An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning

An informative read - Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning by Susan Thompson

 

1.         ‘Social planning’, which is at the core of all good modern planning, is based on social justice principles, and enables planners to understand and accommodate equitably society’s social and cultural needs in order to build sustainable environments.

2.         Planners need to work within diverse Australian communities. The characteristics of ‘diversity’ include gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status and ability, sexual orientation, generational aspirations, lifestyle, employment and work patterns, well-being and health. All these affect the nature of communities and the sorts of facilities required.

3.         Prior to the 1980s planning practice and policy was based on quite limited markers – for example, it was assumed families were nuclear, ethnicity was Anglo-Celtic, people were heterosexual, workers were men. However, contemporary planners working within diverse communities have adopted a more interdisciplinary and holistic approach. 

 

4.         Planning practice is now guided by contemporary principles of social justice (e.g. respect for diversity, acceptance and respect for basic human rights) which aims to ensure social equality and a sense of belonging.

5.         ‘Social capital’, which refers to the resources available within communities, aims to encourage social participation and attachment, social inclusion and social cohesion. Closely related to social capital is ‘community capacity’ which refers to a community’s ability to develop resources for addressing social problems, managing its environment and improving the quality of life.

6.         ‘Social planning’, which encompasses both strategic and statutory planning processes, aims to improve the health, well-being and resilience of all people in the community by adopting a holistic, inclusive and collaborative approach taking into account the principles of social justice. The most powerful social planning is in New South Wales where the local Government Act 1993 requires that all councils prepare a social plan.

7.         One of the strategic processes adopted in social planning is the gathering of research about a community, including counts of age, income, ethnic background, religious affiliation, which goes beyond current needs to find out the community’s strengths and weaknesses and potential for capacity-building.

8.         ‘Social impact assessment’ is the assessment and judging of policies, projects and programs for their potential effect on the impact on the population’s way of life, culture and community. 

9.         There are social, legislative and professional challenges facing social planning, the most significant being building and sustaining social capital and community capacity given threats to the population’s income, well-being and personal safety.

10.       Examples of concerns include the growing disparity between rich and poor, people’s access to housing, fear of crime, the pace of change and loss of distinctiveness arising from globalization, the lack of legislative frameworks to achieve social equity and well-being, governments’ demands for overly simple measurable social planning outcomes. Social planners therefore need to be open-minded, reflective and accepting of diversity. 

Notes on Nature’s Metropolis continued

 William Cronin. 1991. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton.

Continued

Ø  End of 19^th century Chicago was temple of commerce

Ø  Behind each urban structure were the ghost of landscapes that had given it birth

Ø  Their bustling energy and sheer scale obscured the web of ecological and economic relationships in which they were enmeshed

Ø  This failure of understanding was twofold

Ø  City obscures both first nature _original nature) and second nature (human economy – constructed nature)

Ø  New human order superimposed on nature until the two became entangles

Ø  A hybrid system, as artificial as it was natural

Ø  Changing ecosystems and economies – product of the urban-rural system

Ø  Von Thunens ‘zoned landscape’ meant increasing specialisation among different ecosystems, production of each becoming concentrated on a few economically profitable species

Ø  Ecosystem dominated by hogs, corn and feedlot cattle

Ø  Hinterlands response to the markets where simplification of ecosystems in the direction of monocultures

Ø  Merging first and second nature was a shift from local ecosystems to regional `hinterland and global economy

Ø  Second nature – abstraction

Ø  Drawing a map of second nature means coming to terms with capital

Ø  Each industry had own pattern of trade, own characteristics, geography of debt, credit and capital

Ø  The more diverse and numerous its customer, the more varied and concentrated its market and hence more specialized its shops

Ø  Gateway city – by serving as the chief intermediary between newly occupies farm a and towns in the west and maturing capitalist economy

Ø  Combining railroads for open market encourage human migrations, environmental changes and eco developments that produced other great cities

Ø  Growth hidden costs that diminished Chicago’s competiveness

Ø  New technologies

1. Railroads

2. Electrical refrigeration

3. Diesel trucks

4. Paved rural highways

Ø  Each gateway city ended in similar ways as each encounters self-induced limits to growth

Ø   The city, frontier history of Great West is a story of metropolis expansion, growing market economy to distant landscapes and communities

Ø  This brought”

- Euro American migrations

- Alteration of ecosystems

- Remaking forest landscapes into farms

- Imposed new geography of second nature in which the market relations of capital reproduced into an urban-rural hierarchy – that frames human life

