/331887/original/file-20200501-42962-11lwnih.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Little Collins Street already becomes a place for pedestrians at lunchtime. City of Melbourne. Author provided., Author provided
Our cities’ urban spaces are full of such potential for greater flexibility, experimentation and innovation. For example, <a href="https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/business/permits-licences/parklets/" target="_blank">on-street parking can easily be converted</a> into spaces for socialising and outdoor dining. A vacant space can become an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2011/sep/01/pedal-power-open-air-cycle-cinema" target="_blank">outdoor cinema</a>.
<h2>Temporary or permanent?</h2>
The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions have created an epic social experiment on a global scale. We argue that urbanity itself is at stake. What will cities be without the social interactions that enable us to exchange ideas, opinions, values and knowledge?
Can we afford to go back to the cities designed for cars that we have spent decades reshaping for people? If we don’t act now, the social life of cities that sustains our economy, creativity and culture is at risk.
We need to counter the social impacts of COVID-19 by experimenting at the micro scale of public space. Temporary and tactical urbanism offers simple, low-cost and agile solutions. We should act quickly to make streets safe and sociable during this crisis. The long-term health of people and cities depends on it.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137063/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/jonathan-daly-446774" target="_blank">Jonathan Daly</a>, Researcher, School of Architecture and Urban Design, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063" target="_blank">RMIT University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kim-dovey-107660" target="_blank">Kim Dovey</a>, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-melbourne-722" target="_blank">University of Melbourne</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/quentin-stevens-1044644" target="_blank">Quentin Stevens</a>, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Design, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063" target="_blank">RMIT University</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/we-cant-let-coronavirus-kill-our-cities-heres-how-we-can-save-urban-life-137063" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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We can't let coronavirus kill our cities. Here's how we can save urban life

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Over the past seven years more than 100 research projects at the <a href="http://www.lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au" target="_blank">Co-operative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living</a>, in collaboration with industry across Australia, have pondered a very big question: How do we build future cities that are sustainable, liveable and affordable?
This is exactly what Australians want, as the recent Greater Sydney Commission report, <a href="https://www.greater.sydney/pulse-of-greater-sydney" target="_blank">The Pulse of Greater Sydney</a>, revealed. People want cities in which they live close to jobs and have reasonable commuting times. They want access to parks and green space, and relief from ever-increasing urban heat.
The good news is we already know what it will take to deliver on much of this wish list. Since 2012, I have headed the A$100 million Low Carbon Living CRC, which has brought together Australian businesses, industries, communities and many of our brightest researchers to work out how to steer change.
Our <a href="http://www.lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au/resources/crc-publications/crclcl-project-reports/sp0012u3-cooling-sydney-strategy" target="_blank">Cooling Sydney Strategy</a>, for instance, is the result of years of research into how to combat urban heatwaves. The burden of this heat is unevenly spread across our cities.
For example, residents of Sydney’s western suburbs are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/value-jobs-a-quick-commute-and-relief-from-urban-heat-avoid-these-parts-of-sydney-20190714-p5273e" target="_blank">exposed to many more days hotter than 35 degrees</a> than Sydneysiders living in the CBD and the city’s north. Last summer that meant over a month’s worth of intense heat in the suburb of Penrith, including <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/season/nsw/archive/201902.sydney.shtml" target="_blank">nine days in a row above 35°C</a>.
While the recent winter sun might feel welcome, the negative impacts of increasingly hot cities on our health, lifestyle and energy use greatly outweigh any winter comfort.
So what are the solutions?
Our researchers have already found how we can offset increasing heat. The <a href="http://www.lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au/resources/crc-publications/crclcl-project-reports/cooling-western-sydney-0" target="_blank">strategies</a> includes cool and permeable pavements, water features and evaporative cooling, shade structures, vertical gardens, street trees and other plants – even special heat refuge stations.
Keeping cool inside, without huge power bills, is possible too. During last summer’s heatwave, our <a href="https://joshshouse.com.au/about-the-project/joshs-house-research/" target="_blank">pilot 10-star energy-efficient house in Perth</a> remained a comfortable 24°C inside, without air conditioning, when it was over 40°C outside. The exceptional thermal performance of the house was down to its evidence-based design.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RqDezVOe9kw?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" width="440" height="260"></iframe>
Josh Byrne explains how his house keeps temperatures comfortable year-round with low energy use and no net emissions.
This work is just one part of our wider remit. Our UNSW-based centre is on track to deliver independently verified cuts of <a href="http://www.lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au/news/news-archive/2018/11/crc-low-carbon-living-track-reduce-carbon-emissions-10mgts-2020" target="_blank">10 megatonnes of carbon emissions generated by Australia’s built environment by 2020</a>. By integrating renewable energy systems, smart technologies, low-carbon materials and people-centred design into buildings and urban precincts, we have developed a sustainable, liveable and affordable urban blueprint for Australia. A PwC study (yet to be released) estimated cumulative economic benefits totalling A$684 million by 2027.
To put this another way, we have identified and verified evidence-based pathways to cut emissions equivalent to taking some 2.1 million cars off the road.
Some of the progress to date is not immediately obvious to the casual observer. Take an otherwise unremarkable stretch of road along the back way to Sydney Airport. Recently, a <a href="http://www.lowcarbonlivingcrc.com.au/news/news-archive/2019/06/crclcl-drives-world-first-green-concrete-trial-sydney-road" target="_blank">30-metre section of concrete was installed</a>, which looks more like an ad hoc road repair than an important scientific pilot study.
Bu 15 metres is paved with a new geopolymer concrete that slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. The other 15 metres is conventional concrete, the <a href="https://www.rsc.org/images/Construction_tcm18-114530.pdf" target="_blank">most widely used man-made material on the planet</a>. Concrete production, using cement as its binder, accounts for about <a href="https://reader.chathamhouse.org/making-concrete-change-innovation-low-carbon-cement-and-concrete">8% of all global emissions</a>.
The geopolymer concrete developed through our research centre is a similarly high-performance product but its binder safely incorporates otherwise noxious industrial waste streams, such as fly ash from coal-fired power stations and slag from blast furnaces. Australia has stockpiled about <a href="http://media.bze.org.au/ZCIndustry/bze-report-rethinking-cement-short.pdf" target="_blank">400 million tonnes of waste</a> from coal-fired power generation and steelmaking.
In Alexandria, in collaboration with the City of Sydney, we are testing this <a href="http://media.bze.org.au/ZCIndustry/bze-report-rethinking-cement-short.pdf" target="_blank">low-carbon concrete</a> as a road surface that could help clean up industrial waste while slashing emissions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF5UzGtlav8&amp;t=12s" target="_blank">Working with NSW Ports</a>, we’ve also shaped it into low-carbon bollards to form a breakwater to protect the coastline at Port Kembla from extreme weather.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pF5UzGtlav8?wmode=transparent&amp;start=12" frameborder="0" width="440" height="260"></iframe>
Waste from coal-fired power stations has been used to make low-carbon bollards to protect the coastline at Port Kembla.
We now have the know-how to do better
There are many such success stories, but with 150 CRC Low Carbon Living projects the list is too long to detail. What’s more important, as our funding period comes to an end and Australia loses its only innovation hub committed to lowering carbon in the built environment, is to note how we got to where we are today.
The federal government’s Co-operative Research Centre program fosters co-operation and collaboration on a grand scale. Industries, businesses, government organisations and communities with a stake in solving big, complex challenges partner with researchers from a wide range of academic fields. This structure brings together sectors and people whose paths might otherwise rarely cross.
The cross-fertilisation of ideas, expertise and skills delivers innovative solutions. <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/competition_or_collaboration_-_from_which_well_does_innovation_spring_-_speech_may_2018.pdf" target="_blank">Research worldwide</a> has consistently shown that collaboration drives innovation, and that innovation drives economic growth. Our experience confirms that as we partnered with organisations such as Multiplex, AECOM, BlueScope Steel, Sydney Water, ISCA, CSIRO and the United Nations Environment Program.
Cities are complex, exciting beasts, but we have the knowledge and expertise to live better, more comfortable urban lives in Australia while reducing demand for energy, water and materials. That is, we have the blueprint for low-carbon urban living. We must now choose to use it.
Deo Prasad, Scientia Professor and CEO, Co-operative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living, UNSW.
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/we-have-the-blueprint-for-liveable-low-carbon-cities-we-just-need-to-use-it-121615" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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We have the blueprint for liveable, low-carbon cities. We just need to use it