Urban Design and Development Seminar Four

Ø  Climax ecosystem – An ecosystem that has reached its peak/maturity e.g. Tropical coral reef will not evolve into another ecosystem but will be stable

Ø  Fire climax ecosystem – needs fire to survive

- Redwood trees are fire resistant due to their cones needing fire to break open

- if you supress the fire, the ecosystem changes

Ø  Buffalo/ Bison were animals all killed due to sport after civil war in 1965

Ø  Once the buffalo and prairie was gotten rid of what it was – an industrial agriculture

Ø  Range war was the end to ‘open ranges’. This was stopped due to barbed wire, they would fence large amounts of their territory – had livestock within the fences

Ø  Chicago was the major cattle slaughter house in 19^th century

Ø  Relationship on capital and time effected how we see distance

Ø  Gateway because of infrastructure and markets and centre for large scale whole sale trade (wood, steel, grain and meat)

Ø  Also became a gateway for finance and retail trade

Ø  Producer services, economic stock markets, bankers, lawyers etc. insurance and real estate

Ø  These services allowed it to grow and evolve – generating most profit – sector driving most urban growth

Ø  Important gateway for capital

Ø  Gateways cities started to become more interconnected. The flow of global society

Ø  Chicago was the first outdoor light installation exhibition

Ø  To change the mind, change the image

Ø  Institution more than mirror organisation – underneath has values (traditions) eg. Vatican.

Ø  Those norms propagated through images. Those images need to be changed if to change the institution.

Obseravtions from UNSW to Clovelly

The Journey from UNSW to Clovelly

Upon exiting the western gate of UNSW you find yourself enveloped by the major arterial road of Kensington that is Anzac Parade. It presents a rich fabric of bustling life no matter what time of day. The hive of activity from the student community interlaced with the unrelenting transportation of buses, cars and taxi’s moving students and others to and from and around the city creates a vibrant and busy spatial atmosphere.

Walking along Anzac Parade and then turning off into Doncaster Avenue provides an amazing juxtaposition of a very busy, traffic light dominated, six-lane main road  with a two-lane avenue, albeit still relatively busy, but with provision for bicycles, small roundabouts,  a primary school and horses from nearby stables.

Doncaster Avenue provides a rich tapestry of both public and private buildings. Whilst walking along you are taken in by the rows of private Victorian terrace houses that line the avenue. This is then complemented by the slightly more dominating but still beautiful architecture of the Kensington Public School. Doncaster Avenue has an ample amount of trees that line the pathway and the school grounds are no different. As shown in the photograph, even though the school playground is sheltered by an alcove of trees, it is still in close proximity to the street suggesting that the avenue was a much more sedate suburban thoroughfare than it is today.

As the Randwick Racecourse is nearby, the possibility of waiting at a roundabout while horses cross the road is very high. Even walking along the pathway, you are bound to hear the clicking of hooves as a pair of horses approach heading towards the Centennial Parklands. This unusual sharing of sidewalks of both pedestrian and animal alike, combined with the various vehicular provisions of cars and bicycles provides for a very interesting and unique experience.

Centennial Park is a wonderful space to pass by on a journey home. It is a vast and luscious area that is utilized by the community in a multitude of ways, including sporting activities, moonlight cinema, bicycle riding, horse riding and picnics. It is a central hub of activity, an oasis away from the busy arterial and choked suburban roads of the eastern suburbs and contrasts ethereally with the backdrop of the city skyline beyond.
The entrance into the parklands is guarded by a massive and imposing pillared gate, which provides anticipation to what lies within. Grand Drive is the circular main road through the park, separated into five concentric circular tracks. The outer track is used for cycling or rollerblading, the largest track for car driving, a track is provided for car parking amongst large trees, a paved pathway is provided for walking and also used for running, and finally a dirt track is used for horse riding.

 

 

Continuing along Darley Road that runs alongside Centennial Park you pass another green expanse of Queens Park. This is a much more open area usually reserved for primary and secondary sports training and matches. The planning of the park has taken into account the variation of sports in which the community participates. The lower park accommodates soccer fields, child playgrounds and fitness areas. The upper park provides football and hockey fields. While Darley Road has a tendency to become quite busy, there are still many shoulders to stop over to have a rest, which are used to advantage by some flower vendors. 