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Do you feel lonely? If you do, you are not alone. While you may think it’s a personal mental health issue, the collective social impact is an <a href="https://www.bhg.com.au/loneliness-epidemic-australia" target="_blank">epidemic</a>.
You may also underestimate the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30142-9/fulltext" target="_blank">effects of loneliness</a>. The health impact of chronic social isolation is as bad as <a href="https://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2016/03/15/heartjnl-2015-308790" target="_blank">smoking 15 cigarettes a day</a>.
Loneliness is <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/tania-de-jong/loneliness-is-the-global-epidemic-of-our-times_a_21544979/" target="_blank">a global issue</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hikikomori-worrying-mental-health-problem-traps-japanese-at-home-2018-1/?r=AU&amp;IR=T" target="_blank">Half-a-million Japanese</a> are suffering from social isolation. The UK recently appointed a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-politics-health/britain-appoints-minister-for-loneliness-amid-growing-isolation-idUSKBN1F61I6" target="_blank">minister for loneliness</a>, the first in the world. In Australia, Victorian state MP Fiona Patten is <a href="https://fionapatten.com.au/news/loneliness-needs-portfolio/" target="_blank">calling for the same</a> here. Federal MP Andrew Giles, in a recent <a href="https://www.andrewgiles.com.au/media-centre/opinion-pieces-speeches-transcripts/address-to-the-chifley-research-centre-forum-on-loneliness-and-public-policy-responses/" target="_blank">speech</a>, said:
"I’m convinced we need to consider responding to loneliness as a responsibility of government."
What do cities have to do with loneliness?
“The way we build and organise our cities can help or hinder social connection,” reads <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/137_report_social_cities_web.pdf" target="_blank">a Grattan Institute report</a>.
Think of the awkward silence in a lift full of passengers who never communicate. Now think of a playground where parents often begin chatting. It’s not that the built environment “causes” interaction, but it can certainly either enable or constrain potential interaction.
Winston Churchill once <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/architecture/palacestructure/churchill/" target="_blank">observed</a> that we shape the buildings and then <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061957802/welcome-to-your-world/" target="_blank">the buildings shape us</a>. I have written <a href="https://www.urbandesignmentalhealth.com/journal2-lonelitopia" target="_blank">elsewhere</a> about how architects and planners, albeit unwittingly, are complicit in producing an urban landscape that contributes to an unhealthy mental landscape.
Can we think of different ways to be in the city, of a different architecture that can <a href="https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/letters-from-the-editor/editorial-could-architecture-play-a-role-in-curing-loneliness/10000071.article" target="_blank">“cure”</a> loneliness?
Taking this question as a point of departure, I recently conducted a graduate design studio at the Melbourne School of Design. The students, using design as a research methodology, came up with potential architectural and urban responses to loneliness.
Have you ever waited at a rail station, killing time without engaging with the person next to you? Diana Ong retrofitted the Ascot Vale rail station with multiple “social engagement paraphernalia” to promote conversations and activity. Michelle Curnow proposed to convert railway carriages into “sensory experience cabins” that attract people to explore the in-built gallery spaces and listen to other people’s stories while commuting. Who said commuting had to be boring?
Having a pet is one of the most effective ways to tackle loneliness, but often people don’t have enough time to care for one. Zi Ye came up with “Puppy Society”, an app that connects a pet with multiple owners. The dogs are housed in a shared facility where the owners come to pet the dog.
Denise Chan studied the Melbourne CBD laneways and found many of them are quite dead, despite being an icon of Melburnian liveliness. She reimagined the laneways revitalised with community plant gardens, book nooks and furniture to entice people to enter them and connect, say, during office lunch hours.
Are you one of those people who have a hard time eating alone? Fanhui Ding is, and she came up with a student-run restaurant for the University of Melbourne. Students get credit working on the aquaponic farms that supply the restaurant, which can be used to pay for a meal. People also get discounts for dining at the same table, encouraging students to interact over food. Given the many international students who suffer from loneliness, her concept used cooking, food and farming as therapeutic activity.
Beverley Wang looked at loneliness in the ageing population. She came up with a project called “Nurture”, for which she designed a kindergarten co-housed with a nursing home. Designing spaces for storytelling, she brought the elderly into the kindergarten as informal learning aides, giving them a sense of purpose.
There is an utterly different kind of loneliness that accompanies the loss of a loved one. Malak Moussaoui, taking note of this, designed an installation that grows flowers on itself to be inserted into cemeteries. Instead of just buying some flowers on the way, Malak’s design is meant to bring people together, introduce flower gardening as a therapeutic measure and give people spaces to mourn together. They might then meet other people who share similar stories of loss and connect.
Other students tackled more familiar cases, such as designing more social interaction spaces in high-rise apartment buildings and redesigning supermarkets to make them places for people to visit on a Sunday morning. The student work can be viewed <a href="https://www.thisstudioisopen.org/work/2018/10/25/the-anti-lonely-city-march-student-work-from-melbourne-school-of-design" target="_blank">here</a>.
Moving beyond merely analysing the problems, the research output shows that an alternative, less lonely future is indeed possible. Without claiming to solve loneliness, design can be a important tool in response to it.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104853/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;">
Tanzil Shafique, PhD Researcher in Urban Design, 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/designing-cities-to-counter-loneliness-lets-explore-the-possibilities-104853" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Designing cities to counter loneliness? Let’s explore the possibilities

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Urban nature has a critical role to play in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-density-cities-need-greening-to-stay-healthy-and-liveable-75840" target="_blank">future liveability of cities</a>. An emerging body of research reveals that bringing nature back into our cities can deliver a truly impressive array of benefits, ranging from <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-walk-in-the-woods-really-does-help-your-body-and-your-soul-53227" target="_blank">health and well-being</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-planners-understand-its-cool-to-green-cities-whats-stopping-them-55753" target="_blank">climate change adaptation and mitigation</a>. Aside from benefits for people, cities are often hotspots for threatened species and are justifiable locations for serious investment in nature conservation for its own sake.
Australian cities are home to, on average, <a href="https://www.conservationmagazine.org/2016/01/threatened-species-live-in-every-australian-city/" target="_blank">three times as many threatened species per unit area as rural environments</a>. Yet this also means urbanisation remains one of the most destructive processes for biodiversity.
Despite government commitments to green urban areas, vegetation cover in cities continues to decline. A recent report found that <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-investing-heavily-in-urban-greening-so-how-are-our-cities-doing-83354" target="_blank">greening efforts of most of our metropolitan local governments are actually going backwards</a>.
Current urban planning approaches typically consider biodiversity a constraint – a “problem” to be dealt with. At best, biodiversity in urban areas is “<a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/business-and-biodiversity/our-work/business-approaches-and-tools/biodiversity-offsets" target="_blank">offset</a>”, often far from the site of impact.
This is a poor solution because it fails to provide nature in the places where people can benefit most from interacting with it. It also delivers <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-plan-to-protect-wildlife-displaced-by-the-hume-highway-has-failed-78087" target="_blank">questionable ecological outcomes</a>.
Building nature into the urban fabric
A new approach to urban design is needed. This would treat biodiversity as an opportunity and a valued resource to be preserved and maximised at all stages of planning and design.
In contrast to traditional approaches to conserving urban biodiversity, biodiversity-sensitive urban design (BSUD) aims to create urban environments that make a positive onsite contribution to biodiversity. This involves careful planning and innovative design and architecture. BSUD seeks to build nature into the urban fabric by linking urban planning and design to the basic needs and survival of native plants and animals.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240750/original/file-20181016-165888-bm8qxg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240750/original/file-20181016-165888-bm8qxg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Figure 1. Steps in the biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) approach (click to enlarge). Author provided
BSUD draws on ecological theory and understanding to apply five simple principles to urban design:
<ol>
<li>protect and create habitat</li>
<li>help species disperse</li>
<li>minimise anthropogenic threats</li>
<li>promote ecological processes</li>
<li>encourage positive human-nature interactions.</li>
</ol>
These principles are designed to address the biggest impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity. They can be applied at any scale, from individual houses (see Figure 2) to precinct-scale developments.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240903/original/file-20181016-165903-tqp2fp.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/240903/original/file-20181016-165903-tqp2fp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Figure 2. BUSD principles applied at the scale of an individual house. Author provided
BSUD progresses in a series of steps (see Figure 1), that urban planners and developers can use to achieve a net positive outcome for biodiversity from any development.
BSUD encourages biodiversity goals to be set early in the planning process, alongside social and economic targets, before stepping users through a transparent process for achieving those goals. By explicitly stating biodiversity goals (eg. enhancing the survival of species X) and how they will be measured (eg. probability of persistence), BSUD enables decision makers to make transparent decisions about alternative, testable urban designs, justified by sound science.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240906/original/file-20181016-165918-1yncvzs.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/240906/original/file-20181016-165918-1yncvzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
A striped legless lizard. <a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_6661_Striped_legless_lizard.jpg" target="_blank">John Wombey, CSIRO/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY</a>
For example, in a hypothetical development example in western Melbourne, we were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12411" target="_blank">able to demonstrate</a> that cat containment regulations were irreplaceable when designing an urban environment that would ensure the persistence of the nationally threatened striped legless lizard (Figure 3).
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240905/original/file-20181016-165924-1qdn78p.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/240905/original/file-20181016-165924-1qdn78p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Figure 3. Keeping cats indoors greatly enhances other measures to protect and increase populations of the striped legless lizard. Author provided
What does a BSUD city look, feel and sound like?
Biodiversity sensitive urban design represents a fundamentally different approach to conserving urban biodiversity. This is because it seeks to incorporate biodiversity into the built form, rather than restricting it to fragmented remnant habitats. In this way, it can deliver biodiversity benefits in environments not traditionally considered to be of ecological value.
It will also deliver significant co-benefits for cities and their residents. <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/Media%20Release10" target="_blank">Two-thirds of Australians</a> now live in our capital cities. BSUD can add value to the remarkable range of benefits urban greening provides and help to deliver greener, cleaner and cooler cities, in which residents live longer and are less stressed and more productive.
BSUD promotes human-nature interactions and nature stewardship among city residents. It does this through <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/877602/jan-gehl-in-the-last-50-years-architects-have-forgotten-what-a-good-human-scale-is" target="_blank">human-scale urban design</a> such as mid-rise, courtyard-focused buildings and wide boulevard streetscapes. When compared to high-rise apartments or urban sprawl, this scale of development has been shown to deliver better liveability outcomes such as active, walkable streetscapes.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240908/original/file-20181016-165905-lxdpiu.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/240908/original/file-20181016-165905-lxdpiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Mid-rise, courtyard-focused buildings and wide boulevard streetscapes created through a biodiversity sensitive urban design approach. Graphical representation developed by authors in collaboration with M. Baracco, C. Horwill and J. Ware, RMIT School of Architecture and Design, Author provided
By recognising and enhancing Australia’s unique biodiversity and enriching residents’ experiences with nature, we think BSUD will be important for creating a sense of place and care for Australia’s cities. BSUD can also connect urban residents with Indigenous history and culture by engaging Indigenous Australians in the planning, design, implementation and governance of urban renaturing.
What needs to change to achieve this vision?
While the motivations for embracing this approach are compelling, the pathways to achieving this vision are not always straightforward.
Without careful protection of remaining natural assets, from remnant patches of vegetation to single trees, vegetation in cities can easily suffer “death by 1,000 cuts”. Planning reform is required to move away from offsetting and remove obstacles to innovation in onsite biodiversity protection and enhancement.
In addition, real or perceived conflicts between biodiversity and other socio-ecological concerns, such as bushfire and safety, <a href="https://theconversation.com/smart-city-planning-can-preserve-old-trees-and-the-wildlife-that-needs-them-98632" target="_blank">must be carefully managed</a>. Industry-based schemes such as the Green Building Council of Australia’s <a href="https://new.gbca.org.au/green-star/rating-system/" target="_blank">Green Star system</a> could add incentive for developers through BSUD certification.
Importantly, while BSUD is generating much interest, working examples are urgently required to build an evidence base for the benefits of this new approach.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102849/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;">
Georgia Garrard, Senior Research Fellow, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group, RMIT University
Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne 
Sarah Bekessy, Professor, RMIT 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/heres-how-to-design-cities-where-people-and-nature-can-both-flourish-102849" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Main photo: An impression of biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) developed by the authors in collaboration with Mauro Baracco, Jonathan Ware and Catherine Horwill of RMIT’s School of Architecture and Design. Author provided
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Here’s how to design cities where people and nature can both flourish