 

Notes on William H Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

William H. Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - The Street Corner

Ø  Patterns began to appear – diversity of activity – reading, playing, eating, talking

Ø  Time of day, temperature

Ø  Sociability is important

Ø  2’s 3’s mostly present in plaza observed

Ø  Busy place is the most congenial place if you wish to be alone

Ø  Number one activity is people watching – no mixing

Ø  Circulating people

Ø  Lovers are at the front or in the middle – the most conspicuous places

Ø  Corner provides a platform – an audience

Ø  Placement of people – congestion- access problems

Ø  Junction – street corner – connects life to the plaza

Ø  When people talk they geographically choose the centre of an area, entrance to the sunway and corner of N-S pedestrian flow

Ø  People standing alone – life passing him by

Ø  Sitting under trees – protection

Ø  Chorography – movement of people

Ø  Visually movement is the ultimate test of time

Ø  10:38 –  beautiful cinematography

Ø  People do not stop in the centre – usually around objects

Ø  People tend to sit where there are places to sit

Ø  Benches placed in isolation and dimensions are wrong

Ø  Planters should be low and hospitable

Ø  How many people are too many?

Ø  Capacity is self-levelling

Ø  Table use – men take front row and women take the rear

Ø  Movable chairs – people have a tendency to always move chairs

Ø  Most important thing about a place is its relationship to the street

Ø  Vigorous street life (Paley Square) passers-by are important, the visually enjoyment – secondary use is just as important as the primary use – people drawn into the square

Ø  People tend to mimic/reciprocate them after 8 seconds

Ø  Don’t sink plazas or place above street level – they get lost

Ø  Visual secondary use – curiosity people looking at people looking at other people

Ø  The ‘undesirable’ – drunks and homeless people

Ø  Sometime reassure us of our normality

Ø  Fencing in places do nothing to help it

Ø  SUN – people will usually sit in the sun but not so much the absence of sun but of light

Ø  WATER – look, feel, sound

Ø  The waterfront – simple elements make a great urban space. Nice views, places to sit and plenty of people

Ø  STREETS – places that people like best are those open to action but are slightly recessed – cave-like

Ø  FOOD – pit in food – lively place. Vendors etc. attract people. People who eat attract more people to snack bars

Ø  TRIANGULATION – performers – provides connection between people.

Ø  Sculptures – all things that make people converse and laugh

Ø  Drawing people in – crowds draw in other people

Ø  Windows into places (churches)

Ø  Making exciting places more lively

Ø  Closer to the action more people like it

Ø  Vendors – chit chat back and forth

Ø  Front of MM of Art – steps for city, placing chairs outside – this venue attracts performers and vendors

Ø  Key variable – SCALE in cities tendency can be to over scale – makes spaces empty

Ø  Success of a public square:

- close relationships to street

- Well enclosed by surrounding builders

- Well programed with activity

- Food, seating

- Most important – centre of town

- Old people, young, blue, while collar people

- place crowded, people all over the place, sitting and eating outdoors

- Lots of people, food, water to touch? Sitting, games activation – works as a place

Ø  ‘street is the river of life in the city’  - come to these places not to escape but to partake

Urban Design and Development Seminar 3

Ø  “The cities place in nature” – William Cronon

Ø  City transforms nature

Ø  Chicago manufacturing city od iron and steel in the 19^th and 20^th Century’s

Ø  1880 only 7 cities in the world had over 1 million people

Ø  Before the city, there was the land

Ø  Rail, highway and aviation has taken over water transport

Ø  Real estate is a leading indicator into the economy

Ø  Country was settled in a grid like structure – federal government gave away portions for free

Ø  It was very different from the more organic nature of other countries eg. China, Europe.

Ø  Cannot maintain an empire without infrastructure

Ø  Projected commercial/economic power – through infrastructure, canals, railroads etc.

Ø  ISOLATED STATE – access is important  - cue infrastructure

Ø  Movement of capital made the city grow more quickly (infusion)

Ø  Boosters used capital, media, press etc. to boost the presence of Chicago

Ø  Hinterland – central phase theory

1. Relation to that centre

2. Land has a purpose in relation to that centre i.e. Resources

Ø  Capital itself became the new emperor that developed the metropolis

Ø  What is the urban nature of capital? City transforms capital and vice versa

Ø  Chicago had natural advantage – flat and access to water

Ø  Chicago had industrial scale – meat processing methods – shipped to New York etc. consolidated in 1870’s due to the Eerie Canal

Ø  P67-68 Railroad, real estate – connection to suburban areas

Ø  1868 – Chigago first planned urban design – landscape architect

Ø  Railroads made of wood and steel and Chicago had both resources  - dominated steel and lumber trade industries

Ø  Land, infrastructure and capital – the relationship of all developing cities

Ø  Capital came from New York  visionaries

Ø  Standard time zones defined by railroads

Ø  High speed transportation changes our relationship of time and distance and the landscape