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Today’s urban public spaces tend to represent governments and cities rather than people and citizens. In the past seven years, disturbing scenes of protests in city squares have been seen across the Arab world and Europe, but these public protests existed long before the 21st century. So how can city squares support or inhibit protests through their spatial characteristics and settings?
Public squares have been considered as places of encounter and exchange since the time of the Greek Agora and the Roman Forum. While often the sites of protest, these spaces also can reflect the idea of power and constrain revolutions and social uprisings.
Design and scenography can be used to intensify agoraphobia, or a fear of public spaces. Thus these spaces of expression can, at times, be silenced, putting at risk the geography of freedom of speech.
Reminders of the power of the state
Public spaces around the world have been not only places for people to gather and interact but also to demonstrate and, at times, to face their death.
In 2014, Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev was at the centre of the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution. It was a deadly revolution of dignity. Yet the consequences of other protests largely attest to how the design of these spaces can intimidate protesters.
In 1989, students demonstrated in Beijing during the so-called Tiananmen Square protests, which ended in a massacre. This immense city square of the capital is now known for its “strange emptiness”, as Evan Osnos described it. Benches and shade trees have been removed to discourage public gatherings.
The monumentality created by the forbidden city and the government buildings, including the Great Hall of People, adds to the feeling of emptiness and intimidation. The 44-hectare public square is now considered “the opposite of a public space”:
"Its totalitarian scale dwarfs the individual and forces people to feel subservient to the power of the state."
One can see striking similarities, in terms of scale and setting, with Red Square in Moscow. Red Square had been the scene of the 1968 demonstration against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, a landmark moment in the Soviet dissident movement.
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Red Square, Moscow, has been the scene of both public demonstrations and state parades.
In Egypt, seven years after the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, people tend to be cautious about expressing their views in public. Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the protests, is at risk. Towering metal gates have been erected around the square to avoid protests. These stand as a reminder of the powerful state control that the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has reasserted over public spaces.
Protest in the Arab world: the case of Tunisia
Tunisia’s Habib Bourguiba Avenue was the main stage of the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. This public space, considered the historical, political and economic heart of the city, is broad and lined with trees and government buildings, hotels and street cafes. The two paved and heavily trafficked roads on either side of the median strip isolate the pedestrian “island”.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Habib Bourguiba Avenue. Majdi Faleh
This staging of the avenue reflects the power, control and prohibition of protests during 23 years of dictatorship. Other intimidating landscaping elements add to the obstacles for demonstrators who might wish to use the public space for political debates.
Despite intimidation through design, Tunis’s layout made L'Avenue, as Tunisians like to call it, the perfect place to stage the Arab Spring.
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Police and protesters clash in the popular uprising that forced Tunisia’s longtime dictator to flee in 2011.
This avenue, planned in the time of French colonisation (1881-1956) for the city’s elite, resembles the Parisian Avenue of Champs-Élysées. Interestingly, even Haussmann’s celebrated Parisian boulevards, built under Napoleon III in the 1860s, were designed to help quell the city’s rebellious populace.
Strategically located near the end of Habib Bourguiba Avenue is the Interior Ministry, an icon of dictatorship and control. The “austere” grey facade and black wrought iron windows and gates create a sense of control. Its brutalist architecture, which has architectural similarities with the FBI headquarters in Washington DC, participates in shaping the public space. Razor barbed wire fences have surrounded the avenue during the time of protests. Landscaping around the ministry played a role in blocking protesters from getting closer to the monument of control.
Habib Bourguiba Avenue is named after the first president of Tunisia, a tradition for main avenues in Tunisian cities. A simple Google search produces a list of major and small Tunisian cities forced into this autocratic system of political nomenclature as an instrument of control.
The image of power and control starts with the name of the place. It continues at the end of the avenue intersecting with the previously known Place 7 Novembre, named after the date of former dictator Ben Ali’s ascension to power in a coup d’état.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Ibn Khaldun Fenced Garden with a banner of the dictator Ben Ali in the background (2009). In Arabic, it reads ‘In deed, all my ambition is for Tunisia’. Majdi Faleh
During the time of dictatorship, architects did not play an active role in shaping social, cultural and political encounters in public spaces. Contemporary public spaces in Tunisia were designed timidly or marginally, creating conflicts between architecture, the local people and the oppressive state. Even green spaces were planned but never designed, as per the planning policies. Many were replaced by commercial centres.
Metal fences are noticeable landscaping features around the Ibn Khaldun Statue, small gardens and public parks. The fences turned these spaces into enclosed and sometimes marginal parks. Large propaganda banners of the former dictator added an element of fear to these public spaces and helped deter protesters. The government gated property creates a sense of intimidation and constraint.
<h2>Designing for protests: an architect’s perspective</h2>
In designing public squares and avenues, architects should learn from these past dilemmas. The public square should not be represented as the city’s gated property or as a walled garden. It should be a space that provides citizens with opportunities to engage in political and social debates.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, rethinking spatial qualities of public spaces is crucial to provide “liberated” citizens with adequate places to communicate their political views and free cultural expression. In Tunisia’s post-revolutionary era, public spaces have increasingly become places for expression and social engagement.
Governments, not only in Tunisia but across all countries, should plan the streets for artists and protesters to create stages for their events and to communicate their ideas. Tunisia still has a long way to go.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102275/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;">
Majdi Faleh, Teaching Assistant, 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/how-city-squares-can-be-public-places-of-protest-or-centres-of-state-control-102275" target="_blank">original article</a>.
Main photo: Seven years after Tahrir Square became the focal point of the Egyptian Revolution, towering metal gates now control access. <a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tahrir_Square_on_July_29_2011.jpg" target="_blank">Ahmed Abd El-Fatah/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">CC BY</a>. 
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How city squares can be public places of protest or centres of state control

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Many of us are familiar with developments of big solar farms in rural and regional areas. These are often welcomed as a positive sign of our transition towards a low-carbon economy. But do large-scale solar installations have a place in our cities?
The City of Fremantle in Western Australia is considering a proposal to use a former landfill site for a large-scale solar farm. The reportedly 4.9 megawatt solar power station on an eight-hectare site would be, it’s said, Australia’s largest urban solar farm. The initiative is part of Fremantle’s ambition to be powered by 100% clean energy within a decade.
The proposal is facing some community opposition, however. Residents are reportedly alarmed by the potential public health consequences of building on a rubbish dump, which risks releasing toxic contaminants such as asbestos into the environment. Other concerns include glare from the solar panels, or excessive noise.
Similar complaints about solar panels in cities are being seen all over the world, with opponents generally of the view “they do not belong in residential areas”. So what are the planning issues associated with large-scale solar installations in cities? And should we be concerned about possible negative impacts?
What is large-scale solar?
According to the Australian Clean Energy Regulator, large-scale solar refers to “a device with a kilowatt (kW) rating of more than 100 kilowatts”. A kilowatt is a measure of power – the rate of energy delivery at a given moment – whereas a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a measure of the total energy produced (so a 100kW device operating for one hour would produce 100kWh of electricity).
Device here refers to not only the photovoltaic (PV) panels – the actual panels used in solar energy – but also to the infrastructure “behind the electricity meter”. So interconnected panels may still constitute a single device.
By this definition, there may already be large-scale solar installations in Australian cities. In Sydney for example, the recently opened system on top of the Alexandra Canal Transport Depot is by all accounts a large-scale solar system. It combines around 1,600 solar panels with enough battery storage for 500kWh of electricity.
But this is not Sydney’s largest solar installation. That honour is presently held by the Sydney Markets in Flemington, among Australia’s largest rooftop solar installations, which generates around 3 megawatts (that’s 3,000kW). To date, there have been no publicly disclosed complaints received about these facilities.
Large-scale solar (sometimes called “big solar”) can also refer to solar arrays that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto solar PV panels. This is different to concentrated thermal solar, which uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto the top of a tower to heat salt, oil or other materials that can then be used to generate steam to power turbines for electricity generation.
What’s the problem with solar in cities?
Internationally, there is increasing recognition cities could be ideal locations for large-scale solar installations due to the amounts of unused land. This includes land alongside freeways and main roads, flood-prone land, and rooftops on factories, warehouses and residences. And locating big solar in cities can also reduce the energy losses that occur with transmitting electricity over long distances.
Australia’s combined rooftop solar installations already supply the equivalent of enough power for all the homes in Sydney. And even former landfill sites – which have few uses other than parkland and are often too contaminated to sustain other land uses such as residential development – can be a good use of space for solar farms. But such sites would need to be carefully managed so contaminants are not released during construction.
Large-scale solar installations can present some challenges for urban planning. For instance, mirrors can cause problems with glare, or even damage if they were misaligned (problems thus far have been in solar thermal plants). Maintenance vehicles may increase traffic in neighbourhoods. Installing solar panels could cause temporary problems with noise and lighting. And views could potentially be disrupted if adjoining residents overlook a large-scale solar installation.
But not all of these impacts would be long-term, and they can all potentially be managed through planning approval, permitting processes and development conditions. Installing screens or trees can improve views, for instance. Glare is a potential problem but again can be managed via screening (at the site or on overlooking buildings) or protective films on the panels.
The issue with the proposed solar farm in Fremantle is the fact it’s planned atop a former landfill site, known to contain harmful substances including asbestos, hydrocarbons and heavy metals. Unless carefully managed, construction of the solar farm could disturb these materials and potentially expose nearby residents to health impacts.
Most state environmental protection agencies recognise risks if the use of potentially contaminated land is to be changed, and have developed stringent guidelines for landfill management.
The City of Fremantle has approved the proposed development, subject to the preparation of a site management plan among other conditions. Depending on site management, and the characteristics of surrounding neighbourhoods, poorly managed big solar on landfill sites could become an environmental justice issue. From this perspective, residents’ concerns are understandable, and the City of Fremantle will need to ensure it carefully monitors construction.
Lessons for planning
It is reasonable to expect that cities will increasingly host large-scale solar installations. With careful site selection and management, the multiple benefits of clean energy can accrue to urban residents. Otherwise leftover or marginal land can derive an economic return.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99020/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">Of course care will need to be taken to minimise potential habitat loss or off site impacts such as visual intrusion, noise, and glare. But solar farms also have the potential to provide new habitats both via physical infrastructure (sites for nesting) and as part of site rehabilitation and management.
Jason Byrne, Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of Tasmania
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-wrong-with-big-solar-in-cities-nothing-if-its-done-right-99020" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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If done right, our solar cities can succeed: Jason Byrne

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Why is it easier to imagine an ecocity – full of lush green spaces and buildings, footpaths and bike lanes, outdoor goat yoga and dog parks – than a just city where everyone belongs? Why is it difficult to imagine a city where there are no great disparities of income or of access to convivial life because these have been equitably distributed?
The prospects for rebuilding the city along ecological lines is enchanting. But ecocities, like smart cities, frequently devolve into a techno-fetishist fantasy, (un)wittingly abetting gentrification – from the sell-off of public housing in cities like Sydney to violent informal housing eradication in places like Jakarta.
Part of what’s required here is to connect the currents of imagination shaping the ecological future of cities with other conversations that are more focused on the future of employment and industry and the possibilities for greater equity. Thinking these disparate ideas together will take some work. Fortunately, it’s well under way in cities around Australia and the world.
The Centre For Future Work and the Australia Institute organised a summit last month at Parliament House to consider the future of manufacturing in Australia. Much of the day was spent exploring how targeted government procurement practices can help rebuild a sector that could play a vital role in building ecocities alongside new employment opportunities.
Co-operative ways to build community wealth
Non-profit institutions and the private sector can play a similar role. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in Cleveland, closing in on its tenth year, used the demand for services from hospitals and universities to start worker co-operatives.
These meet the need for green laundry services, food and energy while creating ownership opportunities for low-income residents. Guaranteed downstream markets increase business viability. This ensures easier access to start-up capital.
Dozens of US cities have developed similar initiatives in the past decade. Among these are union-supported initiatives in Cincinnati, Ohio, municipal initiatives in Richmond, California, and multi-stakeholder co-operatives in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In each instance the guiding principle is that worker co-operatives are tied to place by the people who work in and own them. They distribute profits in ways that benefit worker-owners, other local businesses and the broader community.
In Australia, Earthworker Coo-perative has tirelessly pursued a similar initiative. It aims to connect Australian manufacturing capacity, eco-friendly technologies, unions and the environmental movement as a basis for starting worker co-operatives ready to meet the demand for green technology.
Organisations like the Mercury Co-Operative and the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals are working to support and spread co-operative ownership in Australia.
In September, a second New Economy Conference, open to the public, will consider what sort of legal and social changes are needed to support efforts like Earthworker.
More ambitiously, even the emergent disruptive technologies that are enabling the “gig economy” can be repurposed for co-operation and community wealth creation.
While new platform technologies concentrate wealth in companies like Uber and Airbnb, these could just as easily function on a co-operative basis, sustaining communities in the process. Such ideas are being actively considered in Melbourne and in Sydney at last year’s Vivid festival.
These efforts to encourage social procurement, build co-operatives and develop new forms of sharing work readily combine with the ecocity agenda. In themselves they are not sufficient to ensure that ecocities are also equitable cities. As Labor senator Kim Carr pointed out in last month’s summit, what ideas like this do is fully open the question of what an economy is for.
In Australia, this question is an eminently urban one. Continuing to ask this question, and keeping the answer open, is one way of ensuring that ecocities are not merely oases for the wealthy.
Stephen Healy, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-ecocity-needs-to-be-a-just-city-80676" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Why the ecocity needs to be a just city: Stephen Healy

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In keeping with the flavour of the week and in the lead up to Open House Melbourne 2018 this coming weekend (Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July), Urban.com.au is highlighting events on the program which provoke discourse about our built environment and encourage us to consider how our cities develop in the future.

Urban.com.au will also be present during OHM2018 to provide a weekend roundup.

Entering its 11th year, Open House Melbourne encourages industry and the public alike to consider the design, development and growth of our city and encourage curiosity in Melbourne’s built environment with 224 sites and 87 new buildings in the program. The City of Melbourne alone is hosting 84 buildings open to the public.

<blockquote>
Melbourne is a city full of historic architecture and modern design just waiting to be explored and we’re encouraging people to explore Open House Melbourne this July.

From amazing and well-known buildings such as the State Library of Victoria, to recent architectural gems including Buxton Contemporary in Melbourne’s arts precinct, there’s something sure to surprise everyone. The City of Melbourne is a proud partner of Open House Melbourne and we’re excited to provide people with a behind the scenes peek at some of our most iconic sites and learn about the people who shaped them and the stories they have to tell.

- Sally Capp, Lord Mayor of Melbourne
</blockquote>

<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/urban_city_mb.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="OHM2018 will promote discourse around our built environment. Image: Mark Baljak/Urban.com.au"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/urban_city_mb.jpg?itok=pmjD82pw" title="OHM2018 will promote discourse around our built environment. Image: Mark Baljak/Urban.com.au" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>OHM2018 will promote discourse around our built environment. Image: Mark Baljak/Urban.com.au</figcaption></figure>Additionally, in response to the big ideas discussed at the globally-focused <a href="https://forum.naomimilgromfoundation.org/">Living Cities Forum</a> on the Thursday prior, a panel of Melbourne design and planning experts will discuss how these apply to some of our city’s biggest challenges including rapid population growth, housing, densification/sprawl, and congestion at the Ethical Cities Panel on Friday 27th July presented by Open House Melbourne, Communications Collective, and the Naomi Milgrom Foundation.

The panel will address questions such as; Where are we failing? Who is innovating? How can we collectively ensure our city thrives? What does the future hold for Melbourne?  

Highlights in the City of Melbourne during and in the lead up to the weekend include:

<h2>Collectivity Talks – Ethical Cities panel</h2>

Friday 27 July 2018 | 12.30pm–1.30pm | Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, NGV International 180 St Kilda Road, Southbank 3006 

A panel of leading Melbourne and planning experts will come together to distil the big ideas discussed at the 2018 Living Cities Forum in a free* lunchtime talk, as part of Open House Melbourne’s July program. 

The Ethical Cities panel takes the global focus of the full day Living Cities conference and gives it a ‘hyperlocal’ twist to look at some of Melbourne’s biggest challenges, including rapid population growth, housing, densification/sprawl and congestion.

Moderated by Communications Collective director Genevieve Brannigan, the panel features:

<ul>
<li>Brighid Sammon - Senior Urban Planner at Hansen Partnership and 2017 national Young Planner of the Year;</li>
	<li>Claire Grealy, - Director, economics and social advisory, at Urbis;</li>
	<li>Kath Sundermann - Associate Director at MGS Architects; and</li>
	<li>Meaghan Dwyer - Principal at John Wardle Architects.</li>
</ul>
Each of the panellists brings a wealth of experience in placemaking and community building as well as a passion for positively shaping the future of our cities, they are well-placed to pick up the Living Cities Forum theme, ‘Shaping Society’.

Inverting the usual wisdom that political, economic and social forces shape our urban environments, the panel will consider how aiming for the best possible architecture and urban design could, in fact, influence these larger forces to create better, more sustainable communities, with happier, more involved citizens.

*Attendance is free but <a href="http://Highlights%20in%20the%20City%20of%20Melbourne%20include:">registration</a> is essential.

<h2>Melbourne Metro Tunnel Walking Tour </h2>

<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/mmetro.jpg" rel="gallery-all"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="330" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/mmetro.jpg?itok=V-1p9wfU" width="580"></a>

<figcaption> </figcaption></figure>When: Saturday 28 + Sunday 29 July 2018

Join the Metro Tunnel team on a walking tour along Swanston Street between the sites of the two new underground train stations in the CBD.

Put on your hard hat and zip up your high-visibility vest as you visit key locations including City Square, Franklin Street and A’Beckett Street where construction activities and archaeological investigations are well underway. See how this mega project is being constructed in a busy city while trams and pedestrians continue to move along Swanston Street.

Ahead of excavation works for the Metro Tunnel, archaeologists and heritage experts will use excavators, shovels and hand trowels to sift through layers of rock and soil to uncover archaeological remains and artefacts dating back 180 years and earlier. One of these archaeologists will join the walking tour to further explain this very special project.

<h2>The Australian Ugliness and New Technology at the Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne </h2>

<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/australian_ugliness.jpg" rel="gallery-all"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/australian_ugliness.jpg?itok=I6szhhR8" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Eugenia Lim, The Australian Ugliness (2018). Image: Tom Ross</figcaption></figure>When: Saturday 28 + Sunday 29 July 2018 10am-4pm

The Melbourne School of Design located at The University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus – ns the state-of-the-art academic facility designed in collaboration by John Wardle Architects and NADAAA (Boston). The space will be open for self-guided tours, allowing the public to explore the intersection of interdisciplinary engagement and the exploration of environmental issues.

While on location at Melbourne School of Design, it’s worth visiting The Dulux Gallery, currently housing the keynote of this year’s Open House Melbourne July program, The Australian Ugliness exhibition by artist Eugenia Lim.

<h2>A New Offering in Melbourne’s Arts Precinct at Buxton Contemporary </h2>

When: Saturday 28 + Sunday 29 July 2018 10am-4pm

Buxton Contemporary is located within the Victorian College of the Arts in Southbank; the gallery is the philanthropic gift of the Michael Buxton collection to the University of Melbourne. The gesture of gifting the collection sees the public being privy to one of the most important contemporary art collections in Australia.

Guided exhibition tours lead by Buxton Contemporary staff will be taking place at 11am, and guided architectural tours by Fender Katalidis Architects will take place at 1pm both days.

<h2>Black Design Matters at the Koorie Heritage Trust</h2>

When: Saturday 28 + Sunday 29 July 2018 10am-5pm

The community-owned Indigenous gallery and cultural centre is located in the Yarra of Federation Square. The Koorie Heritage Trust celebrates the rich 60,000-year history of the Aboriginal people of South-eastern Australia, housing exhibitions and running cultural awareness and education programs.

During the Weekend, visitors will get a chance to visit their current exhibition Blak Design Matters, a national survey of Contemporary Indigenous Design curated by Jefa Greenaway.

<h2>RMIT New Academic Street</h2>

<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/rmit_nas.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="RMIT New Academic Street - Photo: Justin Westwood"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="387" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/rmit_nas.jpg?itok=TaEbcOIN" title="RMIT New Academic Street - Photo: Justin Westwood" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>RMIT New Academic Street - Photo: Justin Westwood</figcaption></figure>When: Saturday 28 10am-4pm

The New Academic Street project has recently transformed the heart of the RMIT University city campus, creating new facilities to deliver better services for students. The project has opened the campus to the surrounding Melbourne streetscape, creating light-filled laneways, glass-roofed arcades, rooftop urban spaces, outdoor terraces, light wells, and efficient walkways between floors.

Designed by multiple Victorian architecture firms – Lyons, MvS Architects, NMBW Architects, Harrison and White, and Maddison Architects – the New Academic Street project took out five awards at the 2018 Victorian Architecture Awards, including the coveted Melbourne Prize.
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Laurence Dragomir

Open House Melbourne 2018: Ethical Cities, Design-led thinking and City-making

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GUEST OBSERVATION
For the National Disability Insurance Scheme to be successful, our cities will need to change.
Our new research explores the impacts that the NDIS is having on Australia’s cities.
A major goal of the NDIS is to improve participation in mainstream services by people with disability. The success of the scheme will depend on how well it achieves this.
But the responsibility for change should be shared far more broadly – mainstream services must actively transform themselves to become more inclusive.
Functioning cities rely on a variety of health, education, welfare, sports and community services. These services are essential to the wellbeing and social inclusion of diverse people in our cities.
But despite being called “mainstream”, these services are never equally open to all members of society. Relentless privatisation of previously public programs and facilities has arguably undermined their capacity to provide services to users with “challenging” or “costly” needs.
The chair of the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council, Rhonda Galbally, has observed: 
"For many years people with disabilities found themselves shut in — hidden away in large institutions. Now many people with disabilities find themselves shut out — shut out of buildings, homes, schools, businesses, sports and community groups. They find themselves shut out of our way of life."
To ensure people with disability are included in our way of life, mainstream services and the wider community, along with the NDIS, will need to contribute to reshaping our cities.
When accessibility fails, people are shut out
People with disability face particular barriers to participating in mainstream services. Under Australian law, newly built or upgraded public spaces and premises must meet national accessible design standards. But even facilities designed to be accessible will fail in this if they are not well managed.
Frequently closed accessible checkout lanes at the supermarket and accessible toilets that are kept locked or used for storage are common examples of poor management.
Matters of accessibility are often discussed in relation to wheelchair users. However, people with disability are a diverse population and experience many forms of exclusion.
For example, communication barriers arise when information needed to use a service is not presented in comprehensible ways. The pace of activity in mainstream spaces is another potential barrier that can make people with disability feel unwelcome and excluded.
Staff in mainstream services are often unskilled in providing service to people with disability. This can prevent people with disability from using a service, leading to poor and even harmful outcomes. One recent example is the evidence of overprescription of antipsychotic drugs to people with intellectual disability in mainstream health services.
Can the NDIS alone deliver on the promise of participation?
The NDIS will fund a wide range of specialist disability services, but “wherever possible” will help participants access mainstream systems. This includes training and personal assistance to build participants’ capacity to use these services. The majority of NDIS participants’ plans include funding assistance for access to mainstream services.
In addition, the NDIS will seek to “encourage mainstream services and community organisations to become more inclusive”.
The NDIS thus has a critical role to play in enhancing mainstream participation. It will be important to collect evidence about the effectiveness of its interventions. However, meaningful change will only occur if mainstream services themselves take action to become more inclusive.
It is not enough for services to avoid direct and intentional discrimination. It is also not enough to passively “accept” people with disability as service users. Mainstream services providers need to initiate internal changes to become more inclusive of people with disability.
Services will have to ensure staff are skilled up, redesign spaces and revise approaches to communication. Service users without disability will also need to adjust the ways they participate in services.
The most meaningful participation will be achieved when people with disability and those close to them are actively engaged in planning these changes and exerting their “right to the city”. In addition, a body of research evidence on inclusive adjustments in mainstream services will need to be built.
Most of these changes and challenges will occur in Australia’s cities. But the task will be no less challenging in regional areas where services are often undersupplied and geographically distant. Local and state governments have a critical role to play as funders, providers and regulators of mainstream services, to lead and drive these adjustments.
Many mainstream services are already badly underfunded and under pressure from competing demands from diverse users. Rather than compete with each other for scarce resources, alliances of users with and without disability must campaign together to revive the public services sector and make it more inclusive for all Australians.
Legislation will also need to be reviewed. Current law requires services to make minimal “reasonable” adjustments in order to avoid discrimination based on a person’s disability. More progressive legislation would require mainstream services to make exceptional adjustments so that people with disability are treated as equals while their differences are recognised and accommodated.
If the NDIS, governments, services and the wider community all play their parts, people with disability will experience greater participation in their community. This will enrich not only their lives but those of others. Australian cities and regions would benefit from the contributions of people with disability to their social, cultural and economic vitality.
Ilan Wiesel, Lecturer in Urban Geography, University of Melbourne
Brendan Gleeson, Director, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne
Carolyn Whitzman, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne
Ellen van Holstein, Research Fellow in Urban Geography, University of Melbourne
Christine Bigby, Director, Living with Disability Research Centre, 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/we-cant-just-leave-it-to-the-ndis-to-create-cities-that-work-to-include-people-with-disability-93419" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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